PhD/PsyD Internship potentially ending early due to COVID

[MiniLop]

Hi all, as I've mentioned in other threads, I'm currently on internship at an inpatient psych hospital. The other interns and I had been advocating for some kind of change to service due to danger of contracting COVID and potentially passing it on to patients (particularly given that the hospital has made no efforts to reduce our frequency of patient contact), specifically some kind of remote therapy. We have now heard back from the training director, stating that remote work is not possible and that the we are to stay home for the time being, and they will let us know what happens next. One of the other interns spoke with someone at APPIC today, who expressed concern that we may have to stay longer at internship to accrue our full 2,000 hours. The APPIC person's argument was that, if we were to try to get licensed in a few years, the board may not care that we did our internship during the COVID year.

Anyone have any idea what it would mean to finish internship with less than 2,000 hours? I'm aware that requirements are different for different states; would it be possible in most states to make up any lost hours from internship during postdoc?

I am also getting the impression that our site has no idea what to do with us (and is annoyed that we were pushing back at them regarding safety). What would it mean if they can't find an alternative way for us to get training?

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[PsyDr]

Everyone is kinda right.

1) licensing boards dgaf about the whys of things. They are straight paper pushers that are checking off boxes. This is one of the reasons that things like minimum eppp scores, hours, etc are important. You don’t want to be the person who is 65+ and trying to explain that apa accredited internships did not exist when you were in school, so you couldn’t possibly have that requirement. That’s a true story of a friend of mine.

2) NO ONE knows what this stuff means for anyone. While you have every right to ask, it’s likely the answers don’t exist yet. Embracing the ambiguity is pretty much the only thing to do now.

Sadly, the internet meme is accurate when it said something like, “I don’t plan. Life is unpredictable. For example, if you asked me in January what I was going to be doing in March, I wouldn’t have said being on months long lockdown because a Chinese guy ate a bat and watching a documentary about a kinky gay redneck tiger owners murder plot.”

 

[erg923]

When an institution says "we don't do that"...it means they don't WANT to.

When an institution says "we don't do that" in the mist of a healthcare service delivery crises such as this (that requires relatively quick adaptation/change of healthcare services)....it also mean they don't WANT to. Get it?

You should take note of this. You should work with the APA and APPIC (whom we know are at least somewhat sensitive to these issues) and NOT work for your internship facility ever again in the future. If its a..."someone has to make the sausage" approach....unless you are an IM or EM physician resident, something is probably off.

 

[LadyHalcyon]

Everyone is kinda right.

1) licensing boards dgaf about the whys of things. They are straight paper pushers that are checking off boxes. This is one of the reasons that things like minimum eppp scores, hours, etc are important. You don’t want to be the person who is 65+ and trying to explain that apa accredited internships did not exist when you were in school, so you couldn’t possibly have that requirement. That’s a true story of a friend of mine.

2) NO ONE knows what this stuff means for anyone. While you have every right to ask, it’s likely the answers don’t exist yet. Embracing the ambiguity is pretty much the only thing to do now.

Sadly, the internet meme is accurate when it said something like, “I don’t plan. Life is unpredictable. For example, if you asked me in January what I was going to be doing in March, I wouldn’t have said being on months long lockdown because a Chinese guy ate a bat and watching a documentary about a kinky gay redneck tiger owners murder plot.”

I blame Carole Baskins for this

Sent from my SM-G973U using Tapatalk

 

[MiniLop]

When an institution says "we don't do that"...it means they don't want to.

When an institution says "we don't do that" in the mist of a healthcare service delivery crises such as this that requires relatively quick adaptation/change of healthcare services....it also mean they don't want to. Get it?

You should take note of this. You should work with the APA and APPIC (whom we know are sensitive to these issues) and NOT work for your internship facility ever again in the future. If its a..."someone has to make the sausage" approach....unless you are an IM or EM physician resident, something is probably off.

Oh yes, it's quite apparent that they don't want to, and we are in regular contact with APPIC about this. Fingers crossed. There is no chance whatsoever I would ever work with this internship site again in any capacity.

 

[R. Matey]

Why is the TD saying that remote work is not possible?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[MiniLop]

Why is the TD saying that remote work is not possible?

It would be hard to explain without revealing the site name, but let's just say that they are not on the cutting edge of technology. That said, the interns made what I think was a reasonable suggestion for doing semi-remote work, and it was shot down.

 

[R. Matey]

It would be hard to explain without revealing the site name, but let's just say that they are not on the cutting edge of technology. That said, the interns made what I think was a reasonable suggestion for doing semi-remote work, and it was shot down.

Hmmm...That's a little weird considering that many other internship sites are allowing interns to provide tele-health services and APPIC/APA are recommending tele-health services when available. I'm doing tele-health on internship as are my colleagues in hospitals. I get it that it might be different for inpatient though. If you're still getting paid by the site, I wonder what other things you can do to count hours even if they're not DSHs. The nice thing about being in a training position is that you can use time to train and that will still count towards your 2000 hours as long as your TD is cool with that.

 

[MiniLop]

Hmmm...That's a little weird considering that many other internship sites are allowing interns to provide tele-health services and APPIC/APA are recommending tele-health services when available. I'm doing tele-health on internship as are my colleagues in hospitals. I get it that it might be different for inpatient though. If you're still getting paid by the site, I wonder what other things you can do to count hours even if they're not DSHs. The nice thing about being in a training position is that you can use time to train and that will still count towards your 2000 hours as long as your TD is cool with that.

Any thoughts about the kind of stuff that we could do in lieu of seeing patients? Write treatment manuals? Group outlines?

 

[eeor1006]

Any thoughts about the kind of stuff that we could do in lieu of seeing patients? Write treatment manuals? Group outlines?

Phone hotline for health care professionals, support group for nurses (via telehealth), psychological first-aid services, grief counseling/support groups (via telehealth), assisting with on-going research.

 

[R. Matey]

Phone hotline for health care professionals, support group for nurses (via telehealth), psychological first-aid services, grief counseling/support groups (via telehealth), assisting with on-going research.

Also, reading therapy books, any project you or your TD can think of, like those “wouldn’t be nice if we had x” situations. Or program evaluation, or if you have any PD money left trainings through APA continuing ed. If you haven’t done the freebie telehealth training through APA yet, that’s a day right there.

Any other dept. at your site you could volunteer in and get supervision?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[MiniLop]

These are all great ideas. Thank you!