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Internship
Programs | Postdoc
Programs | Consortia APPIC
MEMBERSHIP CRITERIA:DOCTORAL PSYCHOLOGY INTERNSHIP PROGRAMSCriteria
revised May, 2006
Clarification revised January, 2008 Internships
that are accredited by the American Psychological Association or the Canadian
Psychological Association are recognized as meeting APPIC doctoral membership
criteria. All others must meet all of the following criteria (i.e., 1 through
16 below) and are reviewed for adherence to the criteria every three years.
EDUCATIONAL NOTE: A program's adherence to APPIC membership criteria does
not guarantee that the trainees in the program will meet individual state, provincial,
or territorial licensing requirements. - A psychology internship
is an organized training program which, in contrast to supervised experience or
on-the-job training, is designed to provide the intern with a planned, programmed
sequence of training experiences. The primary focus and purpose is assuring breadth
and quality of training.
Clarification:
The
organization of an internship program is evident in a clear:
- statement of the goals and objectives of the training activities.
- description of the plan, location, and sequence of direct service experiences.
- description of the training curriculum; i.e., the content, duration,
and frequency of the training activities.
- description of
how the psychology training program is integrated into the larger organization.
For programs with multiple sites, the services rendered by interns,
the supervision offered, and the training director's involvement is clearly described
at each site.
- The internship agency has a clearly designated
doctoral level staff psychologist who is responsible for the integrity and quality
of the training program. This person is actively licensed, certified, or registered
by the State Board of Examiners in the jurisdiction where the program exists,
and is present at the training facility for a minimum of 20 hours a week.
Clarification:
The internship is administered by a
doctoral level licensed (certified or registered for independent practice) psychologist
who:
- directs and organizes the training program
and its resources.
- is responsible for selection of interns.
- monitors and evaluates the training program's goals and
activities.
- documents and maintains interns' training records.
- The internship agency training staff consists
of at least two full time equivalent doctoral level psychologists who serve as
primary supervisors and who are actively licensed, certified, or registered as
a psychologist by the Board of Examiners in the jurisdiction where the program
exists.
Clarification:
"Full time equivalent"
typically refers to 40 hours/week. However, there may be a range of hours that
qualify as "full time equivalent" depending on the norms of the program.
35 hours/week is the minimum that will qualify for "full time equivalent"
for APPIC member programs. "Full time" for interns could also be set
at 35 hours/week if this meets licensure requirements in your jurisdiction. APPIC
believes supervisor expectations should be similar to intern expectations.It
is expected that interns receive supervision during the year from at least two
different supervisors. Interns' primary clinical supervision and role modeling
must be provided by psychologists on the program's staff who are licensed (certified
or registered) for independent practice at the doctoral level and who are:
- officially designated as psychology intern supervisors.
- significantly involved in the operation of the training
program.
- Intern supervision is provided by
staff members of the internship agency or by qualified affiliates of that agency
who carry clinical responsibility for the cases being supervised. Regularly scheduled
individual supervision is provided by one or more doctoral level licensed psychologists,
at a ratio of no less than one hour of supervision for every 20 internship hours.
Supervision is provided with the specific intent of dealing with psychological
services rendered directly by the intern.
Clarification:
Supervisors need to be clearly designated by the agency as clinically responsible
for the cases (for example, countersigning documentation or having their name
on the treatment plan or case summary). Depending on clinical needs, increased
hours of supervision are expected. The required hours shall be through face-to-face
individual supervision (rural sites may use visual telecommunication technology
in unusual circumstances and when face-to-face supervision is impractical, but
must demonstrate that such technology provides sufficient oversight). Programs
shall adhere to all requirements of their state licensing boards.
- The internship provides training in a range of psychological assessment
and intervention activities conducted directly with recipients of psychological
services.
Clarification:
Internship training
in Psychology is primarily based on experiential learning which:
- provides psychological services directly to consumers in the
form of psychological assessment, treatment, and consultation.
- exposes
interns to a variety of types of psychological services and consumers.
- At least 25% of trainees' time is in face-to-face psychological
services to patients/clients.
- The internship must
provide at least two hours per week in didactic activities such as case conferences,
seminars, in-service training, or grand rounds.
Clarification:
The Psychology training program should have scheduled didactic experiences
available to meet the training needs of their interns. Didactic activities
refers to actual training opportunities and should include training activities
beyond Intern Case Presentations.
- Internship training
is at post-clerkship, post-practicum, and post-externship level, and precedes
the granting of the doctoral degree.
Clarification:
Interns must have completed adequate and appropriate prerequisite training
prior to the internship. This would include both:
- completion
of formal academic coursework at a degree-granting program in professional psychology
(clinical, counseling, school), and
- closely supervised experiential
training in professional psychology skills conducted in non-classroom settings.
- The internship agency has a minimum of two interns
at the predoctoral level of training during any training year. These interns must
be at least half-time (i.e., 20 hours per week). The minimum number of interns
must be on site and in training at the time of the initial application for APPIC
membership.
Clarification:
The intention
of this criterion is to allow opportunities for personal (face-to-face) interaction
with peers in formal settings in the training program and on the training site
during each training week. Part-time internships must ensure that intern schedules
sufficiently overlap to allow substantial and meaningful peer contacct.
- The internship level psychology trainees have a title such
as "intern," "resident," "fellow," or other designation of trainee status.
- The internship agency has a written statement or brochure which
provides a clear description of the nature of the training program, including
the goals and content of the internship and clear expectations for quantity and
quality of the trainee's work. It is made available to prospective interns.
Clarification:
Internship programs must make available
descriptions of their training program which give their applicants and interns
a clear understanding of the program in terms of:
- the
program's training goals and objectives.
- the program's training
methods, content, and curriculum (for example, required rotations, sample weekly
schedules, or available training seminars).
- the program's
training resources (e.g., training/supervisory staff, physical facilities and
training equipment, clerical support, etc.)
- the sites at
which training and services are provided. For programs with multiple sites, clear
descriptions are given for each site of services rendered by interns, supervision
offered, and involvement of the training director.
Clarification: APPIC must
be notified in writing of substantive changes to the training program (personnel,
placements, etc.) that have the potential to impact quality of training or which
substantially alters the advertised training experience. The training program
is likewise responsible for maintaining an up-to-date and accurate description
of the program in the APPIC Directory.
- Internship
programs have documented due process procedures that describe separately how programs
deal with (1) concerns about intern performance, and (2) interns' concerns about
training. These procedures include the steps of notice, hearing, and appeal, and
are given to the interns at the beginning of the training period.
Clarification:
Due process procedures describe how an agency
deals with intern deficiencies and how the interns' handle grievances with the
training program. The documentation would include:
- description of formal evaluation and complaint procedures.
- the
program's and intern's responsibilities and rights in the process.
- the appeal process.
- a description of procedures
if interns have grievances about their training or supervision.
Programs
need two written policies: (1) Due Process and (2) Grievance Process. The procedures
must be specific to the internship training program; reliance on a more general
HR policy is insufficient. Both procedures should be provided to interns at the
commencement of training. Due Process is a written procedure that comes
into use when an intern's behavior is problematic. (The use of the term "impaired"
is discouraged because if one identifies an intern by that term, legal issues
having to do with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) could be invoked.)
Due process must include three elements: Notice (i.e. the intern must be notified
that problematic behavior has been identified and that the internship is addressing
the problem); Hearing (i.e. the program must have a formal process by which the
identified problematic intern has an opportunity to hear concerns and to respond
to the concerns); and Appeal (i.e. the intern must have an opportunity to appeal
the actions taken by the program in regards to the identified problematic behavior.
The appeal should extend at least one step beyond the Training Director). A
Grievance Procedure is a process that is invoked when an intern has a complaint
against the training program. The procedure should include specific steps an intern
takes in the complaint process and be broad enough to cover any and all complaints
that may arise for interns (e.g. complaints about evaluations, supervision, stipends/salary,
harassment, etc.)
- The internship experience (minimum 1500
hours) must be completed in no less than 9 months and no more than 24 months.
Clarification:
Internships may be conducted on a full
or part-time basis. Only School Psychology programs will be accepted for 9-10
month internships.
- APPIC member programs are required
to issue a certificate of internship completion, which includes the word "Psychology,"
to all interns who have successfully completed the program.
- At
least twice a year the internship program conducts formal written evaluations
of each trainee's performance.
Clarification:
The written evaluation process provides comprehensive evaluative feedback to doctoral
psychology interns as follows:
- The evaluation provides
summary information of performance in all major competence areas that are a focus
of internship training.
- Interns have the opportunity to
review their evaluation with supervisors to ensure the fullest possible communication
between supervisors and interns.
- Evaluation procedures provide
feedback that validates trainees' achievements by noting areas of unusual strength
and excellence and facilitate trainees' further growth by identifying areas that
would benefit from additional training.
- The program provides
the doctoral psychology intern's graduate training director with feedback concerning
the intern's progress in the internship program.
- The
program has the necessary financial resources to achieve its training goals and
objectives. Intern stipends shall be reasonable, fair, and stated clearly in advance.
Unfunded internship positions are allowable only in unusual and infrequent circumstances.
Clarification:
APPIC requires internship positions
to be equitably funded across the site. Intern stipends shall be set at a level
that is representative and fair in relationship to the geographic location and
clinical setting of the training site. Unfunded or poorly funded internship positions
are allowed only in unusual and infrequent circumstances in which the creation
of such a position would serve to alleviate a hardship for the potential intern
candidate. Examples of such hardships may include geographic limitations due to
family circumstances or difficulties finding suitable placement. In such cases,
the "burden of evidence" lies with the program to demonstrate that the
lack of funding does not adversely affect morale or quality of training. In addition,
training resources should be sufficient to afford the same training for an unfunded
or poorly funded position as for fully funded positions.
The payment
of a stipend is a concrete acknowledgment that a trainee in the agency is valued
and emphasizes that the primary task of the year is educational in nature. Stipends
are generally lower than a salary received by a regular employee and implies that
there is a significant training component in addition to experiential learning.
Stipends are equal among trainees unless there is an extenuating circumstance
(e.g., specialized skills, consortia agreements). This distinction between trainee
and regular employee emphasizes that an internship is "an organized training
program, in contrast to supervised experience or on-the-job training."
GRANDPARENTING PROVISION: Programs that are current APPIC members on the date
of implementation of this criterion, but do not meet the criterion or clarification
on that date, must request an exception at the time of each membership renewal.
An exception may be granted if the program demonstrates that they have made reasonable
efforts to secure funding and describes its plan to obtain future funding in order
to meet this criterion. Frequently
Asked Questions About APPIC's Stipend Requirement Note:
APPIC membership criteria are approved by a vote of the APPIC membership and appear
above in bold type. Clarification information is approved by the APPIC Board of
Directors. 8 February 2008 | |
