Seeking advice about current externship

[LeavesFromTheVine]

Hi all. I am seeking advice about my current externship situation. I am a second-year student at my first externship, a neuropsych site in NYC that is operating remotely for the foreseeable future. The externship started on 9/1. I have not yet been officially onboarded and have not started clinical work in any capacity. We meet weekly for a few hours for didactics, research reviews, case presentations, internship Q&As, etc. There are no other weekly externship activities. The original estimate for when we'd start clinical work was end of September/beginning of October. That was about a month ago, and there have been no updates as to a new start date. When I ask for updates, the supervisors say they are working on it, but that it will take time. They assure us that we will be really busy once things start up. They seem to care a lot about their externs and want to help us use our time effectively during this waiting period.

I'm finding it hard to keep faith that the situation will work itself out. I feel like I am falling behind. I came into my program with relatively little clinical experience, and only gained a bit working in our college counseling center as a first-year student. It's hard not to compare myself to others in my cohort, who came in with more clinical experience and have been actively seeing clients at their therapy-focused sites for two months now. Soon, I'll have to start working on externship applications again, and I won't have any new experience to talk about. My applications will be largely identical to the ones I submitted last year.

Should I hang in there, trust my supervisors, and hope for the best? Should I start looking for side opportunities to gain clinical hours while I wait to start at my current site? Should I start thinking more seriously about jumping ship completely? I'd only leave if I had somewhere to go, and I don't actually want to think seriously about leaving. But, I am feeling increasingly anxious about the situation. I can't just do nothing in the face of this seemingly indefinite delay. So, I am posting here. Any advice would be much appreciated. Thank you in advance.

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[PsyDuck90]

Have you talked to your DCT about what they think? They should be able to give you some guidance of how to proceed.

 

[PsychPhDone]

Hi all. I am seeking advice about my current externship situation. I am a second-year student at my first externship, a neuropsych site in NYC that is operating remotely for the foreseeable future. The externship started on 9/1. I have not yet been officially onboarded and have not started clinical work in any capacity. We meet weekly for a few hours for didactics, research reviews, case presentations, internship Q&As, etc. There are no other weekly externship activities. The original estimate for when we'd start clinical work was end of September/beginning of October. That was about a month ago, and there have been no updates as to a new start date. When I ask for updates, the supervisors say they are working on it, but that it will take time. They assure us that we will be really busy once things start up. They seem to care a lot about their externs and want to help us use our time effectively during this waiting period.

I'm finding it hard to keep faith that the situation will work itself out. I feel like I am falling behind. I came into my program with relatively little clinical experience, and only gained a bit working in our college counseling center as a first-year student. It's hard not to compare myself to others in my cohort, who came in with more clinical experience and have been actively seeing clients at their therapy-focused sites for two months now. Soon, I'll have to start working on externship applications again, and I won't have any new experience to talk about. My applications will be largely identical to the ones I submitted last year.

Should I hang in there, trust my supervisors, and hope for the best? Should I start looking for side opportunities to gain clinical hours while I wait to start at my current site? Should I start thinking more seriously about jumping ship completely? I'd only leave if I had somewhere to go, and I don't actually want to think seriously about leaving. But, I am feeling increasingly anxious about the situation. I can't just do nothing in the face of this seemingly indefinite delay. So, I am posting here. Any advice would be much appreciated. Thank you in advance.

What does your DCT have to say about this?

 

[LeavesFromTheVine]

I have not talked directly with my DCT about it. My program has a practicum/externship director, who I've been in frequent communication with regarding my situation. She has been very sympathetic and has been working with my externship supervisor to ensure they have all of the information/documents required for onboarding. I reached out again today to ask if there's any update on her end and to communicate the thoughts/feelings I posted here. I imagine, though I may be wrong, that she will sympathize and then suggest a few things I could do, which would likely include potential options for supplemental clinical work and starting to look for an alternative site (realistically, this would end up being our college counseling center, where I worked last year mostly conducting intakes). I am definitely looking forward to her advice. I know that I will ultimately be tasked with deciding how I want to move forward. At this point, I'm not sure what I want to do.

 

[ExecutiveDysfunction]

I have not talked directly with my DCT about it. My program has a practicum/externship director, who I've been in frequent communication with regarding my situation. She has been very sympathetic and has been working with my externship supervisor to ensure they have all of the information/documents required for onboarding. I reached out again today to ask if there's any update on her end and to communicate the thoughts/feelings I posted here. I imagine, though I may be wrong, that she will sympathize and then suggest a few things I could do, which would likely include potential options for supplemental clinical work and starting to look for an alternative site (realistically, this would end up being our college counseling center, where I worked last year mostly conducting intakes). I am definitely looking forward to her advice. I know that I will ultimately be tasked with deciding how I want to move forward. At this point, I'm not sure what I want to do.

Your DCT is there to help with these kind of situations and can probably grease the wheel better than you can, if at all. Contact them yesterday. You’ve presumably been there since July.

On a broader note, I know there have been restrictions regarding on-site work for externs as they are often classified as volunteers, and volunteers are not essential personnel (this is what I’ve heard from admin, although training positions should be exempt IMO). But I encourage you to figure something out rather than waste more time. I imagine internships will be somewhat more forgiving for a few years given the circumstances, but they will expect you to have training experience.

 

[LeavesFromTheVine]

Your DCT is there to help with these kind of situations and can probably grease the wheel better than you can, if at all. Contact them yesterday. You’ve presumably been there since July.

On a broader note, I know there have been restrictions regarding on-site work for externs as they are often classified as volunteers, and volunteers are not essential personnel (this is what I’ve heard from admin, although training positions should be exempt IMO). But I encourage you to figure something out rather than waste more time. I imagine internships will be somewhat more forgiving for a few years given the circumstances, but they will expect you to have training experience.

Thanks for the feedback! I will definitely contact my DCT. I've been at the site since 9/1, with an acknowledged estimated start date of late Sep/early Oct for clinical work. So, from that perspective, it's only been about a one month delay (and counting...). When we do start working with patients, it will be fully remote. There's no information as to when it would shift to being on-site/in-person.

How bad would it be to leave the site for another externship opportunity, if I were to secure one? I don't want to burn bridges, especially with how tight the neuropsych community is in nyc. The site caters to older, more experienced externs; I think maybe they aren't as worried about it, as they seem to be focusing on internship applications and presumably already have various externship experiences. I feel badly for considering leaving, but it's starting to feel like I'm being naive in trusting them to work things out in a 'timely' manner.

 

[ExecutiveDysfunction]

How bad would it be to leave the site for another externship opportunity, if I were to secure one? I don't want to burn bridges, especially with how tight the neuropsych community is in nyc. The site caters to older, more experienced externs; I think maybe they aren't as worried about it, as they seem to be focusing on internship applications and presumably already have various externship experiences. I feel badly for considering leaving, but it's starting to feel like I'm being naive in trusting them to work things out in a 'timely' manner.

I wouldn’t jump to leaving yet, this year is weird. Talk to your DCT and see where that goes. Its possible they can figure something out and have some timeline that they haven’t revealed to you.

If nothing changes, along with your DCT, perhaps you could discuss with the externship site and express your concerns that you’re not getting clinical experience and come to a plan. You may end up leaving, or maybe staying on board and picking up a one day externship elsewhere, or something else. But most important in my opinion is transparency and frank discussion focused on your training goals with all parties.

 

[AcceptingUncertainty]

Your DCT should already have a plan of action regarding supplementing hours for situations like this.