I am sure I will hear from all the non-lactating students. But a Medical Student who has a 4 month old needs to pump milk. The Medical Exam Board was unwilling to accommodate the request. So she took it to court and won (so far). There was a time when such common sense accommodations could be made but for fear of lawsuits and equality. If we are to be a culture supportive of families one would think that an extra hour would be calling for too much. But then again its because others take advantage of good will that others are reluctant.
A Harvard student must be given extra break time during a medical licensing exam to pump breast milk, a Massachusetts appeals court judge ruled yesterday.
The student, Sophie C. Currier, 33, of Brookline, Mass., had sued the National Board of Medical Examiners after it denied her request for more than the standard 45 minutes of allotted breaks during the nine-hour exam, which she will take over two days.
She said she risked medical complications if she did not nurse her 4-month-old daughter, Lea, or pump breast milk every two or three hours.
In overturning a ruling that denied Ms. Currier the additional 60 minutes of break time she requested, Judge Gary Katzmann said yesterday that she needed the extra time so she could be on “equal footing” with men and nonlactating women taking the test.
The medical examining board said that although it planned to appeal, it would give Ms. Currier the additional time if Judge Katzmann’s order is still in effect when she takes the exam, set for next week. She must pass the exam, which tests clinical knowledge, to receive her medical degree. Without it, she cannot start her residency at Massachusetts General Hospital.
