Ethical Behavior During Internship

[EKG11]

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Suggestions/feedback would be greatly appreciated! What do people recommend doing about unethical behavior from other interns? Examples include, collecting data and using it for a presentation (outside of the agency) without IRB approval, implying that they were eligible for a state license when they were not, not showing up for meetings, etc. Other interns and I have addressed it directly with the intern but it seems to be continuing.

 

[docma]

If you have spoken directly to the intern about it then your next step is to address it with your supervisor and/or training director. I assume it is impacting your training experience in some way or that of the cohort and that topic is always a fair topic for discussion with those who oversee the training and usually a good place to start in exploring the issue.

 

[Therapist4Chnge]

It may be worth letting the DCT of your university program know about the situation. I'm sure your internship site will address it appropriately, but in the small chance they don't, you'll want someone else to know what is going on so nothing comes back to you later.

 

[Therapist4Chnge]

Was there ever any resolution to this issue?

 

[futureapppsy2]

^
He/she may not know. I recently learned that third party reporters of potential ethical violations (at least to training programs, not sure about boards) have no right to know anything about the outcome of the situation, including if the behavior was indeed found to be an ethical violation, much less how it was dealt with. I also think that reporting students/trainees in particular can engender upset in some cases, as it has the potential to reflect poorly on the training program and in extremely serious cases, could potentially jeopardize accreditation. There are situations where you definitely should report (particularly if the bx has the potential for client harm and attempts to informally resolve the issue with the person in question [per APA ethical guidelines, which say attempts at informal resolution should come first, if at all possible] have been unsuccessful), but there's not a lot of rights or protections for third party reporters, which can make an already extremely difficult situation even more so and probably discourages reporting to some degree. It's definitely not a enjoyable position to be put in, although it does probably make sure that no third parties take reporting lightly.

 

[SingingCow]

Hypothetically, would it be even more challenging when an intern recognizes a need to report coworkers who are in a different discipline, or the agency at large? For example, if you are at a CMHC and you realize that your agency's policy has indirectly violated the ADA. You have talked to your supervisors and the director but they fail to make any attempts to address the issue. Certain clients are "harmed" because service delivery is delayed or disrupted. What will you do? (This is 100% hypothetical. I have never been to a CMHC before, much less working at one.)

^
He/she may not know. I recently learned that third party reporters of potential ethical violations (at least to training programs, not sure about boards) have no right to know anything about the outcome of the situation, including if the behavior was indeed found to be an ethical violation, much less how it was dealt with. I also think that reporting students/trainees in particular can engender upset in some cases, as it has the potential to reflect poorly on the training program and in extremely serious cases, could potentially jeopardize accreditation. There are situations where you definitely should report (particularly if the bx has the potential for client harm and attempts to informally resolve the issue with the person in question [per APA ethical guidelines, which say attempts at informal resolution should come first, if at all possible] have been unsuccessful), but there's not a lot of rights or protections for third party reporters, which can make an already extremely difficult situation even more so and probably discourages reporting to some degree. It's definitely not a enjoyable position to be put in, although it does probably make sure that no third parties take reporting lightly.