AMC vs VA Lifestyle

[oldschooliscool]

Hi everyone, first time poster but I’ve lurked for years.


I’m preparing to submit my rank order list for clinical psychology internships, and I’m trying to figure out which route (VA vs Academic Medical Center) offers the “best” lifestyle post-internship.


Here’s what I mean:


Throughout my doctoral training, I’ve noticed that being part of a Department of Psychology at a large university offers a fair amount of flexibility. Sure, you have meetings, classes to teach, and more responsibilities than time in the day, but if you need to leave work a few hours early to take your kid to the doctor, that’s totally fine. There’s no “clocking in/out,” no set amount of vacation hours per month, etc.


From talking with friends who are on staff at various VAs, although every VA is different, by and large they function like any other federal job. You have a certain amount of sick leave each month, and if you need to leave work a few hours early one day, you’ll have to deduct that out of your vacation hours.


But I have no idea what life is like working at an academic medical center. Assuming that I stay on as faculty there, does it function closer to a VA, or closer to a Department of Psychology? Does it matter if I’m more clinical focused vs more research focused?


I apologize if this question sounds odd. Every place I’m considering ranking has assured me that they would love to keep me on after internship if I’m interested, so now I’m just trying to determine which route - VA or Academic Medical Center - offers the best lifestyle so that the move I make for internship can finally be my last move.


Thanks for your time!

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[szymk1sm]

YMMV - I did my postdoc at an AMC and am an ECNP at a different AMC. I would guess that what you're asking about flexibility is location specific.

Where I did postdoc was much more micromanaged - TO requests were tracked and people were aware when you were in / out of office (100% clinical role). Where I am now (80 / 20 research / clinical split), I have much more flexibility and no one is really tracking my whereabouts. The only TO being tracked is when I have to cancel my clinical day. If your patients cancel / no show - you can leave for the day / WFH if you want (at least for the NP's). My direct boss knows when I'm out, but I'm not tracking vacation days anywhere.

Overall, I enjoy AMC life more than VA life (did internship at a flagship VA and have several friends at VAs) - but that doesn't mean life is rainbows and sunshine; however, the institution I'm currently at is helping me reach identified goals for this stage of my career.

 

[oldschooliscool]

YMMV - I did my postdoc at an AMC and am an ECNP at a different AMC. I would guess that what you're asking about flexibility is location specific.

Where I did postdoc was much more micromanaged - TO requests were tracked and people were aware when you were in / out of office (100% clinical role). Where I am now (80 / 20 research / clinical split), I have much more flexibility and no one is really tracking my whereabouts. The only TO being tracked is when I have to cancel my clinical day. If your patients cancel / no show - you can leave for the day / WFH if you want (at least for the NP's). My direct boss knows when I'm out, but I'm not tracking vacation days anywhere.

Overall, I enjoy AMC life more than VA life (did internship at a flagship VA and have several friends at VAs) - but that doesn't mean life is rainbows and sunshine; however, the institution I'm currently at is helping me reach identified goals for this stage of my career.

Thanks for taking the time to answer my question! A largely research-focused career is what I'm aiming for, so an 80/20 split like you have seems close to ideal. It makes sense that it varies by location, but I'm happy to hear that AMCs can be pretty relaxed.
Thanks again!

 

[singasongofjoy]

It's hard for me to imagine a largely research-focused career in an AMC being anything close to relaxed. But maybe unicorns do exist out there somewhere.

As for keeping on after internship - if you have an intern who is decent, and then they want to stick around for postdoc, that's awesome. I think most places prefer to do that tbh. If you get a new postdoc, there's the whole learning curve again of how things are done at that site, probably some bits of training here and there, and not knowing if there's some surprise in their personality or abilities as opposed to an intern you already know and like who can slide right into higher level post-doc-y things. Doesn't necessarily mean there will be a job available after postdoc (but if there is, you'd prob be in a good spot). Just wanted to point out it's pretty common for folks to want to keep their interns around for postdoc so long as they've done a decent job in internship.