The internship crisis: Graduate students look back and plan ahead.

Abstract

The internship is an integrative training experience and the capstone of doctoral training for developing professionals (Madson, Hasan, Williams-Nickelson, Kettmann, & Van Sickle, 2007). The imbalance between supply and demand of internships is an increasingly critical problem in professional psychology and one that the American Psychological Association of Graduate Students (APAGS) is committed to resolving with all stakeholders. This paper will provide a brief overview of the problem, summarize the efforts of APAGS to address the issue since its last article on the internship crisis (Madson et al., 2007), and provide a framework by which APAGS will continue to address the internship crisis-an issue we have defined as one of the most critical facing psychology graduate students today.Although systemic data collection was not underway at the time, it was suspected that the number of applicants outweighed the SHANDA R. WELLS earned her doctorate in clinical psychology from MidWestern University. She is currently a behavioral health psychologist at the Departments of Pediatrics and Psychiatry, University of Wisconsin working in integrated care with a dual appointment in pédiatrie and adolescent medicine and psychiatry. In addition to training and education, her research and clinical interests include integrated health care, primary care behavioral health and pédiatrie obesity.

“The Worst Experience of My Life”: The Internship Crisis and Its Impact on Students

“…APPIC maintains a database of internship sites and commissions the online internship application and computerized internship match systems. The internship has been transformed in structure and function in a variety of ways over the decades, but remains a predoctoral experience intended to integrate accumulated knowledge with service provision (Madson et al., ; Wells et al., ).…”

“…The effect of the disparity is far‐reaching, with not matching leading to financial, personal, and professional costs (Wells et al., ). Unmatched applicants may be delayed from entering the workforce, become disillusioned by the field (Miville, Adams, & Juntunen, ), and/or choose to accept positions at unaccredited, and potentially unfunded, sites.…”

“…APPIC, APA, American Psychological Association of Graduate Students (APAGS), and other organizations within psychology have made statements regarding the negative effect of the internship crisis on the profession and on individual students (Baker, McCutcheon, & Keilin, ; DeAngelis, ; Wells et al., ). APAGS, in particular, has been instrumental in raising awareness, providing possible solutions and collaborating in efforts to address the internship crisis (Wells et al., ).…”

“…APPIC, APA, American Psychological Association of Graduate Students (APAGS), and other organizations within psychology have made statements regarding the negative effect of the internship crisis on the profession and on individual students (Baker, McCutcheon, & Keilin, ; DeAngelis, ; Wells et al., ). APAGS, in particular, has been instrumental in raising awareness, providing possible solutions and collaborating in efforts to address the internship crisis (Wells et al., ). Belief in the critical need to address the crisis is also present among professionals in the field; one survey of training directors and interns indicated that, even a decade ago, 84% of internship training directors and 88% of interns surveyed thought there were too many doctoral students being trained, and nearly half of all training directors and interns named the crisis as the “single most important professional issue” (Robiner, Ax, Stamm, & Harowski, , p. 277) facing the field.…”

2015 American Academy of Clinical Neuropsychology (AACN) student affairs committee survey of neuropsychology trainees

“…Whereas there have been surveys of psychology graduate students focusing on particular issues, such as student debt, the internship match results, and the internship crisis, among others (e.g. Association of Psychology Postdoctoral & Internship Centers, 2015a; Wells et al, 2014), the lack of broad-based surveys of trainees in neuropsychology suggests that important concerns and issues may be overlooked within our specialty. Numerous issues may potentially affect trainees from first-year doctoral students through advanced postdoctoral trainees, including financial problems, internship/fellowship match selection and availability issues, supervision/training issues, mentoring, and satisfaction with training.…”