APPIC Membership Conference Portland, OR – April 17-18, 2009

1. APPIC Membership ConferencePortland, OR – April 17-18, 2009 Competency Problems: Managing Performance, Attitudinal, Ethical and Legal Issues with Interns and Postdoctoral Fellows

2. Presenters: IPR Consultants • Jeff Baker, PhD: Former APPIC Board Member and CoA Chair • Sharon Berry, PhD: APPIC Chair-Elect • Karen Taylor, PhD: APPIC Vice-Chair • Eugene D’Angelo, PhD: APPIC Board Secretary • Mona Mitnick, JD: APPIC Board/Public Member

3. Informal Problem Resolution • Informal process • Students, Training Directors, Graduate Training Directors, Faculty • Alternative to ASARC: formal complaint process • Average: 100 consultations/year

4. Disclaimer • Information in this presentation is not exhaustive or definitive, and is intended to provide practical guidance. It represents only the individual views of its members, and not the official views of their organizations or boards.

5. Frequent Concerns: • Due Process Procedures (including perceived competency problems) • Requests for Release from the Match • Possible Violations of Membership Criteria • Probationary Status • Intern Termination • Illness/pregnancy while on internship

6. Due Process Procedures • Review your due process procedures • Membership Criteria: Internship programs have documented due process procedures that describe separately how programs deal with (1) concerns about intern performance, and (2) interns’ concerns about training. These procedures include the steps of notice, hearing, and appeal, and are given to the interns at the beginning of the training year.

7. Match Issues • Interns wanting to withdraw • Interns wanting to complete a second internship • Binding nature of Match Contract

8. ADA Concerns • Questions about discrimination • Guidelines about what questions can be asked and what should be avoided • http://www.appic.org/downloads/Guidance_on_Interview_Questions_and_Privacy_Concerns.pdf

9. Probationary Status and Competency Improvement Plans • Use the description of procedures for probationary status and development of improvement plans located in internship handbook. • Probationary status and improvement plans are active procedures on the part of both the intern and training program. • Probationary status should be a direct result of and informed by formal competency assessments. • The intern should have received formal feedback about problems in attainment of specific competences in advance of decision to place on probationary status.

10. Probationary Status and Competency Improvement Planning Process • The plan should be specific about what competencies need to be developed. • Specify what particular steps will be taken by the intern and by the program and/or supervisor(s) to help facilitate competency. • Clearly state how the skill/competency will be measured. How will the program and intern know that progress or lack thereof is occurring? • State the period of time for the probationary status to occur and/or improvement to be demonstrated. • Be clear about the “next steps”….if competency is not demonstrated, does it result in extending the training year, termination, extended probation?

11. Intern Termination • Follow your due process guidelines. • Update them routinely. • Plan for various situations that could happen.

12. Illness/Pregnancy During Internship • Frequent IPR issue. • Many solutions. • Examples: • Extended year of training. • Return to the Match next year.

13. Discussion/Questions Keep in mind that we prefer questions that are not program specific or intern/postdoc specific - Please present hypothetical situations.