Advice: APPI Hour Dilemma

[CSOPP]

I recently came across some information that I am concernedabout, and wanted to get the opinions of posters on this board. The APPI makes it very clear that you are toreport your practicum hours separately from your clinical non-practicumexperience. During a discussion with acolleague who will be applying to internship next year, two of my othercolleagues stated they added their non-practicum hours to their practicum hourswhen they filled out the APPI. I toldthem (and the other colleague) that this was against the rules of theAPPI. Neither of the colleagues appearedto understand that their behavior was wrong, and one added that “no one wouldbe able to verify the hours anyway.”

I am not naïve, and know that there are always minorinflation of hours. However, thesecolleagues had added 3+ years of work (approx. 16 hours a week, year round) totheir applications. This seems extremeand unethical to me. There is also thequestion about how their DCT looked at their hours and thought it was anaccurate reflection of their practicum training. At this time, I am unsure ifthere is anything I should do about this, or anything I can do. Am I overreacting to the situation?

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[erg923]

I recently came across some information that I am concernedabout, and wanted to get the opinions of posters on this board. The APPI makes it very clear that you are toreport your practicum hours separately from your clinical non-practicumexperience. During a discussion with acolleague who will be applying to internship next year, two of my othercolleagues stated they added their non-practicum hours to their practicum hourswhen they filled out the APPI. I toldthem (and the other colleague) that this was against the rules of theAPPI. Neither of the colleagues appearedto understand that their behavior was wrong, and one added that "no one wouldbe able to verify the hours anyway."

I am not naïve, and know that there are always minorinflation of hours. However, thesecolleagues had added 3+ years of work (approx. 16 hours a week, year round) totheir applications. This seems extremeand unethical to me. There is also thequestion about how their DCT looked at their hours and thought it was anaccurate reflection of their practicum training. At this time, I am unsure ifthere is anything I should do about this, or anything I can do. Am I overreacting to the situation?

No doubt that the behavior can be deemed wrong and unethical, I mean it is flagrant deception, but whether you choose to out the specific students probably had to do with ones own moral code. I would leave it alone myself, as I just wouldn't want the headache and doubt much would change because of it. However, doesn't mean you cant inform some APPI leaders that this behavior is going on in general.

If anything, the DCT is complicit or so out OF touch with his students clinical training, that he obviously isn't functioning as an actual DCT.

 

[Therapist4Chnge]

IIRC...the training supervisor(s) need to sign off on the hours, and then the DCT would need to sign off on the hours. You'd think that such inflated numbers would catch the eye of at least one of them.

 

[psychRA]

It may also depend on the type of hours that they're referring to, since I don't think that "practicum" is an actually category on the APPI. When you say "clinical non-practicum" hours, does that mean support hours? While not intervention hours, those do count in a separate category on the APPI. Or maybe face-to-face experiences that are not strictly therapy, but that still fall under the umbrella of other types of hours, like intake interviews?

If they're flat out lying, that's sucky, and it's weird that the DCT didn't notice it before s/he signed off.

ETA: I could just dig out my APPI from this year, but can't bring myself to look at it again!

 

[Psychadelic2012]

I would think that this would look suspicious to internship sites. Anyone with a brain could figure out that three extra years of clinical experience would not add up when comparing that time to transcripts, time in program, etc. If there is that much of a discrepancy, I would think that sites would notice this. It sucks that people are so freaked out that they can't be honest. I don't know, maybe I'm naive.

 

[4410]

This would be difficult to successfully do and you would be risking ethics violations in your APPI application. We have to use the time to track program at my school, so it would be very difficult to report your total hours as clinical hours and out DCT would be highly upset if you tried to misrepresent your hours. In fact, it would be impossible as your practicum supervisor has to review and sign off on your hours and the DCT prints out a summary of your clinical hours and other hours to check and double check before signing off on your APPI application. If for some reason APPIC became aware of clinical hour inflation, not only would the student's application draw a Red Flag but the DCT could be found to have committed an ethical violation by not adequately documenting and verifying the actual hours completed. These folks could be risking their whole career in psychology if this was discovered that they somehow lied about their clinical hours.

One thing you might consider as sometimes colleagues brag about or says things that may not actually be true. When you are saying non practicum hours are you taking about their work experiences? There is a Other column where you can state that you have worked the past year 40 hours per week as a clinical therapist but this is considered outside of your actual clinical hours on your APPI application. You indicated that they are applying for internship next year of I guess the 2013-14 year. I did not know everything about the APPI application a year before I actually began my formal application and they may not know everything yet. When they actually submit their APPI to the DCT for review and submittal any types of discrepancies will be found and they will not be able to inflate their hours.

 

[docma]

While there are some sites that would do rule-outs for consideration based only on numbers at the start, I think these are very few. Most TDs know that the hours-counts are highly variable, often inflated (or under-reported) and not in themselves a good way to compare candidates. As others say, there are lots of cross-check points in the AAPI to confirm (or contradict) the weight of the reported numbers. I'd put your energy into finding ways to honestly convey the actual depth and breadth of your experience and the range and number of clients you have worked with (in employment and in practicum) in your essays and cover letter. That will carry forward your own application. You can't control the ethical/actual outcomes for anyone else.