5 Ways to Maximize Hours at Externships
Graduate clinicians need 375 direct contact hours (in addition to their coursework) in order to graduate. That may not sound like a lot to obtain across a 5-semester graduate program, after all, most people work 40+ hours a week. However, it can be difficult to get these hours! Graduate clinicians are busy people, so, they must find a way to maximize hours at externships. Here are 5 ways to do that!
What counts as direct contact?
First, let’s review what clinicians can count as direct contact time. Time spent completing evaluations, screenings, and direct treatment all count. Clinicians can also count time spent in meetings AS LONG AS the client/caregivers are present AND the clinician is actively reporting evaluation results, treatment plans, progress, etc. This is considered advising, educating, and training caregivers and clients.
❌ Activities such as planning, paperwork, and asynchronous therapy CANNOT be counted as direct contact time. ❌
How do you count contact time?
The American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA) says that clinicians can only count time spent directly treating or evaluating. They may NOT round that time up. For example, a 27-minute session can only be counted as 27 minutes, not rounded up to 30 minutes.
Also, clinicians can only count the time of each encounter, not the number of clients. For example, if they have a group of 3 clients for 60 minutes, the clinician can only count 60 minutes in total for that encounter.
5 ways to maximize hours at externships
- Go as much as possible!
Obviously, the more you are on-site, the more opportunities you will have to work directly with clients. Clients cancel and often reschedule. If a student limits themselves to specific days and time bands, they will miss the makeup sessions. - Start early and end late
Most programs have mandatory dates on site but graduate clinicians can usually start earlier and/or stay later in the semester. We strongly encourage students to do this so they can work around unexpected things like illness or client cancellations. - Take the site’s holidays
All universities have holidays built into the semester. Externship sites will also have holidays built into their calendar. Not surprisingly, some sites will have more than others. For example, schools will have several holidays while a hospital may not have any. When possible, take the site’s holidays instead of the university holiday so you can continue to see clients. - Work with other supervisors
Multiple supervisors can supervise a graduate clinician as long as they meet the ASHA supervision requirements. During downtime, ask to work with clients under other supervisors. - Go extra days
Clinicians will typically have set days and time bands in which they are onsite. If necessary, rearrange your schedule so you can go in extra days and times in order to get additional experience.
Do the math
Getting the hours needed to graduate is a simple math equation. As the clinician comes to the end of their program and they are scrambling for hours- add up the number of hours needed to get to 375 and divide by the number of weeks remaining. That is the number of direct contact hours the clinician should strive for each week. The clinician should do everything possible to be onsite to get those hours!
What do you do to maximize hours at externships? Let us know in the comments below ⬇️