Duke’s Medical Residents and House Staff, or groups that include Medical Residents and House Staff, who wish to travel to a location on the Duke Restricted Regions List (RRL) must petition for travel waiver at least 60 days in advance of their intended travel dates.  The petition will be submitted to the Duke’s Global Travel Advisory Committee (GTAC), who will advise the Director of the office of Graduate Medical Education (GME Director).  

GTAC and the GME Director will accept “group petitions” if a group/class trip to a destination listed on the RRL will involve a shared itinerary, meaning Residents/House Staff with plans to travel will participate in the same agenda of activities, lodge together, travel between in-country locations together, etc. 

Faculty/Departments/Programs providing Duke support to Medical Residents and/or House Staff may submit petitions on the traveler’s behalf.

Faculty/Departments/Programs who sponsor, approve, fund or coordinate travel must ensure that Residents/House Staff have been granted a waiver of the Duke restriction and have fulfilled all of the subsequent requirements prior to providing any Duke support for the travel.  

Faculty/Department Chairs and Programmatic Staff who work with Residents/House Staff who travel internationally should stay apprised of the destinations which have restrictions placed on them. Sign up for email updates when changes are made to the RRL by emailing travelpolicyupdates-request@duke.edu (link sends e-mail).

Petition Instructions

A completed petition packet should include the following six items:

  1. The program/school/department at Duke University that is providing support for the travel;
  2. The specific location or locations that will be visited and the dates of travel;
  3. The activities in which the Resident/House Staff or group will be engaging in, such as what activities will be conducted and who the in-country hosts/organizers are, how ground transport will be handled, where the students will be lodging, etc.;
  4. A personal statement about the reasons for the trip, why it is academically or otherwise justified, and why the traveler believes the risk will not be excessive.  This statement should include any language skills or cultural knowledge that the traveler has that is applicable to the proposed destination and/or the activity;
  5. A risk mitigation strategy (students should study their destination, identify as many risks as they can and note how they plan to handle them if they were to occur); and
  6. Any supporting documentation or statements from relevant personnel (e.g., faculty, program sponsors, people at host institution inviting the Resident/House Staff or Group, etc.).

 

Processing of petitions can take up to 1 month for a review and a decision from GTAC and/or the GME Director and Duke Health/SOM Leadership. All decisions made by the Director of GME on petitions are final. 

Waiver

If/when the petition is approved, the Resident/House Staff will be required to electronically sign and submit an "Acknowledgement of Risks and Potential Harms, Agreement to Mitigate Risks and Waiver and Release of Liability.”  This form will be sent electronically, by the Global Travel Office team using AdobeSign software.

Travel Registration

All travelers are required to register travel in the Duke University Travel Registry in order to be considered in full compliance with Duke's Global Travel Policy once a waiver has been granted.  Group travel can be entered via a batch upload post-decision.  Both the Resident/House Staff and Faculty/Department/Program providing Duke-support for the travel will be notified when the petitioner has fulfilled all of the requirements.

Please send this information to:

    Christy Parrish

    Christy.parrish@duke.edu (email is fine)
    Director, Global Travel Policies and Incident Management

    Global Travel Office

    Duke University