Internship Nightmare

[Division12]

Hello all, I'll keep this as succinct as possible.

I am currently at an internship site with only two interns. The other intern is the worst possible fit for this site and is planning to leave. She has several degrees and a past career in hospital administration. She has begun to apply for jobs and is hiring a lawyer to look at our internship contract. She has no desire to continue working in psychology and is willing to not complete the degree in order to leave the internship.

I'm horrified and panicking about what this means for me. It is my understanding that an internship site cannot be an internship site with only one person. So my question is, what does this mean for me? Will my internship not count if she leaves?

I've e-mailed my dissertation chair as well as our director of internships and am waiting on their response.

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[thewesternsky]

"It is my understanding that an internship site cannot be an internship site with only one person."

Not entirely true... Although for an internship to apply to be part of the APPIC match, that internship must have at least two interns. That said, there are plenty of non-APPIC internships with only one intern. Even if your site is APPIC and APA-accredited, I would not panic yet. Emailing your DCTs was a good idea. Wait for their response and practice good self-care in the mean time.

Is your site an APA site? I'm Canadian, so hopefully people with more specific knowledge of APA requirements can jump in.

 

[OneNeuroDoctor]

A similar situation happened with a student in my cohort. The other intern quit and just left without telling anyone due to personal reasons. The other intern continued and finished and a new intern began midway and overlapped with the next cohort.

Don't worry as this happens. You may not be aware but she could have done something wrong already and be on a remediation plan.

Sometimes interns have to take a personal leave of absence and then start back up later when things are resolved.

If it is an APA accredited site they will be able to fill the slot easily.

This happens and sometimes intern supervisors leave midstream and only one supervisor is available until new staff are hired. APA COA allows some flexibility in these exceptional cases and your supervisor just needs to keep APA COA informed of the changes.

 

[AcronymAllergy]

I'm not positive, but I'd imagine that the >1 intern situation comes into play more for the application for accreditation side of things. If this is an isolated incident, I don't think the APA is going to come in and just immediate yank accreditation. They and/or APPIC might place them on probation or something similar, though.

But I'd have to actually delve into the various regulations to be sure.

 

[OneNeuroDoctor]

I see that NC Department of Corrections just advertised 2 slots for 2014-15 cohort.

I remember that APPIC has a system to provide resources for interns being able to complete their internship at a different site when emergencies happen. A number of years back, California discontinued funding most of the State supported internships and it affected a large number of interns. I believe it happened in New York too. Katrina affected a bunch of interns in New Orleans and they were able to finish up at different sites.

You have no control over other interns so just make sure you are doing good work.

 

[docma]

It is stressful to endure this but try to mindfully keep some distance from the other intern's life course. APPIC/APA definitely work with interns and internships who face situations like this and your site will not lose accreditation because of the actions of a single intern. There is a "problem resolution" resource on the APPIC page you can look into and your site may need to make use of that resource...but basically, I would focus on what you can be learning from other professional staff and your supervisors and cases and steady on with the daily work and looking ahead to post-doc.

 

[MCParent]

Will my internship not count if she leaves?

You have to have two slots, but I don't think you need to have two interns every year. People can get sick, pass away, reneg on the appic contract, etc. I don't think that alone is a problem. I'd also have a hard time seeing a legal process go fast enough to have significant consequences for you (other than maybe people at the site will be stressed out).

 

[463951]

If it is an APA accredited site they will be able to fill the slot easily.

How would that work if the internship has already started? Also, you said sometimes interns take a personal leave of absence and then come back. That is not relevant to the OP's situation. The OP stated that the other intern is definitely on her way out, and gave many examples of how this is not a "leave of absence" (e.g., other intern is looking for jobs, hired a lawyer, wants to leave the field).

 

[erg923]

How would that work if the internship has already started? Also, you said sometimes interns take a personal leave of absence and then come back. That is not relevant to the OP's situation. The OP stated that the other intern is definitely on her way out, and gave many examples of how this is not a "leave of absence" (e.g., other intern is looking for jobs, hired a lawyer, wants to leave the field).

His posts are often filled with extraneous "educational" information or biographies. Sometimes accurate, often not.

 

[463951]

His posts are often filled with extraneous "educational" information or biographies. Sometimes accurate, often not.

So I've noticed.