Moonlighting

It is recognized that residents in pediatrics may moonlight during their off-duty hours. However, evidence that these activities infringe on the resident's primary responsibilities within the training program will require their immediate discontinuation. All moonlighting activities will be monitored by the Program Director. Residents who are on probation or on warning for poor academic or low in-service exam performance will not be allowed to moonlight. Similarly, residents working on a J1 visa are not allowed to moonlight. Permission to moonlight must be obtained in writing from the program director prior to the activity. 

In order to moonlight outside the University, the resident must also have an independent license to practice medicine in the State of Texas (the institutional permit will not cover). The institutional malpractice coverage does not extend to off-duty activities, i.e., those activities involving patient care that are separate from patient care activities required as part of the resident's participation in the training program. The resident is responsible for arranging malpractice coverage related to his/her off-duty moonlighting activities.

Pediatric Residency Moonlighting Policies
Effective September 1, 2002

1. Moonlighting is defined as any activity associated with the practice of medicine from which a resident/fellow receives compensation in cash or in kind in exchange for functioning as a private physician.
   When a resident/fellow moonlights, it should be with the knowledge that:

   • Permanent medical licensure is required. By Texas law, residents or fellows holding an institutional permit must confine their practice of medicine to the designated teaching program.
     

   • U.M.T.B. provides no liability coverage for professional activities that are not part of the training program at U.T.M.B. facilities and assumes no legal responsibility for such activities.
     

   • Residents/fellows must provide for their own professional malpractice coverage for moonlighting activities not a part of their training program.
     

   • Residents/fellows will not display or communicate to patients their educational affiliation with the U.T.M.B. residency training program or the University of Texas Medical Branch while functioning as a moonlighting physician.
     

2. Moonlighting (working for financial or other forms of remuneration or volunteering for medical or non-medical activities) will NOT be permitted during the PGY-1 year.
   

3. No resident or fellow may moonlight during assigned duty hours.
   

4. No resident holding a J-1 visa may moonlight under any circumstance.
   

5. Moonlighting will be allowed after the PGY-1 year so long as:
   

   • The moonlighting activity, if within the U.T.M.B. system, is one for which the pediatric resident is already trained, and
     

   • It does NOT interfere with the Pediatric Residents' duties and responsibilities to the Pediatric training Program including, but not limited to after hours call and attendance at educational lectures or seminars, and
     

   • It does not affect the Pediatric Residents' clinical performance or their abilities to provide high quality patient care.

    

6. All requests for moonlighting must be submitted to the Residency Program Director in writing with sufficient details of the planned moonlighting activity, including the nature of the activity, its location and expected frequency, for approval prior to initiation.