Internship Hours

[Rivi]

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Hello everyone,

Quick question: I haven't been keeping track of my specific practicum/externship hours like I should be doing. I know how many hours I have, but I don't have too many specifics on the types of clients, etc. How much should I be worried about this? (I will be applying for internship in 2 years).

 

[KillerDiller]

I was unclear from your question whether you know the breakdown of your hours and are simply lacking client info, or whether you only have a total number for hours spent on site. So, for example, do you have an idea how many supervision hours you had? How many hours were you working with individuals? Did you document no-shows and cancellations to get an accurate count? How many hours were spent running groups? How many hours in support activities?

If you have the answers to the above questions down, I'd say that thinking back and remembering the demographic information about your clients is much easier than trying to go back and reconstruct how you spent your time on site. I'm not sure whether the APPIC application asks for the demographic information directly, but better safe than sorry.

 

[erg923]

Hello everyone,

Quick question: I haven't been keeping track of my specific practicum/externship hours like I should be doing. I know how many hours I have, but I don't have too many specifics on the types of clients, etc. How much should I be worried about this? (I will be applying for internship in 2 years).

The worried part is up to you....but yes, you do need this information for your APPI application (age range, race, setting, and what kind of work you did with them...therapy, intake, assessment, etc.).

You also should be documenting hours you spend doing your clinical support activities such as, progress note and assessment report writing, scoring, what assessments you have given, how many integrated reports you write, and the number of hours of supervision your accumulating. Its all required for the APPI.

Do yourself a favor and use www.time2track.com. My schools pays for our subscription, but even if yours wont, its well worth it I think.

 

[Neuropsych2be]

The worried part is up to you....but yes, you do need this information for your APPI application (age range, race, setting, and what kind of work you did with them...therapy, intake, assessment, etc.). You also should be documenting hours you spend doing you clinical support activities such as progress note and assessment report writing, scoring, what assessments you have given, how many integrated reports you write, and the number of hours of supervision your accumulating. Its all required for the APPI.

Do yourself a favor and use www.time2track.com. My schools pays for our subscription, but even if yours wont, its well worth it I think.

Let me second time to tract as a wonderful program. It is worth every penny.

 

[psybee]

ok, another internship hours question--on the internship listserve, i'm always hearing folks refer to the # of Horus they have (1000, 1200, 1600). are they likely talking about direct service hours or combined direct/indirect? thanks!!!

 

[KillerDiller]

ok, another internship hours question--on the internship listserve, i'm always hearing folks refer to the # of Horus they have (1000, 1200, 1600). are they likely talking about direct service hours or combined direct/indirect? thanks!!!

It's anyone's guess what they are referring to, since a lot of people don't specify (and some don't even bother to differentiate these two concepts in their own tracking, grr). Ideally clinical contact hours represent the more important number. However, if students are reporting far over 1000 hours, I'd say it's more likely they are talking about total hours.

 

[erg923]

I had an adviser recently tell me that "well, the hours reportd are just flat out lies and the internship programs know this." I think thats too strong a statement, but Im sure the tendencey is to round up rather down when documenting an activity (since there is little, if any, true oversight of hour reporting), so I am quite certain hours are somewhat inflated....on average.

 

[teo3099]

.

 

[Therapist4Chnge]

I posted an e-mail from the APPIC list serv in another thread that addressed the "hours" concern, and the basic take away message was to seek out quality experiences and not to worry too much over getting the "minimum" requirements of a site. It seems to have gotten out of hand in the past few years, and more often isn't better. I reviewed applications this year and I honestly didn't look much at the hours as long as they were over the minimum. I *did* however look at the populations treated, assessment experience, the number of integrated reports written, and dissertation status. Sites can have different expectations, so take my example as N=1, but I think the trend to discount the relevance of total # of hours isn't an isolated approach amongst internship sites.

 

[Ollie123]

Now I'd heard one interesting thing from a friend heading off on internship the other day that I found a bit baffling.

APPIC asks for a lot of demographic information (sex, sexuality, race, etc.), and seems to have some very nuanced specifications for different "kinds" of face-to-face hours. However, are you REALLY not required to report what it was you were actually seeing the clients for? Obviously in some cases this can be inferred (i.e. substance use clinic...probably seeing clients for substance use) and will presumably be captured in essays, interviews, and the like. However it seems baffling to me that there isn't something in place to try and capture what the presenting problem was and what sort of range in "presenting problem" you are seeing. Am I wrong in this? Not that I'm unhappy about it since I planned to specialize pretty heavily anyways, but it seems so bizarre I had to ask. I always just assumed there was some place on the form to make sure that you had seen clients with MDD, GAD, etc. just to make sure you had all the basics covered.

As for time2track, I just started using it. Its helpful but I'm afraid I can't give it the rave reviews that others have. I'm not convinced it does anything that an Excel spreadsheet on a flash drive couldn't. I find the limitation on client codes infuriating given the sheer volume of people I see and while I understand the desire to protect confidentiality I think there must be a better solution. Not to mention that personally, I feel that responsibility should be on the individual grad students to not be stupid and enter the client's name as the ID, rather than an artificial limitation imposed by the design. Similarly, I find their system for tests to be terrible. They don't track by date so if you aren't positive whether you entered something there is no way to check, lack of filters, the list goes on.

My programming background has made me pretty picky when it comes to things like this so take my views with a grain of salt. My usual marker is "If I had the time, could I design and program a better system myself as someone with few resources and little formal training". The answer in this case is an unequivocal yes, which leads to me getting incredibly frustrated when something I'm paying for doesn't do things I want it/need it to. I just started using it so I'm going to give it a shot, but I may be back to my excel spreadsheets after my subscription expires.

 

[Therapist4Chnge]

I made my own excel spreadsheet to match up with the APPIC app, though my individual pt. data was aggregated from prior logs from my sites. In retrospect I should have built a second page for individual patient data and connected it over to my demographic information. Maybe if I get bored I'll do that and sell it to future applicants.

 

[minichka2004]

Hello everyone,

I have a question about APPIC hours log sheets 😕. I am post back student and I have had 3 semesters of practicum already. I have kept excel sheets with basic information about clients (adults, children, etc), format (individual, group, etc), supervision (individual or group), assessments, outreach and overall support activities. I didn't include such demographic information as sex, sexuality and race . I didn't specify hours I spend doing clinical support activities such as progress notes, psychosocial reports, consultations, conferences etc. 🙁 I just indicated the overall number of hours I spent on support activities.

My supervisors signed my log sheets and never said that something was missing 🙁 What can I do now? I have access to all the officially registered data in the on-line format (the Counseling Center Software) which I can print at my current prac site. I may try to restore records at the site I was in my first year, but it will be very difficult.

Is there any way that I can make an addendum or redo the logs provided that all my supervisors theoretically they will be able to sign the logs (not sure that they will agree)?

I would appreciate your advice!

Thanks a lot in advance,

 

[psydtobe]

*I POSTED THIS IN ANOTHER THREAD*but i was wondering can i count the hours i did during my practicum for my MA degree? it would not fall under my current doctorate program , but i wonder could it give me an advantage in terms of experience?

 

[erg923]

no

 

[psydtobe]

no

darn...thanks

 

[Therapist4Chnge]

Having prior training from another degree may be helpful to list on your CV, but you cannot count those hours on the APPIC form.

 

[psyman]

*I POSTED THIS IN ANOTHER THREAD*but i was wondering can i count the hours i did during my practicum for my MA degree? it would not fall under my current doctorate program , but i wonder could it give me an advantage in terms of experience?

I'm not sure why other's are telling you no, but on the APPIC form there is a spot for terminal master's degree hours accrued. So...yes.

 

[erg923]

I'm not sure why other's are telling you no, but on the APPIC form there is a spot for terminal master's degree hours accrued. So...yes.

Because sites wont count that experience in their required hours. APPIC and sites have been very clear that the total number of practicum hours they require only counts DOCTORAL hours.

 

[psyman]

Because sites wont count that experience in their required hours. APPIC and sites have been very clear that the total number of practicum hours they require only counts DOCTORAL hours.

The poster made clear they understood the hours wouldn't "fall under their doctoral program" hours. So, the hours are counted and are a part of your APPI. What the sites do with them varies, but that goes for even the doctoral hours (how each site interprets/values your doctoral hours).

All things being equal, listing your terminal master's hours on your APPI cannot hurt...and like I said, there is a specific area for it.

 

[Zigman]

The poster made clear they understood the hours wouldn't "fall under their doctoral program" hours. So, the hours are counted and are a part of your APPI. What the sites do with them varies, but that goes for even the doctoral hours (how each site interprets/values your doctoral hours).

All things being equal, listing your terminal master's hours on your APPI cannot hurt...and like I said, there is a specific area for it.

This is true. My current practicum placement also has an accredited internship. I'm told by one of the training faculty that they just started giving credit for terminal MA hours from the APPI on applications to their site.

 

[Existenz]

The clinical TD at your school is able to select whether or not they can validate your masters hours when they certify yourc appic application

 

[AcronymAllergy]

The clinical TD at your school is able to select whether or not they can validate your masters hours when they certify yourc appic application

I would imagine this is the biggest obstacle to listing master's hours on the APPIC, yep. Given that your TD has to sign off on the numbers, he/she will decide if they get on there.