It is the policy of the University of Tennessee Urology program that resident duty hours will be reasonable and not excessive.  The residents will not be allowed to work for greater than 80 hours per week, averaged over a 4-week period.  They have at least one day (24 hours) out of every 7 days free of patient care.  The urology residents at each of the participating institutions take weekday call every other night or every third night with back up call from the senior resident assigned to that facility.  The weekend call (Fri/Sat/Sun) is every third weekend.  All urology resident call is taken from home and consequently the use of in-house call sleeping quarters is not required.  However, such rooms are available should the need arise.

 

The Program Director is responsible for the assignment of workstations and duty hours.  All residents are required to be at their assigned work place during normal working hours according to the rotation schedule.  Each resident is given a copy of the rotation schedule at the first of the year which outlines his/her entire year in 4-month blocks.  The residents must have permission from the Program Director and/or the chief of the rotation (faculty chief) to leave his/her workstation.

 

It is the responsibility of the Program Director, the Faculty, and the residents themselves to ensure compliance with regulations for duty hours.  All residents are told to report immediately to the Program Director with any violations of the work hour regulations.  Each resident will record his/her work hours per week and per month for each of their 4-month rotations through New Innovations, a web based system used campus-wide.  This report will be reviewed by the Program Director at the end of each month.  All residents are aware that since they take home call, all the time spent in the hospital when on call is counted toward their weekly duty hour limit.