The quest for an internship: Four students' perspective.

Abstract

What are students' experiences in applying for internships? Although the preponderance of recent internship literature addresses marketplace issues and competitive strategies, narratives of the applicants' experiences have been largely absent. Using an interpretive approach, 4 recent internship applicants reflect on the process of applying for internships as it contributes to the development of becoming a psychologist. The authors highlight 3 values of professional practice-community, respect, and authenticity-that can inform the dialogue of internship reform and suggest practical implications for student applicants, internship training directors, directors of clinical training, and the Association of Psychology Postdoctoral and Internship Centers. Stedman (1997) described the internship applicants' process as a "quest for the internship holy grail" (p. 479). Yet, in 22 years of articles, conferences, and books published on the internship process, very few studies have focused on the phenomenology of that quest from the viewpoint of the applicants. Current discussions of the predoctoral internship application and selection experience tend to focus on two interrelated issues: (1) the disparities between supply and demand and the subsequent anxiety, competitiveness, and even despair of students pursuing an internship (e.g., Constantine & Keilin, 1996;Constantine, Keilin, Litwinowicz, & Romanus, 1997;Gloria & Robinson, 1994); and (2) strategies for success that are targeted toward prospective internship applicants

Applying for the predoctoral internship: Training program strategies to help students prepare.

“…The Preparation for Applying to Internship Survey (PAIS) is a 45-item questionnaire constructed for this study that was designed to gather information related to the internship application process. Specifically, based on our review of the literature, we wrote items to capture specific aspects of the application process, such as information about the APPIC Match process, developing application materials, and interviewing (Albin, Adams, Walker, & Elwood, 2000; Braun, Madson, & Green, 2004; Madson, 2002; Mellott et al, 1997; Williams Nickelson & Prinstein, 2004). Items were answered through either a Likert-type, five-point scale from (1) strongly disagree to (5) strongly agree (items 1–35), yes or no (items 36–43), or multiple choice (items 44 and 45) responses.…”

What we know about predoctoral internship training: A 10-year update.

“…The current review revealed only two. Albin, Adams, Walker, and Elwood (2000) introduced a postmodern element into the study of the application process. They used an “interpretive” approach to discern themes emerging from narratives produced by intern applicants during the application process.…”

The graduate student viewpoint on internship preparedness: A 2008 council of university directors of clinical psychology student survey.

“…A student's failure to match can result in profound financial and emotional consequences. For instance, the total monetary cost for students to apply for internship and travel to on-site interviews is, on average, approximately $1,700 (Albin, Adams, Walker, & Elwood, 2000). If students are unsuccessful in the Match, not only will they have expenses associated with applying and interviewing again, but they will also have to pay an additional year of tuition in order to stay enrolled within their current doctoral program.…”

“…Furthermore, the existing studies that examined internship-related issues from the graduate student perspective have each narrowly focused on single topics: the supply and demand issue (Madson, Hasan, et al, 2007) and the internship application and selection process (Albin et al, 2000). Further, these studies have taken a qualitative rather than quantitative approach and sampled only a handful of students.…”

“…It remains unclear, however, whether students believe they are receiving adequate training and mentorship to prepare them for internship. Student perceptions are valuable for a variety of reasons including (1) the internship application and Match process directly affects them in terms of their finances, emotional well-being, training, and career and, therefore, they have a vested interest in ensuring that graduate programs are providing students with the best possible preparation; (2) students have unique insight into the process given that they themselves go through it; (3) students are in a unique position to highlight specific actions graduate program training directors can take in order to reduce their anxiety and improve their sense of internship preparedness; (4) to date, there are several existing studies examining the perceptions of graduate program and internship training directors (e.g., Ko & Rodolfa, 2005; Rodolfa et al, 1999; Stedman, 1997; Tipton, Watkins, & Ritz, 1991) but only a small number of published reports examining internship-related issues from the perspective of graduate students (e.g., Albin et al, 2000; Madson, Hasan, Williams-Nickelson, Kettman, & Van Sickle, 2007); (5) considering the perspectives of graduate students in addition to those of graduate program and internship training directors allows for a comprehensive approach to addressing these perplexing issues; and (6) although the perspectives of graduate program and internship training directors are clearly very important, in some cases they may not reflect the current status of the internship application and Match process given that these evolve over time.…”