Students often receive the most supervisory oversight during their master's level internships with both a site and campus supervisor. Increasing the number of hours they can accrue toward residency during this time period would be beneficial on a number of levels. First, students would be able to get credit for direct hours they are accruing in their master's programs. More often than not, counseling interns are not paid. This can be very difficult for students, particularly when we consider diversity, equity, and inclusion factors surrounding barriers for students to enter and complete 60 hour master's programs. Allowing for additional hours to count toward licensure certainly does not make up for the fact our interns work without pay, but it does offer some long term payback for their time. Also, since master's-level internships are highly supervised, these additional hours would be completed while the student has multiple levels of oversight which would potentially increase the amount of feedback and guidance provided on these additional interactions.
Second, Virginia has a very rigorous residency process. Allowing for a minor adjustment to the hours required after licensure would not lessen the rigor of this process. (240 out of 2000 total hours is about 12%). Conversely, it has the potential to support young/new professionals in achieving a very important career milestone sooner. This seems like a decision that would really benefit young/new professionals from an equity standpoint. Licensure has been linked to higher salaries and a broader range of career options (including being able to supervise).
If gatekeeping and remediation are necessary for a resident, I would argue that this policy should not impact the ability for a supervisor or agency to intervene with a resident prior to the completion of the hours.
