Practicum hours calculating question for Appic

[tchibur]

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I'm looking for some clarification on how some programs inform you to calculate assessment hours. Can anyone provide some insight on how you would calculate the follow doctoral level hours?

Let's say you conduct a clinical interview (1 hour) and then administer a MMPI-2. When you track your hours in time to track or whatever way you track your hours, how would you code your time?

Would you put the 1 hour interview as an intake interview or as 1 hour of assessment?

If the MMPI-2 took you 10 minutes to explain and the client took 1.5 hours to complete, would you list 10 minutes towards assessment or would you list 1.6 hours of assessment?

Please tell me what you would do, as advised by your training director!

 

[AcronymAllergy]

My DCT didn't particularly care how we coded things; he essentially took our word for it so long as it sounded reasonable.

If the appointment is one geared toward assessment (e.g., a neuropsych eval), I'd count the entire time (clinical interview included) as assessment hours. I could be remembering incorrectly, but I don't recall there being separate sections on the APPIC application for interviews vs. assessment; there's just intervention and assessment. Thus, a clinical interview = assessment hours, at least in your example (and in my opinion).

For the second situation, the entire appointment counts as assessment time if you were in there face-to-face with the patient. Again, at least in my opinion.

You didn't mention it in your example, but what I would NOT do is then round the 1.5 or 1.6 hours up to 2 hours when calculating assessment hours. I'd keep them all as you have--to the first or second decimal place--and then, after I'd added up ALL of the assessment appointments/hours, I'd round the final number up or down accordingly. Otherwise, with each MMPI-2 you administer, you're essentially padding your application by a half-hour of assessment that didn't actually occur.

 

[WisNeuro]

I saw it that way too AA. If I was doing a npsych eval, it was all assessment. If I was doing a clinical interview before beginning therapy, then that was an intake.

I agree mostly with the calculating of hours in your second part, with a caveat of therapy. Many places do 50 minute sessions. I count that as an hour of therapy. Assessment hours I counted as in, although I believe we always rounded to the nearest quarter of an hour. I didn't use Time to Track though, kind of a waste of money if you just take about 30 minutes to make a good spreadsheet.

 

[G Costanza]

I couldn't find where appic states it is okay to count the intake but they do note that the feedback session is coded as assessment. That's how I counted my hours.