Our residents are given an allowance based upon their year in training. PGY 1’s get $800, PGY 2’s get $1000, PGY 3’s get $1200 and PGY 4’s and 5’s each get $1500. This money can be used for books or travel. They can carry it over from one year to the next if they want to save it up for a big meeting later in their training. For example, this year two of them had saved theirs and used it to go to the Hand Society annual meeting as they are both doing hand fellowships.
We do have required conferences – late in the PGY 1 year or early in the PGY 2 year, they go to a basic fracture course (either AO or OTA), PGY 3’s go to the AANA Arthroscopy course for Junior Residents, and PGY 5’s go to the Maine Orthopaedic Review course. These courses are above and beyond their allowance.
I keep a spreadsheet for their entire length of training showing how they have used the money.
And Kudos to the ARCOS Board for putting on a fantastic meeting in New Orleans. Thank you ladies.
