Clinical vs. Research Internship

[JWPoods]

Good morning!

I am confused about how internship works. I thought that the internship had to be a clinical internship but I was reading that some are research based (Palo Alto VA, etc.).

Would this hinder a person from accumulating supervision hours? If I was to take a more research focused clinical internship, would that put me at a disadvantage, in terms of accumulating hours, for getting licensed?

I am starting a very research heavy clinical science program and would love a research focused internship, however, I do want to become licensed. How does this work?

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[cara susanna]

Even the most research-heavy internships offer a lot of clinical training and clinical hours. You would still get the hours and training that you want.

 

[DynamicDidactic]

Every APA accredited internship will provided with the necessary hours for graduation and licensure. However, some will just have more research emphasis and requirements (thus, also more likely to accept more research focused students).

 

[ResearchGirlie]

Even the most research oriented internship site will have far more clinical hours than research hours. At Palo Alto there is 1 rotation that allows you to do 18 hours of research / week for a few months but nobody is guaranteed to get that rotation. I've heard that they don't want research heavy people taking that rotation because they want people to focus on learning new skills.

Most other sites that are research oriented will allow you maybe 1 day for research but I'd say it ranges between 4-8 hours of research allotment a week. Coming from a clinical science program that 4 hours or so will feel like nothing.

 

[AcronymAllergy]

Even the most research oriented internship site will have far more clinical hours than research hours. At Palo Alto there is 1 rotation that allows you to do 18 hours of research / week for a few months but nobody is guaranteed to get that rotation. I've heard that they don't want research heavy people taking that rotation because they want people to focus on learning new skills.

Most other sites that are research oriented will allow you maybe 1 day for research but I'd say it ranges between 4-8 hours of research allotment a week. Coming from a clinical science program that 4 hours or so will feel like nothing.

I attended an internship that apparently has somewhat of a reputation of being more research-friendly (although not to the level of MUSC, Brown, Yale, Palo Alto, etc.), and this is exactly what we got--4 hours of protected (and it actually was protected) time per week across the year.

As you've mentioned, 4-8 hours/week isn't a whole lot of time (nor is a year very long to begin with). Thus, if you want to participate in research while on internship, sites are going to want A) you to have defended your dissertation, B) you to have a clear idea that you'd like to do research as soon as you begin internship, and c) some flexibility in terms of your interests (i.e., they're likely going to want you to work on an existing/ongoing study and/or with an already-collected data set).

 

[ResearchGirlie]

I attended an internship that apparently has somewhat of a reputation of being more research-friendly (although not to the level of MUSC, Brown, Yale, Palo Alto, etc.), and this is exactly what we got--4 hours of protected (and it actually was protected) time per week across the year.

As you've mentioned, 4-8 hours/week isn't a whole lot of time (nor is a year very long to begin with). Thus, if you want to participate in research while on internship, sites are going to want A) you to have defended your dissertation, B) you to have a clear idea that you'd like to do research as soon as you begin internship, and c) some flexibility in terms of your interests (i.e., they're likely going to want you to work on an existing/ongoing study and/or with an already-collected data set).

That's another important point - some sites leave it up to you to protect that 4 hours yourself and don't seem to make it all that easy for you to actually do it. I think it's best to assume you're going to internship and doing clinical work all the time and be nicely surprised if you enjoy research and get the chance to do some.