In accordance with the recent APPIC Board of Directors recommendation, our recruitment will be done virtually in order to protect our applicants, current interns, and faculty from exposure to or spreading COVID-19. We will be contacting applicants about interviews in November and will be scheduling video conferenced individual interviews and small group interactions in order to provide information about The Ohio State University Medical Center, the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Health, and our internship training program. Providing it is in keeping with university, state, and public health recommendations, we will be scheduling an open house if applicants wish to visit the medical center.
Along with all of our department faculty (both MDs and PhDs) and psychiatry residents, our interns are considered essential personnel. We have ample resources for assessment and psychotherapy to be conducted via telemedicine on site. Trainees are required to be on site in order to have immediate access to faculty supervisors and support should the need arise. All non-clinical meetings and supervision can be accessed off site. In the case of a hospital-based rotation, all patients are screened for COVID-19 and interns will not see patients who are suspected to be or have been confirmed to be positive for COVID-19. Personal protective equipment (PPE) is provided to all medical center personnel and everyone is expected to wear a mask, use hand sanitizer/disinfectant, take and report their temperature daily, and be attentive to social distancing protocols.
COVID-19 testing is available throughout the state of Ohio. COVID-19 testing is available at OSUWMC with a physician’s order which can be obtained through Employee Health, a personal physician, or through reporting channels available to all employees. At the time of this writing, quarantine requirements are no longer in place. However, depending on the epidemiology of the pandemic, these requirements can change. Previously, all individuals entering Ohio were required to quarantine for two weeks. Applicants who match with our program will be kept informed of any changes in quarantine requirements by the Director of Clinical Training. If a trainee is required to quarantine due to COVID-19 exposure and if the intern is able to continue to work remotely, their time out of the office will not affect their sick or vacation time.
OSUWMC has a non-discretionary vaccine policy for all required vaccinations including COVID-19. The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center (OSUWMC) will require and provide vaccines for all new and current medical staff and employees. Immunizations will be necessary to obtain and/or retain employment within the organization and must be received no later than the deadline established. This policy supports OSUWMC mission and vision to provide the safest delivery of healthcare to those seeking healthcare services. OSUWMC is complying with recommendations from expert panels and professional organizations, who advise that healthcare providers be vaccinated against measles, mumps, rubella, varicella, and pertussis (post-offer, pre-placement), influenza (seasonally), and SARS-CoV2 (COVID-19 vaccine) (at a frequency to be established). The intent is to protect patients, employees, visitors and the community from vaccine preventable infections while personalizing healthcare to meet the needs of each individual. This policy allows for consideration of medical, personal, religious and/or spiritual reasons for declining Influenza, COVID-19 and Hepatitis B vaccines. Work-related vaccines and titers are provided free of charge to faculty and staff. This policy applies to all personnel, irrespective of direct patient contact.
We understand that the pandemic may have an effect on applicants’ ability to accrue our requisite number of clinical hours for both therapy and assessment. We will evaluate each applicants’ hours on an individual basis. We encourage applicants to provide any information that they believe would be helpful if there is a substantial discrepancy between their hours and our requirements.
We encourage applicants to contact the Director of Clinical Training, Cheryl Carmin, Ph.D (Cheryl.Carmin@osumc.edu) if you have questions regarding how the internship experience may be affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. We are also in the process of developing our procedures for how to conduct our recruitment in a manner that provides our applicants with the equivalent experience to an in-person interview day. Please contact Dr. Carmin if you have questions about the recruitment process.