Ending last year of externship/practicum early

[Rmack1219]

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I was curious if anyone who is in their last year of their externship ended it early due to internship interviews. Usually people have interviews and travel throughout January which ruins scheduling with patients and if patients are willing to miss 4 weeks of appointments I'm sure that would work. But if they're not, they're most likely transferred to another practitioner and then you have to pick up a new caseload for February - May 1 (which is when my externships always end). Ive seen multiple 4th years at my previous sites just be bored out of their mind coming back to externship after they've applied to internship and it seems like such a waste of time given all of our other responsibilities such as research, TAing, etc.

I've heard of a couple students ending their externships that started in the summer in December and focusing on research until they went to internship. Has anyone else heard of this? Your insight would be very helpful. Thanks.

 

[NeuroLady]

I will speak for myself. I would never do that. I am obligated to spend a year at my site and, while I may take time off for interviews and may need to leave a few weeks early if internship overlaps, I would not do it months in advance. I commited and, as long as I am able, I will follow through.

 

[PsychPhDone]

I was at a site that was not particularly impacted by my interviews, since I didn't have long-term clients there. Still, I'd probably finish out the year there if that's the expectation/agreement you made. Are there clients you could see for short protocols if you got your caseload set up early (e.g., CBT for insomnia)? Could you be switched to co-lead groups with someone who won't be interviewing? Could you do intakes or triage? Could you see all your clients on days you're unlikely to be traveling? I was gone a lot, but not 4 weeks straight.

tl;dr: Hard to know what the options may be at your site, but I had agreed to a year, I'd finish it out.

 

[rdpchgo]

I agree with the comments listed thus far, don't leave early, Assuming a training agreement was signed, you're obligated to stay, not to mention you don't want your future internship TD to be aware of these actions. Of course, if there's internship overlap (which it doesn't appear to be) then leaving early for re-location purpose would be permissible.

 

[temppsych123]

Training programs vary hugely in how externships are set up - does everyone agree to a full year for all years you are doing externships? Do externships vary in the commitment (full time v part time) and duration of time you're there? It sounds like, for your program, everyone commits to externships that run for a full year ending May 1. While it's annoying that you may have a hard time picking up clients after interviews, if you agreed to stay for that long, it's a cruddy thing to do to leave early unexpectedly (barring some major life event that requires it, obviously). The externship site is counting on you, your training director for your grad program and your internship won't view it very well if word gets to them, and it may make things harder for future students from your program to extern at that site (if I were an externship supervisor, why would I want to take on students who I train to do things but then can't rely on to fulfill their end of the bargain?). I agree with earlier commenters about seeing whether you can change division of your time to use more effectively post-interviews (e.g., switching more to assessments, brief interventions, maybe peer supervision and training of other staff, etc.). And, if this is a chronic issue for your program, advocating to students and faculty about the possibility of having more senior grad students sign up from the start for shorter externships during their application year. But I wouldn't leave early just because it'll be boring for you.

 

[Rmack1219]

Thanks for the insight everyone. Just for clarification I never planned on leaving without notice. I was asking if anyone else had experienced ending in December because I recently was told that it has been granted for other students in my program by their sites and was agreed upon during their entry into the externship for the year. But I will see if time can be spent during other tasks when I apply next year. Thanks again

 

[temppsych123]

Ah, well then yes - lots of programs allow you to do externships that vary in length and can be agreed upon in advance with the training supervisor at that site. My program actually didn't have any "default" length requirements for externships - some were 2 days a week for 12 mo, some 3 days a week for 9 mo, some full-time over the summer, etc etc etc. So yes, it's certainly possible for sites to agree to take you for a shorter period of time, if known up front.

 

[Justanothergrad]

I've known folks who negotiated only half a year at a given placement. Again, do it up front. If you have the hours and feel comfortable in therapy for where you are in your development of skills and want to spend the time finishing your dissertation, no one would blame you. Or if you reduced your workload from 20 hours to 10 hours a week, that would be another way to do it. It all depends on you and the site if the program doesn't have default limits on time. If your program is ok with it, I would discuss it with your DCT/advisor and explain your rationale and what you think it will do for your training. See what they think and go forward as you plan.