VA Internship Competitiveness

[leylablue]

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Hi! I’m looking for some advice on how to increase my competitiveness for internship over the next year. I’m currently a 4th-year student planning to apply for internship next fall, primarily to generalist tracks at VA sites. I plan to apply broadly and expect to have approximately 570–580 intervention hours and around 150 assessment hours by the time I apply. About 160 of the intervention hours and 20 of the assessment hours will come from my current VA placement, with the remainder coming from a community care setting. I am not really sure how many hours I will get during 5th year before apps are due.

Do you think these hours and experiences would make me competitive for VA internships? If not, are there things you would recommend doing over the next year to strengthen my application?

By the time I apply, I expect to have two VA experiences on my CV from my 4th and 5th years of training. This year I am in a BHIP placement, and I’m hoping to secure an inpatient practicum opportunity at a VA for my 5th year.

Thank you for any guidance you might have!

 

[AcronymAllergy]

You should be able to find some other threads via search from the relatively recent past about internship competitiveness, some of which may specifically speak to VA internships. That said, it seems like you're on the right track. The prior VA experience will definitely be a plus. Just try to get in whatever additional hours you can, and if you don't have any publications and/or presentations, do what you can to get some of those on your CV between now and when you apply.

 

[Sanman]

Not sure of the caliber of VA you are shooting for as they vary widely. Your site selection will matter more than anything else at this point.

Make sure you have a decent number of integrated reports with those assessment hours and also get whatever relevant experiences you can before application time.

 

[leylablue]

Not sure of the caliber of VA you are shooting for as they vary widely. Your site selection will matter more than anything else at this point.

Make sure you have a decent number of integrated reports with those assessment hours and also get whatever relevant experiences you can before application time.

Thank you! I am wondering what a decent number of integrated reports is. I have 11 now. Some of the assessments at the VA do not count as integrated since I did not include a cog measure or two personality measures (I normally only use one MMPI or MCMI). Also, some of my assessment comes from running participants with schizophrenia for research so no reports are involved, but we do psychodiagnostic testing with the participants.

 

[Sanman]

Thank you! I am wondering what a decent number of integrated reports is. I have 11 now. Some of the assessments at the VA do not count as integrated since I did not include a cog measure or two personality measures (I normally only use one MMPI or MCMI). Also, some of my assessment comes from running participants with schizophrenia for research so no reports are involved, but we do psychodiagnostic testing with the participants.

You should be alright with 11 if you are not assessment/neuropsych focused. I have seen too many folks in recent years with good assessment hours and only 1-3 integrated reports.

 

[leylablue]

You should be alright with 11 if you are not assessment/neuropsych focused. I have seen too many folks in recent years with good assessment hours and only 1-3 integrated reports.

Thank you!

 

[WisNeuro]

You should be alright with 11 if you are not assessment/neuropsych focused. I have seen too many folks in recent years with good assessment hours and only 1-3 integrated reports.

Do you still see people with a crazy number of integrated reports, but when you look at the measures they have administered, the math ain't mathing?

 

[RxPsych]

Do you still see people with a crazy number of integrated reports, but when you look at the measures they have administered, the math ain't mathing?

I saw this when we were reviewing applications. It was not uncommon to see the integrated reports align closely to the number of screening measures (PHQ or GAD most commonly). I think it would be helpful for APPIC to provide specific examples of what should not be considered an integrated report, because I have a feeling that certain programs do not inform their trainees of this. Of course, applicants could look at the definition and decide for themselves, but I have a feeling it is applied quite loosely.

 

[Sanman]

Do you still see people with a crazy number of integrated reports, but when you look at the measures they have administered, the math ain't mathing?

There are definitely those folks as well. The pandemic really did a disservice to assessment education overall and I have had to review some very basic aspects of assessment for interns and post-docs since 2020. A lot programs phoned in the numbers and passed people along.