I. Psychology Practicum Students

Psychology practicum students have recently found training and employment in a large variety of university and community placements, include a number of psychology private practices. In order to protect the public, a number of restrictions are placed on both practicum students and their employers:

1. Practicum experience must include supervision by a licensed psycholoigst with Mental Health Provider status

    

2. The actual deliverer of psychological services must be clearly identified to the client and all billing for those services. Practicum students sent to hospital settings to provide testing or therapy services shall identify themselves to clients as supervised student therapists. Billing for psychotherapy sessions conducted by practicum student therapists should state the following:
   • Treatment provided by _______________________________, Psychology Practicum Student _______________________________, Ph. D. Supervising Psychologist
     Similarly, psychological testing reports should be signed and billed:
   • Test administration by ______________________________, Psychology Practicum Student ______________________________, Ph. D. Supervising Psychologist

II. Students Not Enrolled in Psychology Practicum

Students who perform well in practicium placements are frequently offered employment under "non-psychologist job titles" such as counselor or therapist. The Board has consistently been questioned concerning the legality of such employment. The crux of the issue is that psychology students are not credentialed by the Board may not function as psychologists unless enrolled in a psychology course practicum [or internship] with approved supervision by a licensed psychologist. Should psychology students accept employment in fields related to psychology it should be clear to all parties (student, employer, employer's employer (e.g., hospitals, treatment facilities) clients, third party pay sources) who is delivering the services, and the nature of the services provided. A number of procedural safeguards may be used:

1. Psychological testring may not be done by a student who is not credentialed by the Board or who is not currently enrolled in a psychology practicum
2. If the conditions of employment specify a master's degree (or higher) in a mental health related field and if student's training is in psychology and if the activities of the employment are within the practice of psychology, then the person's activities are within the regulatory authority of the State Board of Psychology and the student must be credentialled by the Board.
3. Non-credentialed students who are employed under "non-psychologist job titles" may not administer psychological tests nor may they participate in the provision of services that are provided or billed as psycholgoical services.
4. No licensed or certified psychologist may bill or allow his/her employing organization to bill as psychological services, work done by students or others working under "non-psychologist job titles". Credentialed psychologists are responsible for clearly identifying to the client and on all billings for services rendered who provides the services and what services are delivered.
5. No work done by those with "non-psychologist job titles" (e.g., interviewing, handing out objective test materials) may be billed as psycholgical testing.

Note: The impact of this Board guideline is that students who intend to sit for the Psychological Associate certification must follow these guidelines. Students who intend to sit for the Professional Counselor certification must be supervised by an "approved supervisor" as defined in KRS 335.500(4).

Practicum Hours Record and Weekly Activity Report Recommendations

In the long run, attention to practicum hours details will save you weeks of stressful labor. The Association of Psychology Postdoctoral and Internship Centers (APPIC) has adopted a standardized application form. A part of the application form contains definitions of practicum hours, which apply to the Practicum Hours Data spreadsheet. Another part of the APPI form requires very detailed information about practicum experience.

An EDP alumnus has developed a practicum hours preadsheet for recording and for reporting on practicum hours. The practicum hours record form has two separate Excel spread sheets. The first file contains the practicum hours spread sheet for two semesters worth of practicum hours. (We believe that with some modest practice, you will be able to work with the column headers to reflect the "semester and the week".) The second file contains a weekly narrative spread sheet. Most of the headers are those which we have found to be useful in completing the APPIC application forms. We suggest that you use this weekly narrative spreadsheet on a weekly basis.

In an effort to clarify some of the categories on this form, we have the following rubrics for coding: "Extended Intake" (1a); "All Psychological Assessment" (3a); "Phone Intake" (3c); "Therapist debriefing after observation" (3c); "Observing and providing feedback to therapist" (4c); "Observing a session only" or "Videotape watching only" (Miscellaneous). Usually "direct experience can be reported in Sections 1, 2 and 3.

We suggest you use the "Save file as" and put the cnpsweekly.xls on your desktop. From this safe vantage point you can make copies of this important record.

Briefly, the spread sheet is set up for 21 columns as follows:

• the first column of the spread sheet follows the categories on the APPIC form. The category headers are bold and follow the outline of the APPIC form;
• the second column is entered by the student at the beginning of the semester and is the "previous cumulative total site hours". Usually, this column will contain the value "0". However, when a student is continuing at the site for a second semester, this column will contain the total site hours from the previous semester;
• the third column is the total practicum hours for the semester.
• the fourth column is the total practicum hours for the site. As you enter the data for each week, the spreadsheet formula sums the hours in columns three and four. Et voila!
• the fifth through 21st columns are the data entry fields.

With practice, you will learn how to place the cursor on the correct cell and click on "Windows|Split" to freeze the spreadsheet headers.

To print the first four columns, follow this sequence:

1. highlight cell A1
2. hold down the Shift key and the Right Arrow key
3. scroll over to cell D1
4. pull the cursor down to highlight the form
5. select Print
6. answer the Print What question with Selection
7. print the Practicum Hours Spreadsheet