by Shona Vas, Ph.D., ABPP & Amy Silberbogen, Ph.D., ABPP, Association of Psychology Postdoctoral and Internship Centers (APPIC)
Drs. Shona Vas and Amy Silberbogen appreciated the opportunity to represent the Association of Psychology Postdoctoral and Internship Centers (APPIC) at the Clinical Science Training Summit and to have a seat at the table when discussing critical training issues that align with APPIC’s mission: “To facilitate access, foster development, and support implementation of quality education and training in Health Service Psychology.” The thoughtful formation of workgroups at the Summit addressed issues that are relevant to both doctoral and applied clinical training at the internship and postdoctoral levels. APPIC’s internship and postdoctoral member programs are diverse with regard to setting, focus, populations, and training opportunities. In addition, the students who are training in APPIC member programs represent a wide range of doctoral graduate programs, including clinical psychology, counseling psychology, school psychology, and other developed practice areas, as well as from both Ph.D. and Psy.D. granting institutions in the United States and Canada. According to APPIC’s most recent data from the past three Match cycles, students from clinical science training programs comprised 8.8% of the total sample of graduate students who entered the Match. Dialogues about systemic changes regarding internship and/or postdoctoral training need to occur at the national level where a broad and inclusive base of voices and interests will be represented as reflected in the membership of the Council of Chairs of Training Councils (CCTC), which also includes student representatives.
Both in advance of and during the Summit, we consistently heard that clinical science graduate students and clinical science doctoral training programs believe that internship sites consider the number of direct clinical hours to be a primary indicator of readiness for internship. Over the years, APPIC has made repeated efforts to communicate that the actual number of hours is one of the least important aspects of an application from the perspective of internship sites. Internship Training Directors (TDs) use application materials to assess students’ competencies related to readiness for internship level training, including but not limited to: compatibility of an applicant’s learning goals with the internship’s offerings, previous experience in similar settings, assessment of the student’s competencies as described in letters of reference, perceived cultural competence, capacity for self-reflection and expression as evidenced by written materials, and academic productivity and its implications for success at the site. APPIC reiterates that the total number of clinical hours is only one of many variables considered during internship application review, and APPIC will continue to strive to disseminate these data in order to alleviate student anxiety about hours and to ensure doctoral programs are advising students optimally.
APPIC conducts annual surveys of internship TDs to obtain their perspectives on issues related to internship training. We recommend that readers review the most recent survey results from 2022 to learn more about the factors described above and the concept of “fit” for TDs. The APPIC Directory is another important source of data regarding the requirements for internship sites. In the 2022 Directory, approximately 3% of internship programs specified a minimum number of direct clinical hours greater than 500. Thus, the vast majority of programs are using lower and reasonable hours requirements as a screening criterion, along with several other factors related to readiness for internship and goodness of fit. A conversation about hours also necessitates highlighting the widely embraced goal within the field to operationalize minimum competency levels as distinct from clinical hours. APPIC is in support of this long-term objective to identify indicators of demonstrated competency and preparedness for internship. APPIC is contributing to this initiative by facilitating discussions on our listservs and in our community calls, and by inviting collaboration during our annual liaison meetings attended by representatives from various training councils and other interested parties. In addition, APPIC’s AAPI Coordinator and former Board member, Dr. Kimberly Hill, leads the CCTC Standardized Reference Form workgroup in an effort to enhance the focus on assessment of competencies related to internship training.
The APPIC Board looks forward to continued conversations with all relevant groups involved in health service psychology education and training. We consider ourselves to be partners with doctoral programs as we support psychology interns in making the transition from graduate student to independent entry-level psychologist. Systemic changes and reform at all training levels (doctoral, internship, or postdoctoral) will require coordinated collaboration with other training councils, students, and accreditation and regulatory bodies. APPIC remains committed to contributing to an inclusive and respectful environment in which these discussions occur.
Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this newsletter are those of the authors alone and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the Psychological Clinical Science Accreditation System (PCSAS).