APA Policies, Procedures and Resources

Hours of Annual Paid Time Off  168 Hours accrued (21 working days)
Paid University Holidays  14 days
Professional Development Leave  5 days (for professional conferences or dissertation defense)
Compassionate Leave (associated with death of an immediate family member)  Up to 3 working days off.

Interns are strongly encouraged to plan on using annual leave for as much of the last week of July, as possible.  This block of time equals 5 business days.   This will allow interns to have enough time to transition to a new location and tend to a job start date.  Interns need to be mindful of the minimum 2000 hour internship requirement when considering how to use their annual leave. All leave requests must be approved by the Director of Counseling and will take into account clinical demands of the Center.

Administrative Policies and Procedures

Intern Rights

  1. The right to be in a safe working environment that is free from discrimination, hostility, and harassment. See the Office of Institutional Equity’s webpage detailing NMSU discrimination policies: https://equity.nmsu.edu/notice-of-non-discrimination/
  2. The right to be heard and treated with respect
  3. The right to be in a learning environment that is both challenging and supportive
  4. The right to be given feedback in a timely manner
  5. The right to know about the evaluation process & evaluative criteria
  6. The right to have supervisors and trainers that follow both the NM and APA legal and ethical codes
  7. The right to have supervisors who are sensitive to, and pursue knowledge, around legal and ethical issues related to working in a binational community
  8. The right to have supervisors and trainers that maintain current knowledge about supervision and training (including but not limited to: theory, research, and standards)
  9. The right to due process, grievance, and appeal

Additional Review:  If the intern is not satisfied with the results of a formal grievance procedure, or has other concerns with regard to Center operations, the intern may consult with the APPIC Standards and Review Committee (ASARC) to determine if the complaint falls under ASARC’s jurisdiction. More information can be found at the APPIC consultation page: https://www.appic.org/Problem-Consultation

Interns may also choose to consult and/or report a complaint to the American Psychological Association (APA) Commission on Accreditation.

The office can be reached at:

Office of Program Consultation and Accreditation
American Psychological Association
750 1st Street, NE, Washington, DC 20002
Phone: (202) 336-5979 / E-mail: apaaccred@apa.org
Web: www.apa.org/ed/accreditation

Expectations of Interns

  1. Follow university policies and procedures https://arp.nmsu.edu/
  2. Follow APA Ethical Principles of Psychologists and Code of Conduct as well as APA standards (http://www.apa.org/ethics/code/index.aspx; http://www.apa.org/news/press/releases/2010/02/ethics-code.aspx).
  3. Be aware of and follow Standards for Educational and Psychological Testing (AERA, APA, NCME); copies of this book are available for interns
  4. Follow applicable state and federal law:

(http://www.rld.state.nm.us/boards/Psychologist_Examiners_Rules_and_Laws.aspx

 http://www.cms.gov/HIPAAGenInfo/; http://www2.ed.gov/policy/gen/guid/fpco/ferpa/index.html).

  1. Follow the Center Procedures and Guidelines Manual
  2. Consult
  3. Be an active participant in your own training (i.e., in supervision, expressing training needs directly, open to learning