Application Process

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The psychology internship program at Samaritan Health Services abides by the APPIC and APA standards, policies and selection procedures. Samaritan Health Services is an equal opportunity employer and it is the policy of Samaritan Health Services that all employees are able to work in a setting free from all forms of unlawful discrimination, including harassment, on the basis of race, color, religion, gender (sex), national origin, age, sexual orientation, gender identity, disability or retaliation. Additionally, our program strongly values diversity and this value is explicitly reflected in multiple areas of the internship including efforts to recruit and retain diverse interns and staff members, create an inclusive and affirming work environment, and effectively train interns to skillfully navigate individual and cultural diversity issues within all aspects of their professional lives. To learn more about our program policies, please review our program manual.

Internship applications must be submitted through the online APPIC system by Nov. 4, 2024. All complete applications are retrieved from the APPIC service by the director of clinical training and presented to the selection committee. This committee is comprised of core supervising staff. The selection committee reviews each application to determine its overall qualification.

Two Components of Our Selection Process

1. Selection of Interns

The selection process is based on a committee based rating of applicants’ qualifications. Those qualifications are evaluated utilizing the following criteria:

• Be in good standing with their clinical, neuropsychology, health psychology program (copies of transcripts must be submitted for review).
• Have been admitted to doctoral candidacy/submission of an approved dissertation topic to the intern’s dissertation committee.
• Have a breadth of previous clinical experience, with more weight given to those at an advanced level. Requirements include a minimum of 1000 total practicum hours. For the health psychology track, 50 hours of assessment experience and 350 hours of direct intervention experience is required. For the neuropsychology track, 250 hours of assessment experience and 15 completed comprehensive neuropsychology reports is the minimum requirement.
• All comprehensive exams must be completed by the ranking deadline.
• Three letters of recommendation are required, with at least one of them from a clinical practicum supervisor.
• A letter of interest is required, including:
  • Demonstrated evidence of multi-cultural psychological knowledge and/or interest, or proposed contribution to program based on ethnic diversity and cultural competence from personal experience.
  • Description of distinguishing characteristics, accomplishments and maturity that separate the applicant from their peers.
  • Commentary on “goodness of fit” with the described program.

2. Interview Process

Qualified applicants are invited to an interview.  For the deadline of Nov. 4, 2024, all interviews for the 2025-2026 internship year will be held virtually. This is scheduled over a half-day period and involves the applicant selecting a AM or PM half-day option where they meet internship program staff and supervisors, participate in an interview with program supervisors and are able to ask questions of their own regarding the program. Those not chosen to interview are notified by letter/email regarding this decision as soon as the decision has been made. 

The internship program follows a policy of selecting the most qualified candidates and adheres to principles espoused by APPIC as well as APA.

Interns are rank-ordered based on their interest in the program’s stated clinical services and population served and the above listed criteria. The application review process is made as objective as possible by utilizing a 10-point scale for rating prospective interns under four categories: intern application; professional and academic endorsements; clinical interest and training experiences; and education. The internship program described here agrees to abide by the APPIC policy that no person in this training facility will solicit, accept, or use any ranking-related information from any intern applicant.

During the onboarding period, interns are required to complete a pre-internship health assessment (which includes a drug screen) and obtain required liability coverage prior to the first scheduled clinical rotation. Interns will be provided with a training contract and details regarding compensation and benefits.