The fellowship is structured to provide fellows with a balance of advanced training in direct clinical service, supervision/teaching, clinical research, and didactics. The balance of training activities allows fellows to gain supervised training in evidence-based practice, develop critical research skills, and cultivate a professional identity in order to function independently across diverse professional settings.
Postdoctoral fellows receive supervised in-depth training in assessment, consultation, and treatment with a focus on evidence-based treatments. Fellows spend from 50-80% of the work week in activities related to direct patient care, following an individualized training plan developed in conjunction with their faculty mentors.
Postdoctoral fellows receive a minimum of two hours of individual supervision each week with attending psychologists and faculty mentors. Fellows may also be provided with the opportunity to obtain tiered supervision in order to develop their own clinical supervision skills. Additional supervision of undergraduate students who work with faculty and fellows on a wide variety of research projects is also available. In addition, fellows may provide assistance in teaching seminars with faculty members.
Research is a significant emphasis of all training programs in the Network. Postdoctoral fellows include a research component in their individual training plan that ranges from 10-40% of their training time. Research opportunities can range from quality improvement projects to applications for external funding of independent research projects. Fellows select academic/research mentors to assist with the development and refinement of critical research skills, such as peer-reviewed manuscript writing, grant development and submissions, and conference submissions and presentations.
Postdoctoral fellows participate in a core curriculum in addition to individually tailored learning activities that equate to roughly 4 hours/week opportunities. The Clinical Neuropsychology and Clinical Child Psychology specialty programs have additional didactic requirements. The current core curriculum for all postdoctoral fellows consists of the following activities:
- Postdoctoral Forum (Weekly)
- Bioethics Grand Rounds (Minimum 2/year)
- Research Education (Site Specific)
- Individually tailored didactics (e.g., Psychiatry/Neurology Grand Rounds, International Case Conference, Rackham Professional Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Certificate)
Periodic evaluations of the program, faculty, and fellows are an important part of maintaining high quality training. The evaluation process is as follows:
A. PROGRAM
An anonymous formal program evaluation is completed twice yearly by faculty and fellows. In these evaluations, faculty and fellows are provided with the opportunity to identify specific strengths and opportunities for improvement in the training program. In addition, a formal Annual Program Evaluation is held each year to identify strengths and growth opportunities for the Network training programs. Results from the program evaluations are reviewed by the Network Director and PTC to identify areas for ongoing program improvement.
B. FACULTY
Written, anonymous evaluations of the training faculty are completed bi-annually by each fellow, collated by the Training Program Coordinator, and reviewed by the Network Director. Individual training faculty are provided with an aggregate of evaluations at appropriate intervals to ensure fellow anonymity. The Training Program Directors, Section Directors, and Department Chair are also provided with aggregated evaluations for each faculty as part of the annual performance review process.
C. FELLOWS
Informal evaluation of each fellow is conducted at each monthly PTC Meeting. Formal written fellow evaluations are conducted by training faculty bi-annually, coordinated by the Network Director and Training Program Coordinator. At each evaluation period, Faculty Mentors receive all faculty evaluations for each fellow and meet with the fellow to review the evaluations in detail. Fellows may also receive feedback from individual clinical or research supervisors. All fellows meet individually with the Network Director during this evaluation period to discuss progress towards training goals identified on the IDP, review the evaluations, and provide one-on-one feedback about the program. At the conclusion of this meeting, the Network Director provides a formal written summary of the evaluations to the fellow, with a copy provided to the Faculty Mentor and maintained in the fellow’s program file. At the conclusion of training, fellows meet with the Network Director for a final evaluation meeting and receive a formal written evaluation summarizing their performance in the program relative to the training competencies.
A certificate of completion, with beginning and end dates, is provided to each postdoctoral psychology fellow upon fulfillment of program requirements. The following are the minimum levels of achievement for successful completion of our program:
- Ratings of “Ready for Independent Practice” or higher at the final evaluation period (12 or 24 months) on the OVERALL competency ratings for each of the six core competencies:
- Integration of Science and Practice (Level 1)
- Ethical and Legal Standards (Level 1)
- Individual and Cultural Diversity (Level 1)
- Assessment/Intervention*
- Research (Level 2)
- Individual Professional Development (Level 2)
*Assessment and Intervention is a Level 2 competency for the Clinical Psychology Consortium and a Level 3 competency for the Clinical Child Psychology specialty program. The Clinical Neuropsychology Consortium specialty program identifies Assessment as its Level 3 competency.
- Participation in at least 80% of the Postdoctoral Forum and approved tailored didactic activities (as specified on the Individual Development Plan), and completion of Research Education and at least 2 Bioethics Grand Rounds each year.
The Clinical Psychology Consortium is accredited as a one year position. Fellows in the Consortium at the Michigan Medicine site have the option (and are encouraged) to continue their training for a second postdoctoral year to enhance their research and advanced clinical training portfolio, provided that resources are available and program performance has been adequate.
Fellowships in the Clinical Neuropsychology Consortium, Clinical Child Psychology program, and the SMITREC program are two years in duration.
Start date for all Network postdoctoral programs is September 1st of each year.
