Any Advice for someone looking to get more experience in Neuropsychological Testing?

[rpsych1999]

---

Members don't see this ad.

Hello everyone! This is a bit of an exploratory question/subject that I have not fully fleshed out yet, so I apologize in advance if it feels a bit rambling.
I'm a fourth-year Psy.D. student who has spent much of my training within medical systems/settings and received a curriculum emphasis in Primary Care/Health Psychology. I am greatly interested in continuing along this vein and working within medical settings in the future.
I have been trained in certain neuropsychological testing instruments to assess and diagnose learning disabilities and ADHD but have largely done assessments geared towards psychological "readiness" to engage in certain medical procedures.
I have a great interest in exploring and learning more about how to assess and treat neurodegenerative conditions, Autism Spectrum Disorder, and Traumatic Brain Injury. I also would like to broaden the breadth of the assessments I have experience in that are commonly used within medical settings (e.g., psychological evaluations for organ transplants and spinal cord stimulators).
I have the opportunity through my internship year at a VA to engage in such testing, and I would love to develop my repertoire in such assessments beyond my internship and into my post-doc.
I am greatly interested in how to become a more competitive candidate for post-doctoral training and job opportunities within medical settings.
This brings me to my questions;
1. Within my internship with the VA, which specific tests/assessments should I look to get more training in, given my stated interests?
2. Are there specific tests that are looked upon more favorably and used more in certain areas within the United States, and would make a candidate more competitive should they have experience utilizing it? To give context to this question, I trained in the Midwest but would like to return to New York to be closer to my family after my training.
3. Are there certain courses/conferences/workshops geared toward developing my training in this regard that you would recommend I take or enroll in?
4. Anything I missed that I should pay more attention to?

Thank you so much!
Any advice is appreciated!

 

[WisNeuro]

Are you looking to do a postdoc in neuropsychology and work in neuropsychology, or do you just want more exposure?

 

[psych.meout]

Are you looking to do a postdoc in neuropsychology and work in neuropsychology, or do you just want more exposure?

Yeah, I'm unclear if OP wants to go into neuropsych or wants to be more knowledgeable when it comes to these patient populations and issues present in health psych settings.

I also would like to broaden the breadth of the assessments I have experience in that are commonly used within medical settings (e.g., psychological evaluations for organ transplants and spinal cord stimulators).

Are you saying you have experience with transplant and SCS evals and want to expand what measures and other aspects of assessment you can do with them or you don't have experience in these areas and you want to get into them?

 

[rpsych1999]

Are you looking to do a postdoc in neuropsychology and work in neuropsychology, or do you just want more exposure?

I am looking to do a postdoc in neuropsychology; however, I understand that my lack of exposure in previous practicums may serve as a hindrance.

 

[rpsych1999]

Yeah, I'm unclear if OP wants to go into neuropsych or wants to be more knowledgeable when it comes to these patient populations and issues present in health psych settings.


Are you saying you have experience with transplant and SCS evals and want to expand what measures and other aspects of assessment you can do with them or you don't have experience in these areas and you want to get into them?

I have minimal experience with transplant and bariatric surgery evaluations but have yet to conduct a SCS eval. I would like to garner more exposure to these types of evaluations.

 

[psych.meout]

I am looking to do a postdoc in neuropsychology; however, I understand that my lack of exposure in previous practicums may serve as a hindrance.

How much neuropsych prac experience do you have and how much is available on internship?

E.g., is this a neuro track for your internship or a year-long rotation for multiple days per week vs. several months of a 1 day/week rotation?

If you don't have much experience and there's not an opportunity for substantial experience on internship, it will be difficult to secure a neuro post doc.

I have minimal experience with transplant and bariatric surgery evaluations but have yet to conduct a SCS eval. I would like to garner more exposure to these types of evaluations.

How much experience with transplant and bariatric is "minimal?"

Does your internship site provide these opportunities and if so, how much experience will you be able to get?

How much overall experience do you have with health/medical/presurg assessment and how much will you be able to get on internship?

Also, what specifically are your career interests, since you want to do a neuro post doc? Are you looking to do neuro assessment or more health/medical/presurg assessment?

 

[rpsych1999]

About your first set of questions;

I did testing for learning disabilities and ADHD in my first practicum experience at a college for the purposes of allocating accommodations. There is the opportunity with the VA in my internship to do a 6-month neuropsychological testing mini-rotation and a 6-month psychological testing rotation (assessments for organ transplants, medical devices etc.), that can be coupled. This aspect of the training experience accounts for about 8-10 hours out of the 40 hours required to be on site.

Your second set of questions;
1. I've done about 4 batteries in total for both transplant and bariatric. This is all the health/medical/presurg assessment experience I have.
2. See above. Caveat; I may be able to garner more experience as this specific VA has communicated more flexibility towards accomodating to the interests of the Interns.
3. I'm looking to do both. To give some more background; I'm greatly interested in contributing to an interdisciplinary medical team. I have much training experience in chronic pain and have worked with individuals experiencing a wide array of such conditions, including chronic migraine. However, I would like to broaden my scope of practice to include a wider array of medical conditions, particularly neurological and oncological.

 

[WisNeuro]

I am looking to do a postdoc in neuropsychology; however, I understand that my lack of exposure in previous practicums may serve as a hindrance.

In this case, I would consider an extra year to get more neuro specific practica and possibly some neuro related research experience.

 

[psych.meout]

About your first set of questions;

I did testing for learning disabilities and ADHD in my first practicum experience at a college for the purposes of allocating accommodations.

Eh, that's a bit more psychoed than neuro, so I'm not sure how much it would count for matching to a neuro post doc. I'm not in neuro so I'll leave that to people who are and can speak more on it.

There is the opportunity with the VA in my internship to do a 6-month neuropsychological testing mini-rotation and a 6-month psychological testing rotation (assessments for organ transplants, medical devices etc.), that can be coupled. This aspect of the training experience accounts for about 8-10 hours out of the 40 hours required to be on site.

So, this is the internship you just matched to or one you will be applying to this fall? I'm a bit confused.

Regardless, while that sounds like really interesting experience, that's basically one day per week for a year and only half of it is in each. It's not really enough to be competitive for a neuro post doc, especially if you don't have other CV builders to enhance your application (e.g., brain cutting and other neuro didactics, neuro-focused research).

While health psych and presurg aren't quite as codified as neuro, that's also not really enough to make those areas part of your career. This goes doubly since there seem to be so many different kinds of presurg evals that you mentioned so probably won't get the breadth or depth you need in any of them. That your background is in health psych and PCMHI can help, but it doesn't necessarily get you the health assessment knowledge and skills or general medical knowledge you need for each of these types of eval.

Does the presurg rotation have inpatient experience as well, or is it just outpatient? Transplant specifically incorporates inpatient evals as well, so without that experience it will be quite lacking.

Your second set of questions;
1. I've done about 4 batteries in total for both transplant and bariatric. This is all the health/medical/presurg assessment experience I have.

Ah, that's not much at all. Another 6 months of it would be good, but again, there are so many different kinds of presurg. Yes, there is overlap in some ways, but in others there is significant diversity.

2. See above. Caveat; I may be able to garner more experience as this specific VA has communicated more flexibility towards accomodating to the interests of the Interns.

That's great, though I'd caution about anything that isn't specifically in writing as guaranteed for internship (e.g., what is written in their brochure). Otherwise, they aren't required to provide it and you may not actually get it even if they are optimistic about being able to provide it. Even if they think they might be able to accommodate something now, you can never control what happens to funding, staffing, etc.

3. I'm looking to do both. To give some more background; I'm greatly interested in contributing to an interdisciplinary medical team. I have much training experience in chronic pain and have worked with individuals experiencing a wide array of such conditions, including chronic migraine. However, I would like to broaden my scope of practice to include a wider array of medical conditions, particularly neurological and oncological.

It sounds like you're trying to do a lot of different things and you might be worse off than if you focused on a smaller number of them.

 

[rpsych1999]

In reference to your question about an internship, I am speaking of the one that I matched to a few months ago.
Additionally, the presurg rotation appears to occur both inpatient and outpatient, depending on the procedure.
Further, thank you for all this information! I appreciate just being able to talk it through as well!

 

[summerbabe]

There is the opportunity with the VA in my internship to do a 6-month neuropsychological testing mini-rotation and a 6-month psychological testing rotation (assessments for organ transplants, medical devices etc.), that can be coupled.

If you're about to start predoc internship in the summer/fall, you have more psychodiagnostic assessment than formal neuropsych experience during grad school, probably don't have any neuro research and your upcoming neuropsych rotation is mini in nature, I'm not sure if you're going to be competitive for a formal neuropsych postdoc since the pathway towards board certification in neuro probably needed to start a lot earlier.

But these internship experiences can definitely help you with future career prospects that include a lot of assessment.

 

[PsyNeuro37]

I agree that it would be difficult to get enough exposure in neuropsych from just a mini-rotation on internship to set you up to be successful in a quality neuropsych postdoc. Part of this is because just learning to administer/interpret neuropsych tests is only a small part of the knowledge needed for neuropsychology. Some of the most important core knowledge is understanding the underlying functional neuroanatomy and various neurological syndromes. As well as things like base rates, typical onset and course of various conditions, and how various other medical conditions can contribute to cognition. It is a large knowledge base that an individual would not have had exposure to in more traditional clinical psych experiences. There are many pitfalls a clinician could fall into and have no insight of if they don’t have proper foundational neuropsych training.

As far as actionable advice, definitely get whatever exposure you can on internship. Talk with your internship TD to see if there is any way to carve out a major rotation in neuropsych, and if there are weekly neuropsych didactics you can attend. I have known at least 1 person in a similar scenario to you who went on to do a 1 year neuro-heavy rehab psych postdoc after internship, and then matched to a 2-year neuropsych postdoc following their rehab psych postdoc. That is a route you can consider

 

[rpsych1999]

If you're about to start predoc internship in the summer/fall, you have more psychodiagnostic assessment than formal neuropsych experience during grad school, probably don't have any neuro research and your upcoming neuropsych rotation is mini in nature, I'm not sure if you're going to be competitive for a formal neuropsych postdoc since the pathway towards board certification in neuro probably needed to start a lot earlier.

But these internship experiences can definitely help you with future career prospects that include a lot of assessment.

Thank you!

I agree that it would be difficult to get enough exposure in neuropsych from just a mini-rotation on internship to set you up to be successful in a quality neuropsych postdoc. Part of this is because just learning to administer/interpret neuropsych tests is only a small part of the knowledge needed for neuropsychology. Some of the most important core knowledge is understanding the underlying functional neuroanatomy and various neurological syndromes. As well as things like base rates, typical onset and course of various conditions, and how various other medical conditions can contribute to cognition. It is a large knowledge base that an individual would not have had exposure to in more traditional clinical psych experiences. There are many pitfalls a clinician could fall into and have no insight of if they don’t have proper foundational neuropsych training.

As far as actionable advice, definitely get whatever exposure you can on internship. Talk with your internship TD to see if there is any way to carve out a major rotation in neuropsych, and if there are weekly neuropsych didactics you can attend. I have known at least 1 person in a similar scenario to you who went on to do a 1 year neuro-heavy rehab psych postdoc after internship, and then matched to a 2-year neuropsych postdoc following their rehab psych postdoc. That is a route you can consider

Thank you! I appreciate the actionable advice!

 

[cara susanna]

I would definitely try to get a formal rotation in neuropsych (if your internship does rotations)