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Externship vs. In House Student Clinic

We have just begun a massage program and are debating on wether to let students go out on an externship or open a public student clinic. Does anyone have experience with this or care to weigh in on the subject? Any feedback would be helpful. Thank you.

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Noel Norwick on October 16, 2009 at 10:00am

Check your local jurisdiction's regulation re offering student massage (for a fee?) to the general public in an externship vs. a student clinic in your school. Additionally, check with your liability insurer re what liability your school might have in both cases.

Permalink Reply by massagenerd on October 16, 2009 at 10:32am

The college I work for does it both ways. He have student clinic hours built into some of the classes and they have to complete 50 hours in an externship in a 12 week period (usually their final quarter). The externships are great, because they have something to put on their resume and sometimes they get hired at the externship after they have completed it...so it's a win-win situation!
Ryan Hoyme
www.MassageNerd.com

Permalink Reply by Melissa DeFrancesco on October 16, 2009 at 10:41am

Neither liability or regulation are going to be an issue. I was more wondering what seems to work out best for students. I am worried about finding sites that are willing to take student interns as the state of Indiana just passed their licensure laws.

Noel Norwick said:

Check your local jurisdiction's regulation re offering student massage (for a fee?) to the general public in an externship vs. a student clinic in your school. Additionally, check with your liability insurer re what liability your school might have in both cases.

Permalink Reply by Noel Norwick on October 16, 2009 at 10:59am

Internship provides a more protective/supportive environment for students to gain experience dealing with the general public.

Externships provide a good introduction for students needing to gain experience dealing with business/management employers/supervisors and time managment.

Melissa DeFrancesco said:

Neither liability or regulation are going to be an issue. I was more wondering what seems to work out best for students. I am worried about finding sites that are willing to take student interns as the state of Indiana just passed their licensure laws.

Noel Norwick said:
Check your local jurisdiction's regulation re offering student massage (for a fee?) to the general public in an externship vs. a student clinic in your school. Additionally, check with your liability insurer re what liability your school might have in both cases.

Permalink Reply by Maria Troia on October 16, 2009 at 2:48pm

Melissa,

I think it really depends on the tone and vision of your program. The student clinic I helped supervise was all about producing a very specific "product." Our in-house student clinic gave us the opportunity to groom our graduates in accordance with the vision of the school's founders. It was very much an immersion/process-oriented program.

If your program is more of a vocational program, however, an externship would probably be more aligned with your goals (and I agree with Ryan, you'd probably want a mix of both). Since externship removes a level of security for the student you should also have good support system in place to allow for situations that will invariably come up.

Maria Troia, MSEd, LMT, NCTMB, CH
www.KIRAHolistic.com

Permalink Reply by Susan G. Salvo on October 16, 2009 at 3:29pm

Our school has done both.

In house student clinics provide more instructor resource and learning opportunities.

We pow-pow with students before each shift and discuss prior evaluations and have a "Focus of the day."

Students also get experience in a clincal setting so have more "real world" experiences.

Students who did our past externship program come back and say they wish we could have had in-house clinics when they were in school.

That say a lot from a student's prespective.

Permalink Reply by Sandy Fritz on January 8, 2010 at 1:11pm

I have used both methods and have a hybrid situation that works well-- internship onsite at a work enviorment. We have a program with VA hopital, Uof M swim team, Hospice, etc. The students are supervised on site by school instructors. We have and onsite clinic as well.

Permalink Reply by Noel Norwick on January 8, 2010 at 1:22pm

Sandy: Curious if your school is a state regulated vocational school, nationally accredited career college or something else. Here in California, it's currently unclear if a state regulated private post-secondary educational school would have to report and get approval (as well as pay registration fees for each "branch" location) for each of these externship locations.

Sandy Fritz said:

I have used both methods and have a hybrid situation that works well-- internship onsite at a work enviorment. We have a program with VA hopital, Uof M swim team, Hospice, etc. The students are supervised on site by school instructors. We have and onsite clinic as well.

Permalink Reply by William Snyder on March 25, 2010 at 6:40am

We have an in-house clinic course and a 10 week off campus externship. The externship brings the opportunity for the student to gain employment immediately upon graduation. We view it as a 10 week interview.

Permalink Reply by Melissa DeFrancesco on March 25, 2010 at 6:51am

After hearing getting this feedback and meeting with a program advisory committee I believe we have decided on doing a blended externship and in house clinic. That way the students get to experience both! Wish me luck on getting it approved :)

Thanks everyone!

William Snyder said:

We have an in-house clinic course and a 10 week off campus externship. The externship brings the opportunity for the student to gain employment immediately upon graduation. We view it as a 10 week interview.