Time off from surgery to go to traffic court?

[mixinitup1124]

So my dilemma is that I have $80 in fines (parking tickets) that I want to appeal. My safety inspection on my vehicle expired, and over the course of a week I was given 3 tickets for the same problem. I agreed to pay the 1st one but the last two I think are unfair because the last two tickets were given while I awaited my safety inspection appointment the following week.

Anyway, I was given a court date during my surgery rotation, at 3:15 on a thursday. Is this something I should request time off for from the Course Director, or might that look unprofessional? Would it be better to bite the bullet and pay the $80 bucks? While I am not particularly interested in surgery, I don't want to rub anyone the wrong way before I even start my clinical years ( I'm a third year). But if its no big deal, I would rather save 80 bucks.

Thanks for any wisdom.

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[Crayola227]

Lol

Yeah that one's gonna go over real well

If it's not jury duty, I'm gonna say this sort of request would look unbelievably unprofessional on any rotation. You're expected to have your act together regarding any adherence to law such that this sort of thing never happens.

Wanting to miss educational time so you can save $80 in fines you earned? No way.

Fork it over.

 

[evilbooyaa]

^^What the what? It's literally one afternoon. It's not like OP has to go be on defense for a murder trial for 2 weeks. Joke about how the man is trying to steal more of your money (surgeons generally feel like they pay too much in tax or will when they become attendings), and ask the chief resident on your service.

Bring it up on day 1 of the rotation. How long from beginning of rotation until court date? If > 1 week then remind chief resident on Monday of that week, and again on that Thursday (if they're OK with you going). I can't imagine missing one afternoon over a 6 to 8 week rotation is losing out on all this educational opportunity. Otherwise, bust your ass while you're there.

 

[Smurfette]

Request the time off via official channels and take the half day to deal with it.

 

[Crayola227]

Lol that shyte would not have flown at my school, no way.

Then again, they only gave us 2 days off a year, even during 4th year interview season.

I only took off 3 days after I literally watched my parent die in the ICU. I would have worked 14 in a row to make up the extra day, but they decided to waive it and not make me repeat the entire rotation during a vacation block, after some debate.

Attendings and residents used to get so bent out of shape when students would leave for required didactics it was actually a separate entry for students to evaluate them for at the end of rotation.

I had one resident mention it in an eval when I went to a doc appt at 4 in the afternoon after rounds and notes, despite it being in my accommodations letter and approved by the head of the department.

I don't even think I went to a harsh school, but man did they take attendance seriously.

 

[mixinitup1124]

wow, thanks everyone for the feedback! I was pretty naive about this! I think ill go the conservative route and fork up the dough. Sounds like its best to keep my head down and trudge on.

 

[Crayola227]

The best answer usually comes from classmates. It depends on each school how these things are dealt with both officially and unofficially.

 

[smukke]

Lol that shyte would not have flown at my school, no way.

Then again, they only gave us 2 days off a year, even during 4th year interview season.

I only took off 3 days after I literally watched my parent die in the ICU. I would have worked 14 in a row to make up the extra day, but they decided to waive it and not make me repeat the entire rotation during a vacation block, after some debate.

Attendings and residents used to get so bent out of shape when students would leave for required didactics it was actually a separate entry for students to evaluate them for at the end of rotation.

I had one resident mention it in an eval when I went to a doc appt at 4 in the afternoon after rounds and notes, despite it being in my accommodations letter and approved by the head of the department.

I don't even think I went to a harsh school, but man did they take attendance seriously.

How did they expect you to go to interviews

 

[Crayola227]

How did they expect you to go to interviews

Yeah, that's a good question.

They gave us a fair amount of vacation time 4th year, it was expected you would take a block off for that. Still made it pretty rough, especially if you needed to go on a lot of them.

 

[Crayola227]

The reality is never expect time off, figure out what the underground culture is about what to do, go through official channels whenever you can, and consider what an arsehole might think about your request. To make all of this pertinent to OP.

But it's always worthwhile to point out that as a professional you can expect to have a hard time fitting things in, especially time off for BS like traffic court. That was the message my school wanted us to get, I think.

This thread also proves that whether or not you should or shouldn't ask, really depends on what doctor you ask.

 

[deleted645092]

Hmm I was about to post a similar thread about this. My rotations start Monday and I got a speeding ticket back in June, and my court date is on the 3rd week of my first rotation. Unfortunately I can't just mail it in and it's a 4 hour drive each way, so it's a whole day I would have to take off.

Is this something my preceptor will be super pissed about me taking a day off for? It's family medicine, if that matters, and I plan on telling him the first day.

 

[Crayola227]

If you can't pay to make it go away and it's an appearance you must make, then you say so, and it's not as bad. We don't have to get into who your audience is, but yeah, I'd swing that one past an FM over a surg preceptor any day

 

[Smurfette]

If you can't pay to make it go away and it's an appearance you must make, then you say so, and it's not as bad. We don't have to get into who your audience is, but yeah, I'd swing that one past an FM over a surg preceptor any day

I'd try to fight the extra tickets just on principle, so I wouldn't think the request was inappropriate. If it was my student, I'd probably have a very entertained OR by discussing tickets, court appearances and related issues like jury duty and stuff. Most staff in the room would probably have a story or two to tell and would want to know how it turned out for the student.

 

[mimelim]

So my dilemma is that I have $80 in fines (parking tickets) that I want to appeal. My safety inspection on my vehicle expired, and over the course of a week I was given 3 tickets for the same problem. I agreed to pay the 1st one but the last two I think are unfair because the last two tickets were given while I awaited my safety inspection appointment the following week.

Anyway, I was given a court date during my surgery rotation, at 3:15 on a thursday. Is this something I should request time off for from the Course Director, or might that look unprofessional? Would it be better to bite the bullet and pay the $80 bucks? While I am not particularly interested in surgery, I don't want to rub anyone the wrong way before I even start my clinical years ( I'm a third year). But if its no big deal, I would rather save 80 bucks.

Thanks for any wisdom.

Lol

Yeah that one's gonna go over real well

If it's not jury duty, I'm gonna say this sort of request would look unbelievably unprofessional on any rotation. You're expected to have your act together regarding any adherence to law such that this sort of thing never happens.

Wanting to miss educational time so you can save $80 in fines you earned? No way.

Fork it over.

I would never have asked for time off for something like this as a student. I don't think that it would have gone over well at the time where I was. Even now, I don't think it would have been a good idea on many of my rotations. But now, if it is ever an issue, I could care less. On the other hand, people who take this policy and abuse it, get blasted for it. As others have said, do well, work hard and nobody is going to care about a random afternoon you have to use to take care of something.

 

[Perrotfish]

So my dilemma is that I have $80 in fines (parking tickets) that I want to appeal. My safety inspection on my vehicle expired, and over the course of a week I was given 3 tickets for the same problem. I agreed to pay the 1st one but the last two I think are unfair because the last two tickets were given while I awaited my safety inspection appointment the following week.

Anyway, I was given a court date during my surgery rotation, at 3:15 on a thursday. Is this something I should request time off for from the Course Director, or might that look unprofessional? Would it be better to bite the bullet and pay the $80 bucks? While I am not particularly interested in surgery, I don't want to rub anyone the wrong way before I even start my clinical years ( I'm a third year). But if its no big deal, I would rather save 80 bucks.

Thanks for any wisdom.

1) When doctors leave work, someone else has to cover
2) Students are graded on their ability to be pretend doctors
3) As an attending, when a student misses part of a shift, I ask if it would be reasonable to ask me to come in on my day off to cover for them. If not, it rubs me the wrong way.

Car broke down? Family emergency? Vomiting in front of me? I would cross cover for someone with any of those issues without complaint, and therefore I wouldn't mind a student leaving for them either.

You want me to come in on my afternoon off so you can save $80?

YMMV. Obviously several attendings here would be fine with it.

 

[RangerBob]

As others say, it totally depends. I had some attendings (surgeons included) who could've cared less if I was there. I had others (surgeons also included) who took their preceptorship role seriously and had the same interpretation as perrotfish above.

As a fellow, I had a had student who routinely asked to leave early. It was after the match. They were clearly checked out. At first we were understanding (we know there's stuff to do) but it went on so my attending had a talk with the student. That student did not do well on the rotation. This was a PM&R roatation, where we're already pretty chill (and already have decent hours!). It's really not that hard to do decently on a PM&R elective--show up, know what PM&R means, and that we're different than physical therapy...

The point is to think carefully before you ask to take time off.

Another thing to consider is you're probably spending more than $80 in tuition to be present for that half day of your surgery clerkship. You likely actually lose money by going to traffic court...