Adoption & Paid Parental Leave: Allison’s Story

Paid parental leave is important for parents and children alike. When parents bring new children home, having time away from work provides families with opportunities to bond, adjust, and more easily balance the needs of work and home. The arrival of a child can take many forms. For Allison and her husband, it was through adoption.

Allison is an RN at Northside Hospital Cherokee. While she’s worked on the oncology floor at Cherokee for a year and a half, she’s been a nurse for five. She shared, “Northside is by far the best place I’ve ever worked. I live 54 miles from the hospital and still drive in because I know I won’t find a place I feel as great to work for.”

Even before Allison joined the Northside Family, she and her husband had begun the journey of adoption. After a three year process to adopt their foster child, they were finally able to adopt last month! With the Adoption Paid-Time Off Program that Northside Hospital provides, Allison could confidently take paid time off to be at home with her family. She said, “Having this time at home and November being National Adoption Month is even more special.”

It was the little things that made Allison’s time off especially meaningful to her. As a nurse, Allison works long hours, often leaving home in the morning before her daughter is awake and returning home after she’s gone to bed. When her shifts fall on back-to-back days, that can mean going several days without seeing her daughter. So being home for three weeks meant being home every night for bedtime stories. It meant being able to take and pick her daughter up from school every day. “I got to help her with her Thanksgiving play, take walks after school, and her favorite thing to do—play on the playground,” Allison said.

The time off also gave Allison and her husband some firsts of their own. Allison reflected, “It was the first time I got to be home on Halloween, so we got to go trick-or-treating as a family. We threw her an amazing Halloween-themed adoption party to celebrate!”

At Northside Hospital, we offer many benefits to our team. Benefits focused on health and wellness, financial health, work-life balance and beyond. It’s crucial that our team is and feels supported and empowered to do their best, at work and in their life work. We’re proud to offer an adoption benefit that gives Northside parents-to-be paid time off following the arrival of their child. No new parent should have to choose between time with family and missed pay or drained PTO.

For Allison, the benefit is a blessing. She shared: “It is amazing to work for a company that provides adoption leave. I already love working for Northside, but the little things like that make it an even better company to work for. Thanks so much for being such an amazing company to work for!”