Applies to all interns and residents (hereafter all will be referred to as trainees) in the Internal Medicine training program on the Presbyterian Hospital of Dallas campus

It is the policy of this department that all Internal Medicine residents be encouraged to practice their religious beliefs. We recognize the importance of this for the individual and for the profession. We will make every effort to provide the residents with time off for the purpose of religious practice.

We stand by the principle of primacy of patient welfare. With that in mind, we will follow these procedures to provide our residents with time to practice their religion:

1. All requests for time off to observe a holy day must be made in writing by April 1st, prior to the creation of the following academic year’s schedule.
2. Each request will be reviewed by the program director and every attempt will be made to meet the request.
3. No patient care responsibilities will be scheduled for the resident’s requested holy day observance.
4. If, however, the resident is responsible for the care of in-patients, he/she must meet the professional responsibility of ‘primacy of patient welfare’ and may not be excused from his/her duties in the hospital unless appropriate coverage has been made and approved by the chief resident.
5. No requests for religious time off will be granted after the academic schedule has been created, except for emergency circumstances.
6. All time off for holy days will count toward the 30 days off per year, unless arrangements have been made to make that time up.