newspaper(content) RECENT EVENT Support:

Intern Rights and Responsibilities, Evaluation, Due Process and Grievance Procedures

CAPS is now offering teletherapy.

If you are new to CAPS and would like to be referred for these services, please call (402) 472-7450 and Press 2 to speak with the front desk. If you are wanting an in-person appointment, please visit our scheduling webpage.

The CAPS training program has the responsibility to comply with the NICPP internship requirements. CAPS understands the developmental stressors that are inherent in the transition from a graduate school setting to an internship setting. Specifically, interns are exposed to a full-time clinical caseload, which typically includes difficult cases and client crises, while learning new agency requirements, policies, and procedures. Additionally, CAPS is pleased to provide extensive supervision of the interns. This may increase the interns’ personal and professional vulnerability. While the internship year provides a critical professional opportunity to: (a) learn and refine skills, (b) increase one’s professional confidence and (c) enhance one’s professional identity, it is also a time of increased stress and disequilibrium. Consequently, it is the responsibility of the CAPS training team to follow the structure and procedures of the NICPP requirements. We will also explore opportunities that can facilitate growth and minimize stress. Some of the preventative measures we provide include, but are not limited to, an extensive orientation, working with interns to provide clear and realistic expectations, clarifying training goals, and providing professional development meetings. CAPS supervisors will also provide clear and timely evaluations with positive suggestions for growth. We are here to provide support whether it be from the primary supervisors, the supervisory team, and/or training director.

Intern Responsibilities

With regard to intern behavior and performance, the general expectations of the Training Program are that the intern will:

  1. Function within the bounds of the:
    • American Psychological Association Ethical Principles of Psychologists and Code of Conduct and
    • American Psychological Association Standards for Providers of Psychological Services and Specialty Guidelines for the Delivery of Services.
  2. Function within the bounds of the laws and regulations of the State of Nebraska.
  3. Function in a manner that conforms to the policies and procedures of Counseling and Psychological Services (CAPS) and the University Health Center (UHC) Policies and Procedures Manual.
  4. Function in a manner that conforms to the policies and procedures of the NICPP Training Manual.
  5. Demonstrate proficiency in the requisite clinical skills as required to successfully carry out the tasks at CAPS.
  6. Demonstrate proficiency in relevant assessment and evaluative procedures as required to successfully carry out the tasks at CAPS.
  7. Demonstrate the ability to communicate clearly and precisely in both oral and written formats.
  8. Demonstrate the ability to integrate relevant professional standards as a professional psychologist into one’s repertoire of behaviors.
  9. Demonstrate openness and an affirming attitude toward cultural and individual diversity.
  10. Participate in training, service, and continuing education activities with the year-end goal of being able to provide services across a range of activities and with a frequency and quality appropriate to that of a staff psychologist.

Intern Rights

Psychology interns are expected to further develop and deepen psychological skills and the ethics of practice during their internship year. The internship year is a time of focusing on intrapersonal and interpersonal processes through self-reflection. At all stages of training, CAPS assumes the responsibility for providing clinical experiences, assessment those experiences, and providing continual feedback to the interns in order to improve skills, remediate problem areas, and/or to prevent individuals, unsuited in either skills or interpersonal limitations, from entering the professional field of practice. The CAPS Supervisory Team is responsible for monitoring the interns’ progress to benefit and protect the public and the profession, as well as the intern.

The interns have the right to receive clear statements of the standards and expectations by which they are evaluated. The standards and expectations are thoroughly reviewed during the internship orientation by the NICPP.

Throughout the year, the interns receive two hours of weekly individual supervision. In addition, interns receive supervision for group therapy, supervision for the provision of supervision to the CAPS’ trainees, supervision during case conference, and secondary supervision in the intern’s area of concentration. During these meetings, interns will be given informal, verbal feedback on their performance.

Overview of Intern Performance Evaluation and Feedback

CAPS follows the NICPP process for evaluation of intern performance and works with the NICPP to follow the due process guidelines. Please review the NICPP Manual for more detail in each of the area of (a) Evaluation of Performance and (b) Due Process.

The Evaluation Process

The NICPP continually assesses each intern's performance. Feedback from the assessments facilitates interns' professional growth by acknowledging strengths and identifying performance areas that need improvement. Formative evaluations occur on a regular basis to provide ongoing input and feedback regarding an intern's performance and support the continual development of interns' skills and competencies. Formal evaluation forms are completed twice in the intern's program. Specifically, a midyear evaluation is conducted, wherein each intern's performance and goals are reviewed, with recommendations for subsequent activities and actions articulated. Likewise, a summative, end of year evaluation is completed to provide an appraisal of the intern's competencies at the completion of their internship experience. Supervisors review these assessments and offer recommendations in individualized meetings with the interns. In the meetings, differences between interns' and supervisors' appraisals are expected to surface and, in most cases, be resolved. After meeting, the supervisor and intern sign the written evaluation and forward it to the UNL Director and/or Associate Directors.”

Due Process

“The NICPP follows due process guidelines to ensure that decisions about interns are not arbitrary or personally based. The program uses the same procedures to evaluate all interns, and it has appeal procedures that permit any intern tochallenge program decisions.”