SOC-OFE Doctoral Students - Field Experience Manual:

Doctoral Practicum Application Requirements

The doctoral practicum 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 practicum.

The practicum 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.

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.

Practicum Application Worksheet

The Practicum Application Worksheet must be completed with your proposed site supervisor. It provides the site supervisor with an overview of the doctoral practicum requirements, and you will use the information contained within the document to help you complete your practicum application in Meditrek®. We highly recommend that you schedule a time to meet in person or virtually with your proposed site supervisor to go over this information together to ensure that you gather all the required materials at once. Please do not just email the form to your site supervisor and ask them to complete it. It is your responsibility to complete the form and then submit your application in Meditrek®, but you will need input from your site supervisor to gather the necessary information. The Practicum Application Worksheet is available for download on the SOC-OFE website.

Professional Liability Insurance

You are required to obtain professional liability insurance prior to beginning a field experience and to maintain active professional liability insurance throughout the duration of the field experiences. 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 must 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 insurance coverage and must show coverage as a counseling student (mental health or school, depending on your program).

Walden University 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 Practicum Application Worksheet. It is imperative that the information in the Practicum Application Worksheet 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.