APPIC Hours Question

[Tulsa]

I’m currently at a health psych prac site where we do an assessment battery that includes the MoCA, a clinical interview, a personality assessment, and a bunch of other small self-report measures (PHQ, PCL-5, etc.).

As the MoCA is a neuropsych screener, do I just count those 10-ish minutes from each assessment as neuropsych assmt, and then the remaining 90+ minutes as general assessment (or whatever the APPIC category is)?

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[WisNeuro]

"Integrated Psychological Testing Reports

In this section, provide the number of integrated psychological testing reports you have written for adults and the number written for children and adolescents. This section of the AAPI Online is used by those internship programs who are interested in knowing the amount of psychological testing and report writing that has been completed primarily by an applicant. This section should NOT include reports written from an interview that is only history-taking, a clinical interview, and/or only the completion of behavioral rating forms, where no additional psychological tests are administered. The definition of an integrated psychological testing report is a report that includes a review of history, results of an interview and at least two psychological tests from one or more of the following categories: personality measures, intellectual tests, cognitive tests, and neuropsychological tests. Please carefully review this explanation because it answers the question of what should be included in a report in order to have it satisfy the requirement of an integrated report.


This information is taken directly from the AAPI. Ultimately it is up to the clinical supervisor to determine whether the report that is generated is an integrated report and the above information is provided as a guideline but it is clear an integrated report is more than a list of tests and scores. The report is generally integrating the results of the clinical interview and two or more psychological assessment instruments (do not count checklists or symptom measures, such as the BDI or SCID-IV). The clinical supervisor or the Director of Clinical Training should have input into the decision on what to call a specific report if there is doubt or it does not clearly fall into the parameters above."

This is a grey area. For general internship spots, they'd probably consider it an integrated report. For neuropsych internship slots, they would likely not consider that an integrated report.

 

[bluecolourskies]

yes you can count it that way

 

[bluecolourskies]

"Integrated Psychological Testing Reports

In this section, provide the number of integrated psychological testing reports you have written for adults and the number written for children and adolescents. This section of the AAPI Online is used by those internship programs who are interested in knowing the amount of psychological testing and report writing that has been completed primarily by an applicant. This section should NOT include reports written from an interview that is only history-taking, a clinical interview, and/or only the completion of behavioral rating forms, where no additional psychological tests are administered. The definition of an integrated psychological testing report is a report that includes a review of history, results of an interview and at least two psychological tests from one or more of the following categories: personality measures, intellectual tests, cognitive tests, and neuropsychological tests. Please carefully review this explanation because it answers the question of what should be included in a report in order to have it satisfy the requirement of an integrated report.


This information is taken directly from the AAPI. Ultimately it is up to the clinical supervisor to determine whether the report that is generated is an integrated report and the above information is provided as a guideline but it is clear an integrated report is more than a list of tests and scores. The report is generally integrating the results of the clinical interview and two or more psychological assessment instruments (do not count checklists or symptom measures, such as the BDI or SCID-IV). The clinical supervisor or the Director of Clinical Training should have input into the decision on what to call a specific report if there is doubt or it does not clearly fall into the parameters above."

This is a grey area. For general internship spots, they'd probably consider it an integrated report. For neuropsych internship slots, they would likely not consider that an integrated report.

I think they were asking specifically how to count hours spent in assessment, not reports!

 

[WisNeuro]

I think they were asking specifically how to count hours spent in assessment, not reports!

Ah, thanks for the clarification. Generally a similar answer. Personally, I don't really consider the screeners (MoCA, MMSE, SLUMS) to actually be neuropsych instruments. You could probably count the as neuro, but I'd just lump those in the general assessment category. Again, if you are angling for a neuro specific internship and your hours and administrations are mostly loaded up with screening stuff, it will not be competitive.

 

[Tulsa]

@WisNeuro and @bluecolourskies - thank you both for your responses! I’m going for health psych positions at an AMC/VA when I apply, just wanted to make sure I was counting the hours correctly.

So, what I’m gathering from you both is that I should just lump the MoCA in with everything under a general assessment hour, especially since I’m not trying to build a lot of neuro hours for applications (and that a small screener like the MoCA would be unlikely to help me if that were my aim anyway). Does that sound right?

 

[bluecolourskies]

@WisNeuro and @bluecolourskies - thank you both for your responses! I’m going for health psych positions at an AMC/VA when I apply, just wanted to make sure I was counting the hours correctly.

So, what I’m gathering from you both is that I should just lump the MoCA in with everything under a general assessment hour, especially since I’m not trying to build a lot of neuro hours for applications (and that a small screener like the MoCA would be unlikely to help me if that were my aim anyway). Does that sound right?

I think if you aren't doing neuro, generally sites just care that applicants have x amount of therapy hours and x amount of assessment hours.

 

[WisNeuro]

@WisNeuro and @bluecolourskies - thank you both for your responses! I’m going for health psych positions at an AMC/VA when I apply, just wanted to make sure I was counting the hours correctly.

So, what I’m gathering from you both is that I should just lump the MoCA in with everything under a general assessment hour, especially since I’m not trying to build a lot of neuro hours for applications (and that a small screener like the MoCA would be unlikely to help me if that were my aim anyway). Does that sound right?

Yeah, your sites will be looking at just general assessment experience for the most part.