About the Program
Training Philosophy | Internship Structure | Evaluations Training in Core Areas
The program is committed to a scientist-practitioner model of training where clinical practice is informed by evidence (research) and research is generated by the desire to improve the care of children and families. Training includes supervised clinical, research and didactic experiences which prepare advanced doctoral students for the practice of professional psychology. Training emphasizes developmental, interdisciplinary and family-centered approaches and a scientific basis for psychological assessment and treatment.
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The O'Grady Residency in Psychology begins July 1 and extends through the end of June. Interns work five days per week. Hours worked per week vary but are generally 45-55, depending on the case load, special interests, and consultation coverage. Of those 45-55 hours, a minimum of 4 hours a week is expected to be spent on applied research.
The internship provides training broad training in clinical psychology; however, interns focus their training through participation in one of two tracks: Behavioral Medicine Track or Child Clinical Track.
Behavioral Medicine Track
Interns in the Behavioral Medicine Track provide inpatient and outpatient assessment, treatment and consultation to children/adolescents with health and behavioral health issues and are based at the medical center’s main campus. Behavioral Medicine interns complete three rotations and gain experience with children / adolescents with sleep disorders, chronic pain including headache / migraine, obesity, developmental delays, cranio-facial anomalies, elimination and/or feeding disorders, medical complications and adjustment disorders. Behavioral Medicine interns also provide outpatient treatment to children and adolescents with developmental disabilities, chronic illnesses, adjustment disorders, and anxiety and depression and group treatment for children with Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD).
Child Clinical Track
Interns in the Child Clinical Track provide outpatient assessment, treatment and consultation at the medical center, local schools and in the community. Child Clinical interns complete two rotations and gain experience with children/adolescents with developmental delays, autism, ADHD, externalizing disorders, trauma backgrounds and anxiety and depression. In addition, Child Clinical Interns conduct functional behavioral assessments in the schools and provide consultation to teachers and program staff working with children / adolescents with autism. These interns also have the opportunity to provide home-based developmental assessments for high risk infants
Child Clinical interns complete thee mini-rotations in the area of behavioral medicine. The goal of this experience is to provide Child Clinical interns with experiences that will improve their ability to address health concerns in community-based mental health settings. Mini-rotations expose Child Clinical Interns to children/adolescents with sickle cell disease (chronic illness with cultural implications), medical complications (inpatient consultation and liaison) and pediatric obesity.
All interns participate in didactics, colloquia, group supervision, case conferences, research training, and an applied research experience focusing on evidence based assessment and intervention.
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Research Experience
Given our strong commitment to scientist-practitioner training, we encourage residents to participate in experiences which help them to integrate research into clinical practice. We recognize the importance of dissertation completion, and provide some time during the internship schedule to work on the dissertation. It is our hope that residents will be able to successfully defend their dissertation while on internship.
In addition, we believe it is important for residents to become involved in clinical research. Thus, residents participate in a clinical research placement. The goal of this placement is to allow the resident to receive in-depth training in evidence-based interventions. It also provides an opportunity for the resident to begin or continue to make a "public" (i.e., present a paper, poster or co-author a manuscript) contribution to the field of psychology.
The research mentor and resident will reach a mutual agreement about what will be performed during the clinical research placement. However, each resident will have the opportunity to co-author an abstract, collaborate with a research mentor on manuscript reviews for journals, and become integrated into clinical research activities such as being trained in standardized assessment protocols or manualized treatment protocols for clinical trials, scoring and/or coding psychological measures.
It is hoped that both dissertation defense and participation in the clinical research placement will provide residents with a competitive edge when applying for professional positions and/or postdoctoral fellowships. Residents are encouraged to spend four hours per week working on their clinical research placement.
Some examples of research placements include:
- Community-Based Program Evaluation
- Sickle Cell Disease
- Pediatric Obesity
- Treatment adherence
- Cystic Fibrosis
- ADHD
- Chronic Pain
- Headache / Migraine
- Long-term Sequelae of Childhood Sexual Abuse
Supervision
Each resident receives approximately four to six hours of face-to-face supervision per week. Supervision includes direct observation of the clinical activity, as well as planning and discussing assessment or treatment issues. Supervision models vary somewhat depending upon the theoretical orientation of each supervisor. However, each supervisor is committed to the philosophy of using an individualized approach and formulating specific objectives with the resident.
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Evaluations
Formal evaluations are completed every four months by the training director and primary supervisors. A standard written form that incorporates subjective and objective ratings is used in conjunction with verbal feedback to document the growth and needs of each resident. A summary evaluation report is sent to the resident's graduate program training director after each of the three evaluations. A competency assessment is done in April in order to assess each resident's progress and mastery of the core competencies. Residents are also asked to evaluate their supervisors to provide feedback and to address their own needs and expectations.
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Training in Evidence-Based Assessment and Treatment
Residents participate in a number of seminars, grand rounds, didactics and other training activities that provide the resident with formal instruction on topics relevant to their practice as professional psychologists. Once a week, an hour-long seminar is held which all residents are required to attend. The various seminar series are described below.
Seminar Series on Pediatric Behavioral Medicine and the Seminar Series on Child Clinical Psychology
These seminar series offer didactic material related to multidisciplinary team consultation, assessment, sickle cell disease, chronic pain, diabetes, sleep, bariatrics, neurological disorders, pediatric obesity, family functioning, ADHD, child abuse and neglect, home-visitation, psychiatric medications, complementary and alternative medicine, cystic fibrosis, treatment adherence, and personalized predictive medicine.Colloquia
Colloquia are held monthly. Colloquium presentations provide a vehicle for residents to become acquainted with research and clinical practice issues of O'Grady faculty. Presentations cover a variety of topics in the areas of child behavior and nutrition, risk and prevention and developmental psychology. Colloquia are jointly attended by faculty and trainees from the Division of Behavioral Medicine and Clinical Psychology and the Division of Behavioral and Developmental Pediatrics.Hospital-Sponsored Programs
Cincinnati Children's offers several educational seminars including: pediatric grand rounds, child psychiatry grand rounds, nursing grand rounds, tumor board, and quality in action.
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Training in Supervision and Professional Development
Group Supervision
The goal of this experience is to provide training in methods and theories of supervision, refine interns’ case presentation skills and provide an opportunity for interns to practice their supervision skills with peers. Twice a month, interns and faculty meet together for group supervision. One meeting is dedicated to discussing current therapy or assessment cases and providing peer supervision. During the second meeting, interns take turns taking the lead on discussing a pre-assigned journal article or book chapter on supervision.
Joint Fellows and Resident Seminars
Once a month residents and fellows participate in a joint didactic covering such topics as effective supervision, cultural diversity, career paths, collaboration, managing clinical practice, effective teaching, grant writing and statistics. This provides residents with the opportunity to interact with psychology fellows and develop
Case Conference
Twice a year, interns give a formal case presentation which focuses on integrating research or evidence with practice. Residents receive training and support from supervisors as needed while they prepare for these case presentations.
Seminar Series on Professional Development
This seminar series focuses on helping the intern develop professional skills to become an independent professional psychologist. Topics include: Ethics, Career Paths, Vitae Building, APA, and Licensure.
Advisor
All residents are assigned an advisor who meets with the resident at least quarterly to discuss professional development issues.
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Training in Evaluation
Academic Collaborative
Residents participate in quality improvement initiatives within the Division of Behavioral Medicine and Clinical Psychology on one of two teams, the Pain Team or the Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder Team. The Pain Team focuses on ensuring that all patients receive evidence-based treatment and improving health outcomes by making changes at the systems level. The ADHD Team focuses on ensuring that all patients receive evidence-based group treatment and monitoring behavioral and parent confidence outcomes by making changes at the systems level. The resident attends weekly meetings, learns quality improvement methods (e.g. failure analysis) and implements small tests of change. The goal of this experience is to provide residents with hands-on experience in program evaluation. It is hoped that residents will be able to apply this methodology to future clinical and research programs.
INNOVATIONS in Community Research and Program Evaluation
This program provides program evaluation, training and consultation to community-based agencies and school systems in three main areas: 1) early childhood education, 2) school-based mental health services, and 3) health disparities. Residents may choose INNOVATIONS as a research placement if they have an interest in community research. All residents are required to attend 3 meetings to learn more about program evaluation services in the community.
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Training in Cultural and Individual Diversity
Seminar Series on Diversity
This seminar series offers didactic material and experiential exercises focusing on Multicultural Knowledge, Awareness of Cultural Barriers, Sensitivity and Responsiveness to Consumers, Sociocultural Diversities, the Hispanic/Latino Culture in Cincinnati, Disparities in Health Care, Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual Issues, Working with Appalachian Families, and Cultural Factors in Testing and Culture and Evidence-Based Treatment.
All employees (including Psychology Residents) are required to participate in Hospital Sponsored Diversity Trainings:
Diversity Orientation (Phase I)
Phase I Diversity Training provides an opportunity to get an overview of essential diversity concepts. This course affirms that diversity and multiculturalism are important organizational values. The training provides a general overview of many concepts, yet encourages an understanding of the inclusiveness of all employees. This course is required for all employees and is web-based.Diversity Awareness (Phase II)
Phase II Diversity Training builds on the common language and understanding established in Diversity Orientation (Phase I). It provides an opportunity to look at various topics in more depth.
Activities and concepts introduced in Diversity Orientation (Phase I) and new ideas are examined as they impact relationships inside and beyond Cincinnati Children's. Participants are challenged to think about how diversity impacts their lives and the lives of others. The training uses small group activities, discussions, videos, and other learning tools.
Cultural Diversity and Supervision
A special effort is made to focus on diversity issues in supervision of year long outpatient therapy cases. Residents are provided an opportunity to explore their comfort level and develop goals related to working effectively across cultures.
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Training in Methods of Scholarly Inquiry
Seminar Series on Applied Research
This seminar series offers didactic training to residents in statistics, grant writing, research ethics/ human subject protection, and community-based participatory research methods.
CITI training
All residents are required to complete training in human research protection, The Collaborative IRB Training Initiative (CITI) Program. CITI is a high quality program that raises the bar for general knowledge about clinical research and will improve the overall quality of clinical research. It is currently in use in at least 22 of 26 AAHRPP-approved institutions.
Residents also participate in the following activities focusing on applied research:
Psychology Research Group
The purpose of this monthly meeting is to foster the development and review of research projects within the Division of Behavioral Medicine and Clinical Psychology. Faculty members present grant applications, manuscripts, or research ideas which are reviewed by at least one junior faculty member, one senior faculty member and one post-doctoral fellow. Through stimulating discussions of these internal reviews, residents learn about writing and reviewing manuscripts, the grant application process, research with diverse populations, research design and data analytic methods.
Journal Club
Psychology interns and fellows meet to review journal articles relevant to behavioral medicine or child clinical topics. Residents receive training in how to critically review research articles and determine clinical implications.Prevention Science Seminar Series
The goal of this monthly seminar series is to disseminate innovative programs and research in prevention science in the areas of health, mental illness, substance abuse, child abuse and neglect, and child development. Faculty, staff, fellows and residents from across the medical center attend these seminars resulting in a rich exchange of ideas about serious health issues across disciplines.
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