All students are required to complete a one-quarter, 100-hour, advanced clinical practicum experience. Practicum consists of site-based counseling experiences, as well as weekly supervision, and coursework.
You are required to participate at your field site throughout the duration of your enrollment in practicum, regardless of when you complete the required hours for the experience. Participation includes at least 1 hour of supervision with your Walden-approved site supervisor (see Site Supervision) and at least 1 direct or indirect hour for each week of the quarter.
Practicum (one term) requires the completion of at least
Note: You cannot “bank” extra practicum hours for internship. CACREP standards do not allow for excess hours accumulated during the practicum to be counted toward the 600-hour internship.
You are required to keep a daily record of practicum hours in the Meditrek® Time Log. You are encouraged to enter hours in Meditrek® every day, and all hours for the week must be entered in Meditrek® by Day 7 of each week of the quarter. Hours must be entered on the date corresponding to the date on which they were earned. You cannot log practicum hours prior to earning them. Daily time log entries must be approved by both site and faculty supervisors to count toward field experience requirements. Detailed information and instructions for the Meditrek® time log are available in the Meditrek® Student Guide.
Note: Direct service hours include those that use graduate-level counseling skills with actual clients. Direct service hours that are not of a counseling nature or not at the graduate level should be logged as "Other Indirect Hours” on the Meditrek® time log.
You are required to participate in a 2-hour faculty group supervision videoconference with your classmates and faculty supervisor during each week of enrollment in field experience, for a total of at least 15 hours during each quarter.
Note for International Students: Like all students in field experiences, international students are required to participate in weekly videoconference group supervision. You will need to plan accordingly for any time zone differences.
You are required to participate in at least 1 hour of supervision with your Walden-approved site supervisor during each week of enrollment in practicum, for a total of at least 10 hours for each quarter. It is strongly recommended that supervision be scheduled for the same day and time each week. The Walden-approved site supervisor must perform the weekly supervision for the hours to count toward the required supervision hours.
Site supervision must be:
Note: If you see clients during the break weeks in between quarters, you must have weekly supervision from the Walden-approved site supervisor to count those direct hours.
You will be responsible for scheduling a site visit teleconference between your site and faculty supervisors during each term of enrollment in practicum. During the call, your supervisors will discuss the results of your mid-quarter evaluation and consult on any other needs related to your practicum experience.
Note: If you are working with more than one site for practicum, you must schedule a site visit with the Walden-approved site supervisor at each field site.
The following evaluations are required for each quarter of enrollment in practicum:
Note: Students working with more than one site for a field experience are required to be evaluated by the Walden-approved site supervisor at each field site.
The field experience courses consist of discussions, quizzes, skills demonstrations, and application assignments, similar to other courses in your program.
Note: Submitting any work for course assignments that has already been submitted for prior courses is considered plagiarism and will result in an academic integrity violation.
You will be required to submit video recordings of two full-length client sessions in practicum at designated points in the quarter. Each recording has specific requirements, and you should refer to the classroom instructions for guidance and associated due dates. Video recordings must occur during enrollment in the field experience course. Recordings that occurred prior to enrollment (for example, in a previous term if you are repeating the course) cannot be used to fulfill this requirement.
The client session video recordings should be reviewed in your weekly on-site supervision sessions. This approach allows you to identify areas of progress and areas of needed improvement in a timely manner as well as to receive instruction from your site supervisor to assist with the counseling process. The client session recordings must be submitted in the classroom by the due dates indicated on the syllabus so the course instructor can provide additional feedback.
If you are at a site where video recording is not possible or where submission of recordings cannot be made to the Walden University classroom, you will be required to submit the site’s recording policy to your field experience faculty supervisor who will provide you with the alternative assignment. You are expected to be knowledgeable of the recording requirements and inform your site of the recording requirements as part of the interview process.
Informed consent documents for recording purposes must be completed for all session recordings. You can either use site-based recording informed consent documents or templates provided in your field experience classroom at the discretion of the site supervisor.
Notes: