1/20 University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey

Internship Site: University of Medicine & Dentistry of New Jersey  (Newark, NJ)

Major Rotations: General Child Clinical
Special Stuff: Program Development/Evaluation Project, teaching opportunities, Violence Institute, Many community intervention opportunities, Individual private offices
Downsides: Pediatric C/L activities are limited, Expectation to become licensed in NJ after internship, location, elective rotations are only 4 hours/week.



I was actually really nervous about traveling to the University of Medicine & Dentistry of New Jersey (UMDNJ). Luckily, a friend of mine from work also had an interview there on the same day so we drove together. I had had a previous experience driving in Newark that was extremely scary so it brought out some anxiety to go there this time. We rolled in around 10:30 pm and were both nervous until we found our hotel, which was very nice. Crisis averted.

The structure of the interview day was a group overview of the program, two individual 45 minute interviews and a 45 minute small group interview. Most of the day was pretty routine. The program has a pretty specific core program and then also allows for some "electives." The core therapy experiences include general outpatient cases, groups, and work in the partial hospitalization program for kids with behavior problems. For assessment, they require interns provide crisis services in the ER in addition to 8 testing patients over the whole year. They also run something called a "Children's Mobilization and Response Unit" which actually goes to people's homes in the event of a safety emergency, such as an out of control child or suicidal child. The point of this service is to avoid inpatient admissions when the parents eventually bring the kids to the ER. There are some cool assessment experiences too such as Fetal Alcohol Syndrome Clinic and the opportunity to do a year-long rotation in neuropsychology. 

Another interesting and unique component to the program is the Core Performance Evaluation and Improvement Experience which is an opportunity for interns to work on some existing problem within the services UMDNJ provides. For example, helping doctors remember to screen for mental health issues in the ER. The idea is for interns to learn how to plan, evaluate and fix services, in addition to providing quality improvement for the hospital. They have an impressive list of electives that an intern can take; of which the interns can choose anywhere from 2 to 4 or 5 for the year. Some of the more interesting electives to me are a couple that use specific types of therapy, primary care consultation, and Youth Consultation Services which is group treatment for mothers and babies. Another interesting one is the Violence Institute which provides violence intervention programs in the schools. They also have a consultation-liaison elective but the current interns said that there are not many pediatric experiences. Although there are many many cool electives, interns only spend one half day a week doing the elective (about 4 hours a week). All of my primary interests are electives so that would mean I would be spending a minimal amount of time in my areas of interest. 

So I will explain the mini-group interview now, which was something I had not done before. They had four interns sit in a little circle facing each other, and discuss four different "topics" over the 45 minute period. While the interns were discussing, two faculty members observed and took notes. Two of the questions were case examples and we had to discuss an issue related to the hypothetical case. The other two questions were: 1. What has been the most frustrating part of your professional development and 2. What challenges do you forsee in working with an underserved inner city population. Neither of these questions are particularly tricky but the group you were in made all the difference.  My friend said her group was really friendly and focused on agreeing with each other and giving each other equal amounts of time to talk. My group, however, was more competitive and cutthroat and I had to literally cut people off to get a word in. I'm not the type to fight for the floor, I'm just as happy to sit back and listen, but that is not adaptive in this setting. Anyway, I did not like the group interview needless to say!

After the interview, both my friend and I drove to Philadelphia to fly out to our next interviews: mine was in Oklahoma.  

Oh by the way, here is an idea of the safety around Newark - all interns are required to leave the hospital by 5. Another sign is the full-porch bars as seen in the picture below.  I have never seen something like this!

Future Planning

As those of you reading this can probably tell, it's getting harder and harder to decide which sites I like the best. Part of the problem is that I still am grappling with what I really would like to do in the future. Internship is supposed to help us narrow down our interests but there are a lot of factors that go into future planning and it just gets difficult weighing all the factors. 

Right now I think my interests are in two areas: either working in a primary care office doing consultation with patients who come to see their pediatrician, or training as a neuropsychologist who does testing with children to measure their IQ, achievement potential, memory, attention, and concentration. A lot of times the patients are kiddos who have had some sort of illness either directly or indirectly affecting the brain. In primary care I could do a lot of prevention and catch kids before they have severe behavior or mental health problems. It is also a slower environment than working in a hospital. Primary care is also the way of the future; the focus is on integrating psychology into everyday health care so I would be right on the edge of what's new and being funded :) 

The problem with neuropsychology is that you have to do a two year postdoc (two years after getting the doctoral degree. Coming off of an extra year of training already the thought of adding MORE training does not excite me very much. In addition, the field of neuropsychology has its OWN match so I would be going through this exact same thing for a third time. Neuropsych also usually carries the most intense amount of work because there are really long reports that need to be written after each evaluation. 

Finally, I'm just tired of moving around and having to establish new sets of support and friendships. I like meeting new people and have been able to meet some incredible people everywhere I've lived but it's just a lot of work. Anyway, I just wanted to give an idea of my thought process through all of this. Having the degree is great but it opens up SO many choices that it can be tough to find the area you love. And of course there's always that tiny part of you that says, "is this REALLY what I want to be doing?" After 9 years of schooling that's a tough thought to have!

1/15 Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP)

Internship Site: Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP)

Major Rotations: Pediatric Psychology
Special Stuff: Primary Care work, Community Work, Opportunity for advocacy/policy work, Systems integration is a major focus
Downsides: Might not get enough neuropsychology experience


I had two very important interviews in a row, so after Kennedy Krieger I was prepared for CHOP. A student from my program, Meghan, is currently working as staff at the hospital and did her internship there so I had an "in" for this one. I drove out to Philly with my friend Lauren, who I had met earlier during my interview in Minneapolis. We stayed at the Hyatt as my current roommate works there and gets great deals. The hotel was awesome but we forgot about the extra "perks" included in expensive hotels: $27 a day parking, and $10 a day for internet. Now, this is a mini soap box speech here but why do cheaper hotels provide these services for free but not expensive hotels? 

Anyway, Lauren and I had dinner with Meghan at a crepes restaurant. She gave us some info on CHOP and some hints and advice. Meghan is probably one of the more successful students from my program which is a great thing for me as it makes our program look really good! She loves it in Philly and has been there for the last three years I believe. This interview started with a general overview of the program, then a "meet the faculty" breakfast, followed by two individual interviews. I really hate the receptions that some of the programs have. There is so much pressure to meet as many people as possible and in order to do that you have to interrupt other students talking to faculty. I feel like I'm on The Bachelor vying for private time with the guy and cat-fighting with the other contestants. I am not one to "mingle" really so this is always a tough thing for me to do. 


Anyway, during the reception I spoke with the faculty member who works in the Thoracic Organ Transplant Program, which involved children who have heart and/or lung problems. Psychologists help kids with the transplant process and help trouble-shoot any problems during that time. This is a unique program and I would be excited to be involved. Some of the other programs that look great are Behavioral Health in Schools Initiative and Violence Prevention Programs. They both involve working in the community and providing prevention or treatment services. 

One of the coolest parts of the day was when I heard that one of the interns has put together a public policy program for himself in which he will be involved in making changes in government policy regarding mental health issues. I spoke with the woman who is in charge of this and she said that I could absolutely put together a project such as that myself. I would probably want to create a policy project within education. I really like this site because of the unique opportunities they have, the wide variety of rotations, the opportunity to work with world leaders in various medical disciplines, and of course the fact that it is a pretty prestigious program.


I didn't get to take any pictures for some reason so you'll have to imagine it in your head!

Falling Behind!!

Just a quick update - I've interviewed at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia and the University of Medicine & Dentistry of New Jersey and am going to interview at Oklahoma tomorrow. These interviews have been in such quick succession that I have not had time to write them up! Quick review: I loved Philly and was not super impressed with New Jersey. I will let you know more details when I get back home from Oklahoma!

1/12 Kennedy Krieger Institute

Internship Site: Kennedy Krieger Institute (Johns Hopkins University Baltimore, MD)

Major Rotations: Pediatric Consult Team & Neuropsychology
Special Stuff: Inpatient neuropsychology a major component of the program; Chance to work with really rare disorders; Lots of professional development support.
Downsides: No child clinical experiences; one student works in a rotation at a time; very little work space

Today I interviewed at Kennedy Krieger, which is one of the more prestigious pediatric psychology internship sites in the nation. It is affiliated with Johns Hopkins University which of course carries a lot of weight with its own name. The facilities themselves are really swank too. The building this program is housed in has its own valet service.

The tracks I applied for are half year (6 months) each, one being pediatric consultation and the other neuropsychology. The pediatric consultation rotation consists of seeing patients who are referred by physicians in the hospital. These consults could be for a variety of reasons, but generally are a one-time consult and then you are done with that patient. The other aspect of the peds consult is an outpatient program in which you see children for therapy who have some sort of medical diagnosis as the primary problem. This is very similar to the work I have been doing with kids with diabetes at the Children's Hospital in DC. 

The other rotation is neuropsychology, which is testing to determine a person's brain strengths and weaknesses (attention, concentration, memory, verbal ability etc.). We also do what is traditionally known as "IQ" testing. One day a week on this rotation interns will see a patient through the outpatient program and do a full testing day with the patient. The other days will be spent with children who have sustained some sort of brain injury and are followed through their recovery to track brain functioning. This is a really unique program and is similar to the model I used in the concussion clinic I work at, except with much more serious brain injuries. I had the inside scoop on this internship as I work with many people in DC who went to Kennedy Krieger for their internship. Networking is always helpful!

I think this is probably my top one or two choice so far. You cannot get a better training environment and would work with some of the best doctors in the world. They take 21 interns which is many more than other internships by far. The last 3 interviews have been so great that it's going to get hard to choose which are my favorites! 


 

1/8 Alfred I. duPont Hospital for Children

Internship Site: duPont Hospital for Children    (Wilmington, Delaware)

Major Rotations: Child Clinical & Pediatric Psychology
Special Stuff: Social Venture Program; Primary Care placement; Almost zero staff turnover; Extremely tight group of students and staff.

Downsides: Interns report working 50-60 hours a week

I decided to take the train from D.C. to Delaware for my interview today which was fun but ended up being really stressful as well. My train was a little delayed leaving D.C. but at that point I was still okay time-wise. However, about 20 minutes into the train ride (it was a 1.5 hour trip) the train in front of us broke down and we were required to pick up all of the passengers from that train and take them with us. It was 9:30 am at that point and my interview started at 11 am. I knew right then and there I was going to be late for the interview. I ended up only being 15 minutes late and as it turned out, another girl that was interviewing with me was on the same train! We ended up walking in together which was better than walking in late alone. It occurred to me while I was on the train that it was the exact same train ride that Joe Biden used to take when he worked as a senator and lived in Delaware (random fact).

I could tell right away that the atmosphere was one I would feel totally comfortable in as there was lots of joking with the staff and everyone appeared to be very laid back. It was also clear that they took training very seriously there. The interns mainly all follow the same training plan with small variations. For example, everyone works in assessment/evaluation settings, but you can choose which 3 out of 4 you want to rotate through. Another major component of the program is consultation, when the interns get called on to go visit with kids who are in the hospital. Apparently there is a huge variety of medical diagnoses that the interns see throughout the year.

Another cool program is the Social Venture Program, which provides on-site consultation to child care centers and charter schools in the area. I really like this opportunity as it allows me to work in the community providing consultation and advocacy. Like Miami, there are also primary care clinics that the interns work at a half day a week. The faculty are also involved in teaching medical residents about psychology which is something that interests me as well.

The thing about this program is that there's not necessarily one part of the program that really draws me to it, but the training environment is incredible. A large number of the faculty were interns themselves in the program and either continued on working there or came back after doing post-doc somewhere else. They said they have only hired one new person in the last 10 years (out of the training faculty) and all of the current interns are planning on applying for post-doc at the hospital. This really speaks volumes to me. On a more superficial note they have the best stipend I have seen and Wilmington has a really low cost of living.

I felt really good about this interview and that I was able to stand out from the other candidates. I really think right now that this is my first choice site so far. I know it may be more hours than other sites but it seems to be worth it!

Since I was running late to the interview and forgot after, I did not get any pictures of the actual hospital but did take some pictures on the train! It had just snowed the night before so it was a really beautiful train ride before all the stress! :)

1/7 Mailman Child Development Center

Internship Site: Mailman Child Development Center (Miami, FL)

Major Rotations: Hematology/Oncology; Child Protection Team

Special Stuff:  Individualized training plans; 1/2 day a week for research; wide variety of rotation experiences; opportunity to work in primary care settings; Lots of work with children birth-5; GORGEOUS setting!
Downsides: One intern per major rotation; Location is pretty far.

Flying into Miami was amazing - it was a beautiful blue-sky day and I flew in over the water and right by the Miami skyline. This made me very excited for the internship, the scenery was so gorgeous. I had flown in early the day before the interview in order to have some beach time, however, there were several kinks in this plan. One, it was 40 degrees in Miami. Two, I was staying out near the airport, which  meant three bus transfers to get to South Beach. In the end I decided I did not feel safe enough to go which I was disappointed about but felt good about the decision.

The interview day was fairly long but everyone was really laid back and welcoming. It was funny though because the building had not turned the A/C off and it was FREEZING. All of the faculty and staff were walking around all huddled up and in coats and stuff. The training director said she had to dig for something professional to wear because she did not have any warm professional clothes. The training director was so protective of her interns (i.e. making sure that they are treated well) that I felt like she was a mother to these people, which was a cool thing. It came across in the way she spoke about how we would be treated as well.

The internship site allows their interns to focus both on basic child psychology as well as pediatric psychology, which is working with kids who have medical illnesses. This is a strength of the program as it would allow me to work in both areas without having to commit quite yet. The program also allows for each student to have their own individualized internship plan which I really like as well. A cool aspect of the program is that they have interns work off-site at primary care clinics, and there is also a "mobile" unit that travels around and provides medical care to children in rural areas. A picture of the mobile unit is to the right.

I interviewed for two major rotations: Hematology/Oncology and the Child Protection Team (CPT). Hem/Onc is a rotation where you work with children who have cancer and their families. CPT is a rotation where you provide forensic assessment for kids who are suspected of being abused. You also spend a considerable amount of time evaluating adults and suspected perpetrators as well. The CPT team described themselves as having pretty "dark" humor which is something I would fit right into I think. The saying "if you're not laughing you're crying" comes to mind. I know that that kind of humor is what got me through grad school so far - my classmates and I had to find everything funny or it would have been difficult to handle some of the stressful times.

Overall, this was the best site I have seen so far in terms of opportunities and connection with faculty and staff. The campus was like paradise and was very appealing in itself!

So I have a plane ride home, and then tomorrow (Friday) morning I take the train to Delaware!