How do you communicate your maternity leave plans to your colleagues and patients?
What steps should clinicians take to prepare for their maternity leave?
On this episode of the Uncaged Clinician Podcast, host David Bayliff interviews Lindsay Rush, owner of Beyond Physical Therapy in Wisconsin. They discuss how Lindsay managed to take a year-and-a-half-long maternity leave and successfully transitioned back to work. Lindsay also shares a little about herself, her business, and its three locations in Franklin, New Berlin, and Dellefield. The clinics are housed in boutique-style gyms and a large sports recreation complex.
This episode will be useful for clinicians seeking advice on how to manage or plan for maternity leave. Lindsay shares her insight and advice for other female clinicians in similar situations, discussing topics such as planning for maternity leave, delegating responsibilities, and maintaining relationships with clients and business partners during the leave period.
They will touch on such topics as:
Talks about what physical therapy practice is like at Beyond Physical Therapy and how she built on a quick practice model.
Her fears about taking time off for maternity leave and how to plan for 12 weeks: “How much revenue do I need them to produce for the business to keep running?”
Preparing the team for her maternity leave time off, delegating tasks to staff members, and teaching her accountant Quickbooks.
Transitioning out of the practice: “I wrote out an entire process for them, did a Zoom call, how to do it and what everyone did and how often was.”
How to communicate with, deal with, and handle patients and staff: “I should have had more of a prescriptive approach.”
The challenges of having a newborn: “She didn't have a very consistent sleep schedule, and it was really hard for me to do anything for the business. And even if I did find a corner of time to be able to do it, I was operating at half my mental capacity because I was sick and tired.”
What she did during maternity leave and transitioning back into the workplace after maternity leave.
Tips for those who are preparing for maternity leave: “I think one tip would be if you have a staff, trust your staff. And if you don't (trust them), you don't have the right staff, or you have some trust issues.”
Talks more about her trusting her staff: “I had amazing people behind me and I had zero fears about the day-to-day running of the business because I know they're all phenomenal clinicians, and that they had the best interest of keeping the business going strong in mind.”
Uncaged Hack: Because you build relationships with your people, you become family to them. When you take your maternity leave, they’re going to be excited for you, will definitely miss you, and will be excited for you to come back. What makes you a stronger leader is when you build trust within your team.
Additional Resources:
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