Leaving Postdoc early, requirements for successful completion?

[StudentBsMs11]

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Hi all, this is going to be a two-part question. My first question is about the required length to be considered successfully "completed" on postdoc. My fellow fellows and I were recently told we have to complete all 52 weeks of a year, and will be required to burn our leave at the end to cover a gap if we take a job before that, in order to be considered completed. (Which means we have to save our leave time and can't use it.) The TD cited "licensure/APA requirements" as the reason why, and explicitly stated it wasn't the postdoc training committee or facility requirements.

However, I've been told by multiple folks (including the my internship training faculty) that in order to be considered completed by APA, you only need to finish 11 months of a year-long fellowship or 22 months of a 2 year fellowship. Additionally, the licensure requirements in my state are for 2,000 hours in a clinical setting, which adds up to 50 weeks (not 52), and several of us have started moonlighting on the side and will have additional hours from that experience. Has anyone else run into this information about the length not needing to be a full year, and if you have, can you provide a citation/link? All I've managed to find is a section of the APPIC policies that says fellowships have to be a minimum of 1500 hours. I want something solid before I go to the TD, as I don't want to be seen as trying to weasel out of my postdoc. I do like it and haven't ruled out looking for a job here if I can't put something else together.

Second (more subjective) question though - is it worth just leaving the postdoc incomplete if they are going to be this rigid about completion dates? The postdoc start date was delayed by two weeks at the last minute (unpaid, with no additional compensation for the inconvenience of having to live on credit cards for half a month) due to HR difficulties and we're being asked to stay into September, which is a bit much as I'm looking at academic (smaller college faculty or adjunct + PP) jobs.

Thoughts?

 

[deleted343839]

I get the sense you're asking in the hypothetical, and not because you have a job offer in hand yet.

On the assumption this is an APA accredited postdoc, then the program faculty need to be able to demonstrate to APA that they are fulfilling the conditions under which they've been accredited. You could certainly ask if you could make up the time in other ways (eg, working longer hours for a few months).

For licensure purposes it's probably irrelevant whether you leave a postdoc early, as long as you have completed the required hours and have documentation to that effect. I left my postdoc months earlier than planned because I got a faculty job. The faculty understood and this was considered a good outcome. The licensing board only cared about the hours. You can always call your state licensing board and ask.

Hopefully your TD is a reasonable person who understands that accepting a faculty job offer is a time sensitive matter worthy of leaving a postdoc a little ahead of schedule. But let's say they wanted to be very strict about this. Nothing is stopping you from quitting and taking the job anyway, and if that's your best career option, then you should.

Aside from a faculty job offer or some unexpected calamity, it's best to take the high road and fulfill the terms of your contract.

 

[smalltownpsych]

The training director is probably not accurate as almost everything I have ever seen in this field takes into account some time off. Nevertheless, I don't know if I would fight it as the two weeks would probably not be worth risking licensure over after x number of years pursuing this career.