Systems in Music Therapy: The Intern Check-Out System

Over the years that I have served as an internship director, I have had to come up with systems for various tasks. Today, I get to finish up the internship program of my 34th intern, so I thought I would share the system that I use to make sure that my intern gets all the things finished and to me and that I act in an ethical manner for the benefit of my intern.

One of the things that has always bothered me (even back in the dark ages of the last decade of the last century) is that the site evaluation has to be given to the internship director in-person. I have a bit of difficulty with the assumption that an intern will feel comfortable being honest with an internship director about corrections needed to the program. I have spoken to many interns who have stated outright that they do not feel like they can be honest during that process. As a result, I try my best to make sure that my intern knows that I cannot change anything on their paperwork when they give me feedback.

When I was on the AIAC, I found that others shared my discomfort about this situation, so we came up with the six-month post-internship site evaluation sent to all interns in their "Welcome to the Profession" packets applied for during the middle part of the internship. That evaluation allows the intern to give honest feedback to the committee rather than directly to the internship director. It strives to remove the power differential. I have no idea if AMTA still sends these out, but I really hope they do. It is important for interns to be able to discuss their internship experiences with the association without the knowledge of the internship directors.

I strive to make sure that my interns know that there was absolutely no way that I could change anything on their paperwork when they give me the site evaluation.

How do I do this?

Well, it involves post-it notes, envelopes, and a prohibition set upon myself. I start off, in my office, putting things together. Interns get three envelopes at the beginning of our last session together. The first envelope is addressed to our AIAC representative. On that envelope, there is a post-it with the required contents of that envelope. The envelope itself will be filled at the end of the entire process, but I have to use the post-its to keep track of where things go so I do not forget. There is another envelope for the academic director (with a post-it), and one last one for the intern.

I sit down, and hand all three envelopes to the intern. The intern is in charge of those envelopes from then on. I do not touch them. We then go over the self and ID evaluations. We sign them, and then I hand them to the brand new music therapist. Then, we print out the site evaluation, and we go over that. I touch the document to write my comments and then sign it, and then it becomes the responsibility of the new music therapist. We walk together to the copy machine where we have to use my badge to copy things, but I do not touch any of the documents except for the ones that I will need eventually (another post-it, of course!). The music therapist makes the required copies, stuffs the envelopes, and then we both go to the front desk where we put the paperwork in the mail out box and leave it. We finish off with the two emails that I have to send to the academic director and to CBMT, and then the newly minted music therapist leaves the facility for good!

After having done this with 33 previous interns, I have it down. I try my best to ensure that my interns know that I strive to be as ethical as possible in all things, but especially in this. I want them to feel comfortable with making suggestions about the program itself.

I have the evaluation finished. I have written the letter of recommendation. I have written the letters to our AIAC representative and to the respective intern's academic director. I have the envelopes started with their post-it notes. I have to print out everything this morning, start putting pieces with their respective envelopes, go to training, and then return to finish up this process with Intern #34. After we are finished, it will be time to go home, so I should be starting my fall break about three hours before I would usually get home on a Friday afternoon.

It is finally feeling like fall here, so I am going to try to enjoy the three-day weekend! Hope that you can find some enjoyment as well.