Supervisor: Dominique Chao, PsyD
Email: [email protected]
The Department of Psychiatry (DoP) at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus (CU Anschutz) is a full-time 12-month externship with a focus on training in neuropsychological evaluation and inpatient/rehabilitation psychology.
- A full-time trainee will split time between an acute inpatient rehabilitation unit and outpatient neuropsychology clinic.
Settings:
Acute Inpatient Rehabilitation Unit (ARU)*: is a 12-bed unit interdisciplinary unit that offers comprehensive rehabilitation (physical therapy, occupational therapy, speech therapy, recreational therapy etc.) for individuals who have experienced major injury or illness. The primary focus is to restore maximum individual function in a holistic and caring manner. As a rehabilitation neuropsychologist on the unit, your role will be to assess and support cognitive, behavioral, and mental health-related concerns. This includes psychodiagnostics evaluations, cognitive screening, individual psychotherapy, family/patient/team psychoeducation, and consistent collaboration with providers.
Executive Functions Clinic (EF Clinic): is an outpatient clinic through which you will be completing neuropsychological evaluations. The core experience gained in this clinic is neuropsychological test administration. Patients will be referred to this clinic from multiple departments in the hospital including the ARU. Patients referred from the ARU provides the unique opportunity to work with the same individual across the full spectrum of care.
Patient Population: The patient’s served most often have experienced some form of physical and/or neurological illness or injury. These include stroke, traumatic brain injury, spinal cord injury, central nervous system cancers, post-amputation care, post-transplant, and other complex medical conditions. As a public academic medical center, the patient’s served are diverse in their bio-psycho-social-cultural presentations making an individualized approach to care essential and emphasized.
Unique qualifications: The ideal candidate will be a trainee with experience administering and scoring a wide variety of cognitive, emotional, and personality measures. The trainee must have experience administering the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS version IV or V). The trainee would benefit from flexibility and adaptability (given highly dynamic settings), being a team player, and some familiarity with medical conditions and their possible psychiatric sequelae. These are vital traits and foundations for meaningful growth and enjoyment of this externship.
Unique schedule requirements: 20-24 hours per week; time varies depending on individual interests. Must be available full-day Thursday and an additional 1-2 days (on either a Monday, Wednesday, and/or Friday.
Thursday (EF Clinic):
| Thursday | |
| 8am-9am | Individual Supervision |
| 9am-10am | Patient Feedback |
| 10am-12pm | Test administration |
| 12pm-1pm | Lunch |
| 1pm-3pm | Test Administration |
| 3pm-5pm | Scoring |
Other days (ARU):
| | |
| 8am-9am | Individual Supervision |
| 9am-10am | Patient Intake |
| 10am-12pm | Patient follow-up/note writing |
| 12pm-1:00pm | Team Meeting |
| 1:00-2:00pm | Lunch |
| 1pm-3pm | Patient follow-up/2nd intake |
| 3pm-5pm | Team collaboration/family meeting/note writing |
Primary Supervisor Information: The primary supervisor for this externship identifies as a minority cisgender female and rehabilitation neuropsychologist. She completed a combination specialty fellowship in rehabilitation psychology and neuropsychology at the University of Michigan.
Compensation: While a grant was previously offered and will continue to be advocated for (with the hope it can be secured for this year’s extern later), budget cuts are such that compensation cannot be offered.
Application Requirements: Interested candidates should submit a cover letter, C.V., assessment-report sample, and a list of cognitive measures you are comfortable administering/scoring.
Please email Questions to:
Dominique Chao, PsyD
Rehabilitation Neuropsychologist
Department of Psychiatry
1890 N Revere Ct.
Anschutz Health Sciences Bldg, Suite 5240,
Aurora, CO 80045
[email protected]