SOC-OFE Doctoral Students - Field Experience Manual:

Doctoral Internship Application Requirements

The doctoral internship application is extensive and requires information and documentation from your field site as well as documentation that you will complete on your own. It is imperative that you start the application process early to submit your application during the published application window for the quarter in which you intend to complete the internship.

The internship application consists of several checklist items, all of which need to be completed to submit the application. See the Meditrek® Student Guide for detailed application submission instructions.

Before starting a doctoral internship application, review the doctoral internship requirements in Section 4. Participating in Field Experience. Helpful information about applying for the doctoral internship is also available on the SOC-OFE website.

Some of the Meditrek® checklist items are documents that will need to be completed outside of Meditrek® and uploaded into your Meditrek® field experience application. Required documents are available for download on the SOC-OFE website

Internship Learning Agreements

All students will need to submit a COUNSELING Internship Learning Agreement and Supervision Contract for Internship I. You will need to submit an Internship Learning Agreement for any non-Walden field site that you intend to work with during Internship II and III. You will work with your site supervisor (Internship I) or site contact (Internship II and III) to complete the Internship Learning Agreement for upload to your Meditrek® application. The Internship Learning Agreement is available for download on the SOC-OFE website.

Notes: Internship Learning Agreements are NOT required for the Teaching or Supervision experiences that are ssigned to all students for Internship II and III, nor are they required for any Walden in-house internship experiences you might secure to fulfill the additional hourly requirements of Internship II and III.

There are two different Internship Learning Agreement templates. One is used only for experiences in the Counseling domain (COUNSELING Internship Learning Agreement and Supervision Contract) and the other is for non-Walden experiences in any of hte other domains. See the SOC-OFE website for required documents.

Professional Liability Insurance

You are required to obtain professional liability insurance prior to beginning a field experience and to maintain active professional liability insurance thrroughout the duration of the field expereinces. The professional liability insurance must meet the following requirements:

1. Coverage dates: The insurance plan must cover the entire quarter in which the field experience will occur. The dates must cover the duration of the field experience course(s).
2. Memorandum or certificate of coverage: This muct contain your name, address, date of the policy, coverage amounts, coverage type, and expiration date.
3. Coverage amounts: The plan must cover a minimum of $1 million per incident and $3 million aggregate.
4. Coverage type: The coverage type must be clearly stated in the memorandum or certificate of insurnace coverage and must show coverage as a counseling student (mental health or school, depending on your program).

Walden Universtiy does not endorse any specific insurance company, and you are free to shop for a policy that fits the field experience liability insurance requirements. The most used insurance provider for counseling students is Healthcare Providers Service Organization (HPSO).

Note: You must secure your own professional liability insurance policy, regardless of whether you are covered by your field site's insurance policy.

Several application checklist items are online forms that you will complete right in your Meditrek® application. You will gather information needed from your field site to complete these online forms in the Learning Agreement. It is imperative that the information in the Learning Agreement exactly matches the information entered in your Meditrek® application. This includes, but is not limited to, site supervisor information, information related to provision of TMH and in-home counseling services, and your employment status with the proposed field site. Discrepancies will result in rejection of the field experience application and could result in a delay of the field experience.