Nebraska Mental Health Centers

Intern Schedules

Two days per week, interns work and receive training trained at each of the satellite offices, or on occasion an alternate service location. They engage in general clinical activities while in that office. Interns are scheduled to work and receive training three days per week at the main office in Lincoln, NE.

Friday mornings involve supervision and didactic activities. This is also attended by post-doctoral psychology residents and practicum students, if applicable. There are a variety of supervisory activities that occur at this meeting, including a review of intern schedules and activities, identification of training needs and practical supports, professional topics, research review, and case review.

Each intern receives two (2) hours of individual face-to-face supervision weekly. Supervisions are conducted by the NMHC-PIP supervisors who are Nebraska Licensed psychologists. Interns are also provided with two (2) additional hours of weekly supervision by healthcare professionals who are appropriately credentialed for their role/contribution to the program and under the overall oversight of the Training Director.

One (1) hour of Early Career Supervision and Professional Development (ECS)

This weekly meeting consists of a combination of self-reflection and discussions about the link between ethical practices, evidenced-based interventions, and practice for specific disorders, populations, and individual clients. Additionally, topics related to professional development are discussed as well as an opportunity for interns to raise issues related to the internship program and their training experiences.

One (1) hour of multi-disciplinary Clinical Group Supervision and Consultation (CGS)

This weekly meeting is attended by all of the agency outpatient treatment staff that includes staff psychologists, resident psychologists, licensed mental health practitioners, licensed addiction practitioners, master’s-level psychology practicum students and occasionally the administrative staff. Group supervision provides a forum for multi-disciplinary consultation, case presentations, business considerations of psychological practice, development of professional relationships and integration of the interns into the agency culture.

Structured clinical and professional didactic training is generally provided weekly during two sixty minute scheduled trainings. These trainings focus on one or both of the following areas: (1) clinical and professional didactic training and (2) psychometric assessment didactics. At the beginning of the internship year, a greater amount of time may be allotted for psychometric assessment didactic training. Additionally, attendance at full day conferences or seminars may provide 6 to 8 hours of didactic training in lieu of weekly trainings.

The amount of face-to-face client time increases as Interns’ skill and comfort level increases. While the focus of the Internship is always on training and not “productivity,” in order for Interns to successfully transition to the demands of a future independent practice, they must develop the stamina and efficiency in service provision and documentation to begin to approximate the typical expectations for a licensed psychologist in a future practice setting. At the beginning of the internship each intern is introduced to approximately 15 patients for ongoing therapy. Therapy experiences are augmented at this time by sitting in on individual or family therapy sessions with a supervisor or adjunct training staff member. Caseloads will increase in numbers as internship progresses with the goal to see an average of 22 patient appointments weekly. The total number of clients on an intern’s caseload will generally be 25 patients as we want to take into account the “expected” patient cancellations and no shows. Interns are also assigned psychological/psychometric assessment cases as competency with various instruments is demonstrated and demand align.

As this is a training experience, it is understood that there may be times the intern will need additional training time or time to work on activities outside of the regularly scheduled 40 hours. The emphasis is placed on the desired training and the intern meeting basic professional and inter-professional competency expectations, rather than on the number of hours worked. Note that interns are on trainee stipends and are not eligible for comp time over a 40 hour week.

The average time spent in various training activities each week is listed below. Projections for assessment- time includes time spent scoring and interpreting; projections for intervention times include planning interventions and consolidating outcome data: