Innovations in 'sick call' policy to promote professionalism.

摘要

Context and setting Decisions about when it is appropriate to call in sick may be particularly challenging for resident doctors, who must balance concerns for their personal health, their patients, their colleagues and their educational experiences. Residents may also call in sick for inappropriate reasons, such as conflicting social obligations. When developing policies for dealing with unexplained absences, residency programmes have an opportunity to guide young doctors about when it is appropriate to call in sick. However, virtually no information about the relative merits of different sick call policies currently exists to guide residency programmes.