Congrats!!! You have officially matched with your internship placement for next year and that means one more stressful process cannot be taken off your long to-do list before graduation. But just like other portions of your graduate school career, the actual internship can be stressful. As clinicians we teach our clients a variety of coping skills to manage stress and instruct them to engage in self-care activities. However, we usually don’t take our own advice and I know this has been a personal struggle for be during my internship placement. That is why for the month of June the Friday Factoids are going to focus on how to survive your internship while not only growing as a professional, but also having fun at the same time.
There are a variety of articles online that give tips on how to have a successful internship and most of these articles incorporate the same aspects. Tartokovsky (2016) composed a list of “8 Tips for a Successful Internship.” Some of the tips from this were to learn as much as you can during internship, because you will most likely have a chance to do things you have never done before. Something new you learn on internship may even become your specialty in the future. Other tips discussed were talking with staff members and getting to know your cohort. Internship can be stressful at times and you are going to need people to talk to both at work and in your personal life.
As I near the end of my internship placement, I got to thinking about things I did over the last nine months to ensure internship would be a memorable experience. So over the next few weeks, I am going to show you some things I did as an intern that kept me calm including creating friendships, going on lots of Starbucks runs, and wearing unicorn shirts and headbands throughout the hospital. Yes, you read that correctly unicorn shirts because sometimes you need to a good laugh when things get stressful (There is picture proof this happened).
References:
Tartakovsky, M. (2016). 8 Tips for a Successful Internship. Psych Central. Retrieved on June 8, 2018, from https://psychcentral.com/lib/8-tips-for-a-successful-internship/
Anissa Pugh, MA, LPA
WKPIC Doctoral Intern