Pregnancy Policies for Internship - HELP

[ProfessionalStudent5]

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I'm on internship and due mid June. Our internship is over at the end of June. Anyone else have a due date close to the end of internship before? How did your program handle it with the whole 2000 hours thing? My program is basically hoping that I make it full term. There's always the option to take 8 weeks leave, but that would throw off my entire post doc because I'd have to come back to complete the time.

 

[WisNeuro]

How much leave time have you built up through the year?

 

[ProfessionalStudent5]

How much leave time have you built up through the year?

I only have a week and we're accounting for that so technically I only miss two weeks of internship. But it's just confusing because we're at work 50 hours a week minimum. So I don't understand how I'd be under either way.

 

[ProfessionalStudent5]

Sometimes you just can’t have your cake and eat it, too.

Anyway to grind it out before then? Or to front load face to face hours so you can focus on indirect during maternity leave?

I’ve got a four month old. But we waited until after pdoc. My advise: this is small stuff. Enjoy being pregnant. It’s amazing how things change when there is all the sudden a baby.

This probably sets you back, at worst a few months. Hopefully your pdoc is understanding.

APA guidelines aren't about face to face hours specifically, they're for on site hours. Plus I'm at a pretty intense site and we get more patients then most. Which is why the hour thing is confusing to me in the first place.

 

[WisNeuro]

APA guidelines aren't about face to face hours specifically, they're for on site hours. Plus I'm at a pretty intense site and we get more patients then most. Which is why the hour thing is confusing to me in the first place.

A full-time internship is 2080 hours in a year, which is a little misleading. That just means you have 40 hour work weeks, paid time off is included in those hours. So, most people really work about 1920 (48x40)

 

[DynamicDidactic]

This may be a useful thread
Baby before internship / delay internship?

Talk to your internship to try to work out getting your hours. Whether you do it before your due date or after.

 

[deleted343839]

This situation comes up more often than you’d think. People have babies, they get seriously ill or injured, etc. Life happens and is often unpredictable (my babies arrived after their due dates!). Work closely with your training director and figure out the most likely Plan B in the event you do have to make up some time after the official internship year ends. The rest is out of your hands.

Fortunately, many post docs offer a some flexibility around start dates because internship end dates vary. If you haven’t done so already, make sure you keep your post doc director informed about what’s going on. Bottom line, come up with your contingency plan(s) and be proactive with your communication. Everything else is a surprise.

 

[psychrat]

I'm on internship and due mid June. Our internship is over at the end of June. Anyone else have a due date close to the end of internship before? How did your program handle it with the whole 2000 hours thing? My program is basically hoping that I make it full term. There's always the option to take 8 weeks leave, but that would throw off my entire post doc because I'd have to come back to complete the time.

Did you save vacation and sick days?

 

[singasongofjoy]

I would probably just go ahead and ask for a later start date for postdoc- as mentione dpreviously they generally have quite a bit of flexibility since internship end dates do vary. Mine was posted to start in July but I started in September because of internship. I'd explain the situation to them and ask for a start date (and then end date of course) for your postdoc year to be delayed. I would do this even if you weren't concerned about having to go back and make up time at internship, because newborns are intense and my guess is they'd rather have you start when you've had some time to get settled in a bit to your new normal post-baby (i.e.: are not so sleep deprived that it's hard to function for a full work day). I'd say something along the lines of "I'm having a baby due in June and would like to request consideration of an August (or even Sept 1) start date for a couple of reasons: 1) I will likely have to return to internship for a couple of weeks to make up the time I'm out with baby and 2) I want to start postdoc on strong footing and so want to make sure I have a bit of time to adjust to the sleep/feeding demands of a newborn.

While many women have no option but to return to work insanely soon after having a baby (which is a whole other issue), you really do need some time at home. My baby by all accounts turned out to be pretty easy, but still there was no way I personally could have returned to work after 4 weeks and performed even moderately well. There's no way to know how the transition will hit you (the hormones and sleep changes got me good) so as much as possible, I recommend building a little buffer time-wise for yourself for your own sake as well as your family and the clients you might be working with.