Externship hours

[auro]

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I'm a doctoral student in the NYC/NJ area. The DCTs here have been having discussions about limiting the number of hours students spend on clinical externships to 2 full days or no more than 16 hrs/week. It seems the recent trend has been for students to work many hours on externships at the expense of research and coursework. I've definitely noticed this and some externship sites seem to rely too much on free labor to staff their clinics.

I'm curious to hear about experiences in other parts of the country. Have students similarly been doing more externships, maybe in reaction to the increasing competition for internships? Have any other programs limited the hours students can spend on clinical externships? And are externships generally unpaid in other areas like they are here?

 

[erg923]

unpaid mostly. 16-20 hours for most of ours. Mine is 20, but ends up being more like 25-26/week really.

 

[KillerDiller]

Because my program places us at pre-approved sites, I guess you could say they cap our hours by virtue of being selective about sites. We work about 14-20 hours our first two pracs. By the time we hit advanced prac I believe we can work up to 24 hours if necessary.

I would add, though, that from what I hear 20 hours are definitely not created equal across all types of sites. You could nearly die doing that at some places, or barely get any face-to-face time at others.