PhD/PsyD University of South Florida Neuropsychology Post-Doc

[markovnikoving]

I am the current neuropsychology post-doc at University of South Florida. I have gotten questions from prospective applicants about the program. I realize that not all prospective applicants have a way to contact me, so I am posting the data below from my first 12 months of post-doc to disseminate this information to a wider pool of prospective applicants.

General

• I am the second post-doc in the program ever. I am the first post-doc in the program since it became a member of APPCN.
• My salary changed two times:
  • My initial salary was $41,000/year ($1,298.63 every 2 weeks).
  • In the 7th month, my salary increased to $47,659/year ($1,512.15 every 2 weeks). The paperwork stated the reason for this increase was, “Increasing salary to minimum post-doc salary per Office of Graduate Studies policy”.
  • In the 11th month, my salary increased to $52,500/year ($1,654.83 every 2 weeks). There was no reason stated for this increase.
• I rented a 2-bedroom apartment near the USF campus for $2,159/month. My commute was 15 minutes to the North location (University Professional Center) and 40 minutes to the South location (South Tampa Center).
  • The average rent for a 2-bedroom apartment in Tampa is currently $1,997/month (as of 12/08/2024; https://www.apartments.com/rent-market-trends/tampa-fl/)
• I paid ~7.5% of each paycheck into a mandatory retirement fund (no option to opt out). I paid $50/month for health insurance, $12.64/month for dental insurance, and $5.92/month for vision. See attached brochure for all the benefits options for 2025.
• The department reimbursed all of my expenses for licensure, professional organization membership, and conference attendance.

Clinical

• The total number of outpatients I saw was 235.
• I saw 0 inpatients. The contract with Advent Health Tampa ended, so there was no inpatient rehabilitation experience as described in the training brochure.
• Weekly caseload: The following data exclude 3 weeks in which I saw 0 patients due to illness, holiday, or vacation (49 weeks total).
  • The modal number of outpatients I saw per week was 6 (range: 0-8; mean: 5; median: 5)
  • 1 week with 0 patients (2.0%; the week after New Year’s, all no-shows)
  • 2 weeks with 1 patient (4.1%)
  • 3 weeks with 2 patients (6.1%)
  • 8 weeks with 3 patients (16.3%)
  • 6 weeks with 4 patients (12.2%)
  • 6 weeks with 5 patients (12.2%)
  • 14 weeks with 6 patients (28.6%)
  • 7 weeks with 7 patients (14.3%)
  • 2 weeks with 8 patients (4.1%)
• Patient demographics
  • Age:
    • Age 4-16: 29 (12.3%)
    • Age 18-59: 80 (34.0%)
    • Age 60+: 126 (53.6%)
  • Sex:
    • Women/girls (including one transgender girl): 107 (45.5%)
    • Men/boys: 128 (54.5%)
  • Race:
    • Caucasian: 173 (73.6%)
    • Latino/a: 32 (13.6%)
    • Black/African-American: 20 (8.5%)
    • Other: 10 (4.3%)
• Patient primary diagnostic category
  • Movement disorders: 66 (28.1%)
  • Memory disorders: 34 (14.5%)
  • Neurodevelopmental disorders: 27 (11.5%)
  • Epilepsy: 27 (11.5%)
  • Functional cognitive disorder: 21 (8.9%)
  • Cognitively normal (no diagnosis): 14 (6.0%)
  • Psychiatric: 13 (5.5%)
  • Autoimmune disorder: 11 (4.7%)
  • Cerebrovascular: 8 (3.4%)
  • Oncology: 4 (1.7%)
  • Head injury: 3 (1.3%)
  • Hydrocephalus: 2 (0.9%)
  • Encephalopathy: 2 (0.9%)
  • Transplant: 1 (0.4%)
  • Headaches: 1 (0.4%)
  • Spinal cord stimulator evaluation: 1 (0.4%)
• I started recording when I received report feedback in the 4th month. As of 12/08, I have received feedback on 27.0% of reports. This includes when feedback was, “The report is good.” I have received no feedback on 73.0% of reports (this is for reports written in the first 12 months, so the most recent of these was the last week of August. All of these reports are posted at this time).
• I observed or participated in a total of 10 Wadas. I observed my first Wada in month 8.
• I observed 0 depositions or testimonies.
• All patients were tested using psychometrists. The daily clinic schedule for each neuropsychologist typically had either two patients scheduled in 4-hour slots or four patients scheduled in 2-hour slots.
• The supervisors were regularly at their homes or other off-site locations while psychometrists were testing their patients or I was interviewing/testing patients.

Didactics

• The following data exclude 4 weeks in which no didactics were held due to holiday, vacation, or AACN (48 weeks total).
  • The mean number of hours of didactics per week was 4 hours and 9 minutes.
  • USF Neuropsychology Didactics were canceled 22 times (45.8%).
  • I did not rotate at Advent Health Tampa, so I did not attend any Inpatient Rehab Discharge Planning Meetings.
  • APPCN requires that member programs provide 10% time for educational activities. Of 48 weeks, 72.9% of weeks met the 10% educational activity minimum.
    • To supplement the didactics provided by the fellowship, I attended virtual didactics at my internship site and asynchronous didactics via KnowNeuropsychology and APPCN. When removing these additional didactics (i.e., counting strictly the didactics provided by the fellowship), 54.2% of weeks met the 10% educational activity minimum.

Research

• APPCN requires that member programs provide 10% time for research activities. I did not track my research hours, so I don’t have data on what percentage of weeks met the 10% research activity minimum.
• I requested IRB approval to be added to the archival database protocol in month 4. This was not completed by the end of month 12.

I have three pieces of advice for those applying to post-doc:

• Send the list of sites you are considering to past and current supervisors, older students, and anyone else you trust in the field of neuropsychology. Ask them if they know anything about the programs or know anyone who has graduated from those programs. You can get a lot of good information this way.
• Make sure to meet with the current post-doc(s). Pay attention to whether the program automatically gives you time with them or their contact information.
• Read what your potential supervisors have posted on public list-servs. For example, read the “DEI Letter from Neuropsychology Postdoctoral Training Directors.8.15.23” (posted on the AACN Community Discussion forum on 08/16/2023) and consider whether you will take this into account in your post-doc search.

Good luck, post-doc applicants.

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