Perspectives on practicum: A survey of directors of accredited PhD programs and internships (or, what is a practicum hour, and how many do I need?).

Directors of American Psychological Association (APA)-accredited graduate training programs in clinical psychology and APA-accredited internships were surveyed regarding preinternship practicum requirements, definitions of practicum experience, and supervision practices. A striking degree of variability in the number of required hours was found for both samples. There was unanimous agreement within each sample that direct contact with clients should be considered practicum experience. Most respondents indicated that individual supervision counted as practicum. Beyond these 2 categories, there was considerable disagreement as to what should be considered practicum experience. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)