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WEKU
WEKU
Health
Mara Gordon

When PTO stands for 'pretend time off': Doctors struggle to take real breaks

A survey shows that doctors have trouble taking full vacations from their high-stress jobs. Even when they do, they often still do work on their time off. (Wolfgang Kaehler/LightRocket via Getty Images)

A few weeks ago, I took a vacation with my family. We went hiking in the national parks of southern Utah, and I was blissfully disconnected from work.

I'm a family physician, so taking a break from my job meant not seeing patients. It also meant not responding to patients' messages or checking my work email. For a full week, I was free.

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