Goals:
Our overall goal is to train competent, ethical and reflective psychologists who have acquired the awareness, knowledge and skills fundamental to the practice of professional psychology. We believe becoming a skilled professional in psychology is a lifelong process that requires self-awareness, desire for personal growth, openness to feedback and change, and a passion for learning.
CAPS supports the training goals of the Nebraska Internship Consortium in Professional Psychology (NICPP). When completing an internship through the NICPP, we expect prospective psychologists to gain experiences and competencies in:
- Applying ethical decision-making to complex clinical and research activities
- Developing knowledge and skills in delivering services within primary care settings and collaborating across settings and care providers.
- Developing and demonstrating a commitment to evidence-based intervention procedures.
- Receiving exposure to a diversity of psychological and mental health services within broad community contexts and across a breadth of treatment facilities.
- Demonstrating a commitment to diversity and individual differences
- Developing an appreciation for and commitment to research, including scientific practices and/or research activities.
- Developing research questions related to their work with clients and answering those questions.
- Developing competencies to evaluate the efficacy of their work with diverse clients and systems.
Evaluation:
We continually assess each intern’s performance on a regular basis to provide ongoing input and feedback regarding the intern’s performance. This also allows us to support the continual development of the intern's skills and competencies. Formal evaluation forms are completed twice during the internship year. A mid-year evaluation is conducted where the intern’s performance and goals are reviewed. And, an end-of-year evaluation is completed to provide an appraisal of the intern's competencies at the completion of their internship experience.
Evaluations are based on observation of the intern’s work and/or verbal feedback supervisors receive from CAPS team members, clients, and the University community. The format includes eight basic competency areas which include Intervention/Therapy Treatment; Consultation/Collaboration; Assessment/Evaluation/Testing; Teaching/Presenting/ Supervising Others; Research/Program Evaluation; Ethical/Legal/Cultural Awareness; Professional/Interpersonal Conduct; Supervision/Professional Development; and a general summary section.