https://www.va.gov/nebraska-western-iowa-health-care/work-with-us/internships-and-fellowships/
See also:
https://www.nebraska.va.gov
The doctoral internship is a 52-week full-time training program in clinical psychology focused on training "excellent generalists" prepared for delivery of high quality care to rural and highly rural Veterans. The NWI Internship currently offers 6 training positions within 4 training tracks across the 4 training sites (Grand Island, Lincoln, Omaha and Norfolk).
The internship begins on Monday July 14, 2024. For the 2025-26 training year, we have 6 training positions across the 4 training sites.
All Interns achieve the same profession-wide competencies but have variations in the journey. Two tracks have rotations whereas the others do not, but follow the rotation calendar for the evaluation process.
The Grand Island-based Interns spend one day per week in the Assessment Clinic. The other rotations are General Outpatient Mental Health (GMH) and Primary Care Mental Health Integration (PCMHI) . The Grand Island track includes both individual and group work in the outpatient clinic as well as group work within the residential substance abuse treatment program.
The Lincoln-based Intern has three year-long ‘rotations’ – GMH 2 days per week; PTSD 1 day per week; and Assessment Clinic one day per week. The GMH and PTSD training in Lincoln are primarily individual therapy experiences, although some group work may become available. There is an outpatient intensive substance abuse treatment program, and in the past some Interns in Lincoln have participated in the Anger Management group in this program. Provided the Intern is meeting expectations and if sufficient clinical experiences are available, they can request some of their GMH hours to be used within the PCMHI treatment environment.
The Norfolk-based Intern does not have separate rotations nor different supervisors for different types of intervention cases. The Norfolk-based Intern trains to the same competencies as the other training sites with a similar array of case types but in the order of how they walk in the door, rather than through rotational structure. The Norfolk-based Intern does more travel to the other training sites than his/her peers, which is also typical of rural psychology practice. When traveling to other training sites using the VA station vehicle, the Norfolk-based Intern can expand his or her clinical training experience and supervision across the other training sites.
The Omaha VA training structure has intervention rotations – one with the PTSD/PCT team and the other with the outpatient General Mental Health (GMH) team under a BHIP supervisor. The Omaha-based Interns participate in a year-long Assessment Clinic and shares didactics and group supervision with trainees and supervisors across four training sites. There are possible opportunities for elective experiences in areas such as residential treatment, PCMHI, and whole health.
Applicants invited to interview for the six open positions are eligible to rank any or all of the 4 tracks/training sites. All tracks are interviewed on January 9th or 10th (if invited) with participating faculty representing the range of training sites. Each track is ranked separately by both applicant & NWI with a single interview despite using the 4 different Match numbers.
This is a single unified Internship program within a Scholar-Practitioner model with the aim of developing competent, well-rounded psychologists prepared for independent practice as “excellent generalists” in rural America. That said, the majority of our trainees have gone on to Post-Doctoral training with others going into entry level jobs. Training is the primary goal of the program, with delivery of patient care in a variety of clinical settings, consultation-liaison services, didactics, and supervision or mentoring as the primary methods of training. Interns work with a variety of Veterans in respect to background, cultures, age, and disabilities, and presenting concerns with a particular emphasis on developing the range of skills relevant to generalist rural practice. The goal is to meet all core competencies as defined by APA including development of core interprofessional competencies to allow graduates to become high functioning members of interprofessional health care teams.
The NWI internship site agrees to abide by the APPIC policy that no person at this training facility will solicit, accept, or use any ranking-related information from any intern applicant.
See Brochure for details.