Optional Training Experiences:
Our internship philosophy is to meet interns’ professional
development needs to the extent possible. We can offer additional
opportunities for specialized training. Interns are encouraged
to ask about different possibilities to tailor their training,
and every effort will be made to accommodate them, as long
as the proposed modification to the training plan permits the
acquisition of all the core competencies of the internship
program. Generally these opportunities will be available as
minor rotations.
At the time of this writing, there are additional pediatric
experiences available in cystic fibrosis, gastrointestinal
disorders, feeding, and HIV. Interns have the opportunity
to work with children and adolescents on issues centering
around compliance with medical regimens, coping with the
demands of the disease, pain management, and other psychosocial
issues involved with chronic illness.
All medical areas have highly diverse populations (primarily
Latino and Asian), and thus trainees will have the opportunity
to develop skills working with translators to improve the
care provided to patients in the hospital. Interns are trained
in pertinent culture-specific practices. This training includes
a seminar in Multicultural issues.
Interns will also have the opportunity to observe a pediatric
surgery as a part of their experience at the hospital. This
opportunity is entirely voluntary, but previous interns have
found it to be a valuable learning experience. There may
be opportunities to observe other medical procedures if you
are interested. Please let us know of your interest and we
may be able to arrange it as a part of your experience at
CHOC.
Training Opportunities for Spanish Speaking Interns:
Our internship is dedicated to providing training opportunities
for interns who speak Spanish. These experiences include
the ability to conduct assessments in Spanish utilizing our
library of assessment instruments that have been developed
and normed with Spanish speaking populations.
In addition, interns who speak Spanish have the opportunity
to participate in a weekly seminar, Children’s Hospital
Supervisíon Psicológica en Accíon (CHiSPA),
led by two bilingual faculty members. The seminar is designed
to help increase skills in and comfort with conducting psychological
interventions and assessments in Spanish. Activities include
working on psychological vocabulary, practice in discussing
cases and case conceptualizations in Spanish, interactive
presentations by physicians and other community members who
speak Spanish to increase comfort with discussing medical
treatments and community resources with patients and their
families. The goal of this seminar is to provide support
in the learning process and to build on participants’ individual
strengths.
Supervision
ll trainees receive a combination of individual and group
supervision (a minimum of four hours) per week. Supervision
occurs on an individual basis, during group rounds, within
clinic settings and within the Training Program seminars.
All supervision is performed by departmental staff who meet
the California Board of Psychology requirements and CHOC
Hospital’s Medical Staff qualifications.
Interns are offered at least two hours of individual supervision
per week for ongoing therapy cases and rotational experiences.
Supervision of the consultation-liaison service is handled
with both individual supervision and via group supervision
(rounds). Rounds are co-led by a board certified child & adolescent
psychiatrist/pediatrician and a licensed psychologist. The
amount and frequency of this supervision will vary depending
on the complexity and number of consults received. Typically,
consultation supervision occurs for approximately ½ hour
per week. Additionally, consultation services are often provided
using co-therapy, especially for high risk and complex consults.
Therefore, interns are able to observe their supervisors
providing psychological services. There may also be opportunities
to participate in co-therapy with supervisors and receive
immediate feedback based on direct observation of clinical
skills. Assessment supervision is provided as the case progresses,
and generally lasts for ½ to 1 hour per week. Supervision
is also provided informally during medical rounds on major
rotations.
You will be assigned one outpatient therapy supervisor who
will work with you throughout the year on more long term
outpatient therapy cases. This supervisor will provide continuity
throughout the year and will also serve as a professional
mentor.
Training Program Seminars
Required
- Pediatric Psychology Seminar (weekly)
- Assessment Seminar (weekly)
- Multicultural and Clinical Interventions (weekly, 5
months)
- Ethics Seminar (weekly, 3 – 4 months)
Optional
- Chispa (weekly)
- Pediatrics Grand Rounds (weekly)
- Hematology Teaching Rounds
(monthly)
Content of required seminars is biased in the direction
of material needed for CHOC clinical activities. A didactic
element is included in all seminars. Professional issues
are addressed throughout the training year. Outside speakers
with a particular area of expertise are invited to present
several of the seminars. Trainees may also attend the CHOC
Grand Rounds and/or Hematology Teaching Rounds as time permits.
Pediatric Psychology Seminar: This weekly
seminar focuses on topics relevant to the practice of Pediatric
Psychology.
Presenters include physicians and other medical staff as
well as psychologists experienced in particular areas. Topics
include medical treatments for common medical problems, as
well as psychological problems associated with those disorders.
Special topics include issues such as pain control, acupuncture
and traditional Chinese medicine, helping children and families
cope with death and dying, and feeding issues, etc.
Neuropsychology Seminar: This weekly seminar focuses initially
on learning assessment instruments commonly used at CHOC,
from there the seminar reviews the areas of function assessed
in the neuropsychological evaluation, and then focuses on
specific illnesses and disorders that are typically seen
at CHOC, including epilepsy, traumatic brain injuries, and
infant and developmental problems.
Multicultural Seminar: This seminar is designed to focus
on learning an applying an approach to your clinical work
that supports increased cultural competency. The seminar
is interactive in nature and consists of self-exploration
activities, exploration of the surrounding community (through
research and an experiential activity), presentations from
professionals as well as trainee case presentations. While
we expect multicultural awareness to permeate all of your
work throughout the year, this seminar is designed to help
you develop your model of learning and practice.
Ethics Seminar: Cases in medical settings can bring a multitude
of ethical challenges, which don’t always offer clear
directions for change. In this seminar faculty present cases
they have worked on that have presented ethical challenges.
In these interactive presentations, faculty and interns discuss
systems and strategies to assess ethical dilemmas and determine
courses of action.
Interns make formal case presentations in the Pediatric
Psychology Seminar (one therapy case) and Neuropsychology
Seminar (one assessment case) as well as more information
presentations/consultations in Multicultural Seminar (case
presentation), Neuropsychology Seminar (case consultation),
Ethics (case presentation) and Chispa (case consultation).
A support/process group is provided for the interns and
fellows weekly and is led by adjunct faculty who is not involved
in any training evaluation. The group is intended for support
and is not therapy oriented.
Training Model
Our training model is that of scholar-practitioner. Consistent
with this model, the focus of the training program is on
the provision of direct patient care utilizing the most up-to-date
knowledge, skills and interventions coupled with the evaluation
of the efficacy of those interventions and continued planning
to improve those services. The mission of our training program
is to provide high quality pediatric psychology training
to advanced students in preparation for independent practice.
In order to achieve our mission, we assist in the development
of a range of assessment and therapeutic skills as well as
the development of a unique professional identity that builds
on the individual skills and abilities that each intern brings
to the program at entry. The internship program philosophy
of training is that intensive experiential activities with
patients are crucial to the development of a unique therapeutic
style and therapeutic skill set. The development of this
individual style can be a cornerstone in the ultimate development
of your own unique individual professional identity. Through
these intensive experiences interns can take the skills learned
in their graduate programs and further refine them and continue
to develop their own unique and individual style of professional
practice.
The majority of current staff members were trained in the
scientist-practitioner model and see the inclusion of empirical
work as a necessary component for the competent treatment
of psychological problems. We strive to provide interns with
a breadth and depth of training experiences in the context
of utilizing innovative scientific information to guide their
treatment planning, conceptualization, and delivery. All
staff members remain actively involved in scientific associations,
continuing education, and reviewing the relevant literature,
in order to constantly improve the quality of their work
and supervision. Many staff are also involved in ongoing
clinical research studies.
The primary purpose of the internship at CHOC is to prepare
psychology graduate students for the professional practice
of pediatric and child psychology in a variety of settings
(e.g. hospital, school, clinic, and private practice), with
a special emphasis on practice in medical settings. Following
the field of Pediatric Psychology, the internship focuses
on addressing the relationship between children's physical,
cognitive, social, and emotional functioning and their physical
well being, including maintenance of health, promotion of
positive health behaviors, and treatment of chronic or serious
medical conditions. We view the training year as a time for
intensive clinical experience. Although we do not see interns
as having the time to complete additional research projects
(as well as their own dissertation) during their own internship
year, we do require ongoing scholarly activity, such as literature
review, critical thinking, and appropriate application of
the pediatric psychology literature.
Training Purpose and Objectives
The purpose of our Pediatric Psychology Training Program
is to provide a training experience to advanced graduate
psychology students within a multi-disciplinary setting that
meets the qualifications of field experience in Ph.D./Psy.D.
programs and licensing requirements for the Board of Psychology
of the State of California (as well as those of other states).
Through our program, interns will learn to assess the psychosocial
impact of acute and chronic illness in children and their
families. Interns will become proficient in psychodiagnostic
testing. They will also be exposed to neuropsychological
testing within a medical population and know how to determine
the need for further cognitive assessment. Interns will gain
significant experience in hospital consultation and liaison
skills, which includes providing inpatient therapy and giving
feedback to physicians and other medical professionals.
Our program is designed to provide more structure at the
beginning of the year, and for interns to play an increasingly
independent role towards the end of the year. During this
year of critical transition from a graduate student to a
professional psychologist, we encourage trainees to develop
a professional identity, professional values, and a professional
demeanor.
We fully anticipate that interns graduating from our program
will be prepared to function as an entry level pediatric
psychologist with additional post doctoral training. Many
of our graduates go on to post-doctoral fellowships in order
to further specialize in a particular area, others go on
to assistant professorship positions, and others become private
practitioners.
Total Program Hours and Licensure
Licensure in the state of California requires 1500 Predoctoral
and 1500 Postdoctoral hours of Supervised Practice, as well
as successful completion of the national written exam and
a written exam in Jurisprudence. Satisfactory completion
of the predoctoral internship at CHOC exceeds this requirement
and provides at least 2000 hours of Predoctoral Supervised
practice. CHOC interns can anticipate that their weekly responsibilities
will be approximately 40 - 50 hours per week. This time estimate
includes clinical service, supervision, seminars, administration,
scoring, and write-ups of psychological assessments.
APA Accreditation
Our internship program is fully APA accredited. Our last
site visit occurred in early 2005. Our program received accreditation
for seven years and the next site visit will be in 2012.
The American Psychological Association can be reached at
202 336-5500 or at www.apa.org or
by writing to, American Psychological Association, Office
of Program Consultation
and Accreditation, 750 First Street, NE • Washington,
DC • 20002-4242.
Evaluations
Informal evaluations are conducted throughout the year; formal
evaluations are conducted after the first quarter of the
year, again at mid-training year and at the end of the training
year. These evaluations look at the trainees’ strengths
in a variety of areas including diagnostic skills, interventions,
assessment, professional practice, awareness of multicultural
practice and response to supervision. Evaluation results
are shared with the trainees so that goals can be defined
and planned for and refinements in trainee performance can
occur. Trainees are also asked to evaluate their supervisors
and the Training Program annually. Supervisor and Training
Program evaluations are used to review and clarify rotation
strengths and weaknesses, supervisor performance and program
efficacy.
Educational Services
Both interns and fellows can use Burlew Medical Library,
located on the CHOC/St. Joseph Hospital campus. A selection
of professional books, journals, and audiovisual materials
are available. Literature searches are free. Professional
databases include Ovid, the National Library of Medicine
MEDLINE, HEALTH and CINAHL. Access can be accomplished remotely.
The Department of Pediatric Psychology has an assortment
of professional books and journals, germane to professional
work at CHOC. Copying and multi-media services are available
for presentations.
Internship Location
CHOC is located in central Orange County, placing it less
than an hour drive from the City of Los Angeles and about
30 minutes from the Pacific Ocean. Mountain resorts and the
California desert are less than two hours away. The Southern
California climate is very moderate all year round. Housing
costs in Orange County tend to be on the high average side,
but are often more affordable than in other major metropolitan
areas. Orange County offers great diversity in terms of its
population, with significant Latino, Vietnamese, Indian,
and Filipino populations.
Salary and Benefits
- Interns: $21,000/year, overtime is paid for
time over 40 hours a week.
- Medical and Dental Insurance
(after first month of employment)
- Paid time off (total of 22 days for educational/vacation/sick
leave (13 days) and departmental closures/holidays (9 days)).
All PTO hours are granted at the start of the internship.
- 3 educational days in addition to paid time
off listed above.
- Each intern is assigned an individual office
which contains a computer with internet access. Toys and
games are also available for work with children.
- A videocamera and digital audio recording is
available on site to facilitate supervision of more challenging
cases.
