Required activities

Interns are required to maintain approximately 16 hours per week of direct patient contact through the year. Typically, interns spend 18 hours per week in a variety of clinical activities. Other clinical learning experiences include participation in teams, observation of supervisors and co-therapy.

• Assessment – Interns spend approximately half of their time in pediatric psychology and one-third of their time in outpatient services doing psychological evaluations. Psychological assessment may consist of a functional analysis of behavior, developmental or intellectual evaluation, general psychological assessment, structured family interview, or other procedures deemed appropriate by the psychologist for answering the referral question. Psychologists might perform assessments in the context of gathering information on their own cases, in response to requests by members of another discipline such as psychiatry or social work, or in response to requests for a consult by medical personnel in the hospital or an outside agency already treating the child.

• Psychotherapy – Interns are encouraged to distribute their therapy activities across all service units. A typical weekly caseload might include two outpatients in family therapy; two to three hours a week of work with an inpatient or partial hospitalization child and his/her family, several children or adolescents in outpatient individual therapy; a couple in parent counseling or marital therapy; and one or two families working with the psychological sequelae of their child's physical illness. The form and focus of treatment (child, family, parent or some combination) is determined by the intern and his/her supervisor after consideration of diagnostic input, conference recommendations, and patient/family needs and resources.

A typical week

An intern's hours during a typical week are likely to be spent in the following way:

Clinical service (16 – 18 hours)

• 8 hours in outpatient services (intake, diagnostics and treatment)
• 4 hours on the testing service
• 4 to 6 hours in their major rotation (inpatient, partial or C-L Service)

Supervision (5 – 6 hours)

• 2 hours outpatient general psychiatry
• 1 hour outpatient pediatric psychology
• 1 hour testing service
• 1 hour major rotation

Education (7 – 10 hours)

• 2 hours topics and treatment in Child and Adolescent Psychiatry
• 1 to 2 hours medical psychology seminar
• 1-1/2 hours neuropsychology seminar
• 1-1/2 hours family therapy
• 1 to 3 hours case conferences and guest lectures

Meetings and Community Services (2 – 4 hours) depending on each intern's particular professional education plan

• Clinic or team meetings (e.g. anxiety disorder, diabetes, psychosis, etc.)
• 1 to 2 hours group therapy (e.g. disruptive behavior disorders clinic)
• 2 to 3 hours school intervention project (for one twelve-week session)

Research -4 hours dissertation or other research

Paperwork, phone calls, etc. - 4 to 6 hours per week