Being An Internship Supervisor: The Need for a Sick Day as a Supervisor

I am sick today. I get sick quite often in my role as a school-based music therapist and getting sick often complicates the time I have with my interns. I realize that you can read that last phrase two different ways (at least), and both iterations seem to be appropriate, in this case. I always have a plan for what interns do on the days when I have to be gone unexpectedly, but there are times when I have difficulty getting my co-workers to understand the plan. That's a whole other topic, though. Let's focus on the point that I am trying to make right now.

There will be times when you, a music therapy intern supervisor, will have to take a sick day. This is going to happen, so you have to figure out what your interns will do when you have to be gone. It is better to have a clear plan that you share with your interns than to have to figure it out as you go along.

Over the 25 years that I have trained interns, I have had more absences in the last 10 years than in the first 15. Some of those absences have happened in emergency situations - I had a three-week recovery period after emergency gallbladder surgery when I had an intern. I have been fortunate that most of my significant absences have coincided with times when I did not have interns present at the facility. The emergency gallbladder surgery followed by the global pandemic made the need for an absence plan essential for my internship program.

What is in your plan for when you are absent?

I have a couple of plans. I have a "today you will" plan as well as a "here's what you will do if I have to be gone for longer than two days or the world closes" plan. The first is pretty simple and involves the intern following his/her/their regular caseload and not coming out of the office during my sessions. If an intern is present during a session, then my co-workers expect that the intern will act as a substitute therapist rather than the intern that they are. That is a clear violation of the intern's Internship Agreement, so I have to tell the intern to remain in the office and not come out under any circumstances. I leave lots of reading opportunities and reminders about upcoming assignments to help the intern focus on their reason for being at the facility to begin with - their internship.

The second plan is a bit more complex.

This plan came out of necessity in 2019 when I had emergency surgery that kept me from work for three weeks and then has morphed several times since then. It really became completely solidified in July of this year.

Part One: Each one of my interns has a box assigned to them at the start of their internship. In that box is a set of markers, colored pencils, visual aid copies, and paraphernalia for putting together file folder activities, binder page activities, and TMEs. I include scissors, labels, all the things that I can use in my music therapy clinic.

Part Two: If I have to be gone from the clinic for a sustained amount of time, I have some new and different assignments that become part of the intern's assignment list. These assignments have direct clinical or future benefits for the intern, so I feel good about switching things up a bit. If I have to be gone, then I ask the intern to work from home on the additional assignments. This experience (I've used this a couple of time due to Covid outbreaks since 2019) has been interesting to put together and to work through. Right now, my interns focus on some private practice workbooks that outline steps needed to start up. I have developed some directed reflection questions and opportunities that interns work through. I am working on finishing up one for research for interns who are planning to move into graduate school soon after completing their entry-level degree. I am also working on a content creation tract for other interns to complete. This project takes up about a week of work, but I figure that interns can spread their learning in these tracts with the other things that I assign for them to do to cover the time that I have to be gone from work.

Part Three: In the case of having to be gone longer than 3 weeks, I use the extension or withdrawal option for my interns. This is a last resort thing, but that is part of the National Roster program and guidelines for a reason.

It is always better to have a plan and not use it than to need a plan and not have one.

There you go.