Tips for internship year

[PhDMiss2014]

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Some of us are getting ready to begin our internships over the next few months. To all of those that have already been through internship year, do you have any advice that will help us to make the most of internship year? Pitfalls to avoid?

It's becoming more and more real as the weeks progress and I admit to feeling a bit of anxiety over what the next year will hold for me.

 

[neuronic]

1) Don't be afraid to say no when asked to do things that will overload your schedule
2) Expect a lot more autonomy and independence
3) Enjoy!

 

[PHD12]

Some of us are getting ready to begin our internships over the next few months. To all of those that have already been through internship year, do you have any advice that will help us to make the most of internship year? Pitfalls to avoid?

It's becoming more and more real as the weeks progress and I admit to feeling a bit of anxiety over what the next year will hold for me.

Use those time management skills. Capitalize on those 5-10 minute breaks you will have in between patients. You can churn out a good enough session note in 5-7 minutes. From my experience, supervisors are not going to evaluate you on your session notes as long as they are passable.

Don't let a fear of evaluation impact your natural style as a therapist. You should have a good amount of training by now so there is no need to alter your style completely to please your supervisors. Be open to learning, but don't be passive when you don't agree with something.

 

[Therapist4Chnge]

1. Sit down with your DCT to discuss your goals, THEIR goals for you, and what you'd like to get out of your training year. Sites can really vary w. how much they tailor the experience to you. I felt very fortunate to have active and involved supervisors, but this isn't always the case.

2. It goes quickly, so make sure to take your vacation time, mind your self-care, and take advantage of any training opportunities that may help you down the road. I attended a ton of "brown bag" didactics across various departments during my intern year, and I found it informative and also a nice way to get to know the day to day things other colleagues are seeing.

3. Post-Doc/Fellowship application time can vary greatly, so know when you nee to start thinking about getting LORS, etc. Neuro usually goes first (Nov/Dec to early Jan apps are submitted), but many other openings don't start getting posted until the Spring. Your post-doc/fellowship plans should be an on-going conversation with your DCT and supervisors.

4. Enjoy your outside of work time. I moved to a new part of the country, to a new city, etc. I didn't have much time or money...but I still did a lot of local things and tried to take in some of the culture. Being able to decompress like that made the work week much more manageable.

 

[HomeworkHelper]

This is more common advice, but really try hard to get as much of your dissertation done as possible. You will NOT like working after hours or on weekends on your dissertation, believe me. Also, no one mentioned this to me, but you will very likely be EXHAUSTED the first month of internship due to getting adjusted. Don't plan on getting much outside work done that month. My fellow interns and I were fine during the day, but after work crashed or could only do non-work, leisure activities. After that first month, I noticed a big change and had much more energy after work.

 

[JeyRo]

3. Post-Doc/Fellowship application time can vary greatly, so know when you nee to start thinking about getting LORS, etc. Neuro usually goes first (Nov/Dec to early Jan apps are submitted), but many other openings don't start getting posted until the Spring. Your post-doc/fellowship plans should be an on-going conversation with your DCT and supervisors.

Wanted to echo this point in particular. I think I otherwise handled internship year well, but I missed an opportunity to end up doing a postdoc at my internship site, mainly because I didn't bother until very late in the game to starting talking up this possibility with my supervisor. It was a missed opportunity because he basically told me he was suprised I hadn't spoken with him about it earlier, and he ended up offering it to someone else. I ended up at a quality postdoc in the end at another site, but I would have preferred to stay where I was.

 

[Therapist4Chnge]

5. It is a pretty small community out there, so make sure to stay in contact with former supervisors/mentors because they may be able to help guide you to a great match and/or might know someone at one of your prospective sites. My current (at that time) and former mentors were instrumental in my getting interviews where I did, as they reached out and contacts sites/friends/colleagues on my behalf.

 

[clinpsychjack]

1. Sit down with your DCT to discuss your goals, THEIR goals for you, and what you'd like to get out of your training year. Sites can really vary w. how much they tailor the experience to you. I felt very fortunate to have active and involved supervisors, but this isn't always the case.

I've thought a bit about goals for internship, enough to get through the internship application and interview process successfully, but I'd be curious to hear what others goals are/were for internship. We have an interim DCT right now, who's just trying to get used to the position, and our regular DCT is on sabbatical and is very hands off, so I don't have opportunities to sit down and discuss this with either of them. (In fact, I don't think it's even crossed their minds to sit down with students to discuss this sort of thing.)

I imagine there are goals I've not thought of yet, that may be particularly valuable. Thanks in advance to anyone who can share their thoughts on this!

 

[Pragma]

Get your dissertation done first. Makes life much easier!

Aside from postdoc applications and anxiety about postgraduation life, internship year was by far the easiest year for me in the entire grad school/postdoc experience.

 

[PhDMiss2014]

Thank you for all the helpful advice. This forum has been an invaluable resource the past year in guiding me through the perils and pitfalls of applying for internships and ultimately obtaining an internship. I'm sure I'll be back often for advice, especially regarding post doc and really value your input on this.

Right now I'm deep in revisions for my dissertation. I had hoped to defend in early May, but that has been pushed back to June due to revisions. I can understand why it is important to have that done before internship. I really don't know how I would find the time to work on it with the busy schedule I'm anticipating over the next year. I do hope to have time to explore my new city and know that if I'm still working on my dissertation my time will be limited.

Again, thanks for all the responses and helpful information !