Truman Medical Centers

Match #192517

Internship positions available: 2
Residency/Job positions available: 2

Our Mission

Truman Medical Centers is an academic health center providing accessible, state-of-the-art quality healthcare to our community regardless of the ability to pay.

Our Vision

Leading the way to a healthy community

About Our Site

Truman Medical Centers is a nonprofit academic health system located in the Kansas City, Missouri metropolitan area. TMC has two hospitals, the largest and most comprehensive behavioral health program in the area, a long-term care facility, and multiple primary care practices. The downtown location, TMC’s Health Sciences District, is the largest provider of outpatient specialty care in Kansas City, operates the busiest adult emergency department in the city, and has a Level 1 trauma center. The suburban hospital, TMC Lakewood, is located near Lee’s Summit and provides a range of specialty and outpatient services and houses a 16-bed older adult psychiatric unit. Truman Medical Centers Behavioral Health is a leader in the treatment of mental health and substance use issues. Helping around 10,000 patients per year, TMC BH provides a comprehensive array of mental health treatment to persons living in the Kansas City metropolitan area.

Students and other trainees maintain a constant presence at TMC. The inpatient psychiatric units provide training opportunities for local nursing programs, as well as social work, expressive therapy, and counseling students. TMC serves as a training center for psychiatry residents in conjunction with the Center for Behavioral Medicine and the University of Missouri-Kansas City. TMC Behavioral Health Acute Care’s psychology department provides training for practicum students, doctoral interns, and post-doctoral residents. TMC BHAC initially provided training rotations to doctoral interns of the Center for Behavioral Medicine, which shares a building with the TMC downtown inpatient behavioral health units. In 2013, TMC BHAC established its own independent inpatient internship program. The internship program was initially accepted as a member of the Association of Psychology Postdoctoral and Internship Centers (APPIC) in 2014 and merged with the APA-Accredited National Psychology Training Consortium – Central Region in 2018.

Training Opportunities

TMC’s Behavioral Health Acute Care units are located downtown and housed inside the building for the Center for Behavioral Medicine, where TMC operates two 25-bed inpatient psychiatric units. The patient population includes adults 18 and older with a vast range of cultural and socio-economic backgrounds. The most common diagnoses seen within TMC’s Behavioral Health Acute Care units include: Schizophrenia, Schizoaffective Disorder, Bipolar Disorder, Phencyclidine Use Disorder, Alcohol Use Disorder, Cocaine Use Disorder, Cannabis Use Disorder, Major Depressive Disorder, Generalized Anxiety Disorder, Borderline Personality Disorder, Antisocial Personality Disorder, Intellectual Disability, Autism Spectrum Disorder, Posttraumatic Stress Disorder, Neurocognitive Disorder, Somatic Symptom Disorder. The average length of stay is one week, although some patient stays are shorter while others may be much longer. Many patients present with 96-hour involuntary holds, and the treatment team may file for 21-day civil commitments, potentially followed by 90-day civil commitments. Interns will have the opportunity to attend court hearings and witness psychological testimony as available.

There are additional clinical opportunities provided when possible at TMC Lakewood’s older adult psychiatric unit, as well as behavioral consultations at the medical hospital and contracts with area colleges regarding campus threat assessments.

Interns will gain exposure to related practice areas, including risk assessment, civil commitment proceedings, and guardianship hearings when available. Interns routinely gain supervision experience through the use of master’s level and doctoral practicum students. The TMC internship program is designed to provide interns with a breadth of training focusing on empirically-supported assessment and treatment methods. Interns gain in-depth exposure to inpatient mental health treatment, which involves specific services to aid in acute mental health crises and a high degree of interdisciplinary collaboration. Interns will participate in several training programs within the first month of their internship to introduce them to TMC’s corporate policies, behavioral health program, and acute psychiatric setting. There will be additional required trainings throughout the course of the year provided by both TMC and NPTC.

Interns will be assigned to treatment team groups on either of the acute units (2C or 2D) for a period of six months, although clinical responsibilities will generally occur across both units. Students will spend the second six months primarily assigned to the opposite unit’s treatment team. This allows interns to experience both acute units and gain exposure to a greater number of psychiatrists, caseworkers, and other professionals who primarily remain on one unit. Due to the fluctuating nature of acute settings, interns do not have a specific caseload they are required to maintain. However, there are set group responsibilities and individual interventions with patients that are dependent upon the interns’ required hours and patient needs across both units. Psychological assessments are also distributed among interns and assessment practicum students when ordered by psychiatry. Individual supervision will be provided by two staff psychologists who are scheduled full time on the inpatient units. Each supervisor will generally provide intensive supervision for either therapy or assessment. Interns will also participate in group supervision with a third licensed psychologist, generally offsite at a TMC outpatient location. There is also generally a post-doctoral resident present on the inpatient units to provide additional guidance and secondary supervision.

The goal of the internship is to ensure that interns achieve an intermediate to advanced level of proficiency in providing professional assessment, intervention, and consultation services that are firmly grounded in psychological science. During the internship year, all interns will complete at least 10 psychological evaluations. Inpatient evaluations typically involve a combination of a brief clinical interview and selection of measures that include the MMPI-2-RF, MCMI-IV, WASI-II, BCSE, M-FAST, and TOMM. Additionally, interns will provide a range of clinical intervention services and must demonstrate competence in treatment planning, crisis intervention, individual therapy, group therapy, and consultation with other professionals.

Interns will participate in weekly assessment seminars to increase their assessment knowledge, which begins with general psychometric reviews and proceeds with presenting didactic information and report examples regarding a variety of specialized assessment areas, including police fitness-for-duty, guardianship, threat assessment, disability, bariatric surgery, parenting capacity, NGRI/IST, etc. TMC interns can participate in case conferences and grand rounds through the Center for Behavioral Medicine along with its interns and medical residents.

Example Schedule

Typical workdays will include attending multidisciplinary treatment team meetings, gathering patient outcome data, providing group therapy, providing brief individual therapy, and completing psychological assessments. Each week will also include 2 hours of group supervision, 2 hours of individual supervision, 2 hours of journal review, and assessment seminar. While most work-related duties should be accomplished during the normal workday, additional training requirements, such as reading assignments and completion of dissertation requirements, may have to take place outside of normal work hours at times in order to achieve a total of 2000 hours.

Interns typically work a Monday – Friday schedule from 8:00 to 4:30. No weekend work, on-call, or holiday work is required. However, given the nature of working in a hospital setting, vacation days must be coordinated to ensure consistent coverage, and no specific days off outside of the formally recognized eight holidays are guaranteed. Vacation day requests should be made as early as feasible. It is also vital to patient care and functioning of the department that any days utilized for illness be submitted as quickly as possible prior to the expected scheduled work. As a hospital setting, all employees are expected to present for their shifts regardless of weather conditions. Any expected delays should be promptly forwarded to the primary supervisor. An example of the typical weekly schedule for interns is provided below:

Interns have a dedicated workstation located in a training office shared with the postdoctoral resident on the BHAC unit 2C, while practicum students are housed in a separate office on 2D. Interns have their own permanent workstation for the year, which includes a shared phone, individual computer, and a large window with a view of one of the building’s many courtyards. All interns have access to terminals connected to the local area network (LAN) through which all staff has access to programs such as Microsoft Office, Internet browsers, an electronic records systems provided by Cerner (PowerChart / eCare), online test scoring, and other online training tools. The Psychology Department maintains various tests utilized in an acute mental health setting, which are generally maintained in the interns’ training office, where interns can read the manuals, practice with the instruments, and easily access them when needed.

The training office contains commonly used books, including workbooks on DBT and CBT, the DSM-5, and assessment user guides and manuals. Additional reading materials may also be borrowed from the licensed clinical staff on site. The shared network G: drive can be accessed from all TMC computers and contains group curriculum materials, individual interventions, report templates, multicultural articles, and other educational resources on various relevant topics. Each intern also has a personal H: Drive they can use for online storage.

Placement Locations

Truman Medical Centers Behavioral Health System is comprised of the following locations:

• Truman Medical Center-Health Sciences District: The inpatient unit is located downtown and housed inside the building for the Center for Behavioral Medicine, where Truman operates two 25-bed inpatient units.
• Truman Medical Center-Lakewood: This hospital provides psychiatric treatment for older adult patients and additional mental health treatment, such as electro-convulsive therapy.

It should be noted that the Truman Medical Centers office locations are approximately 2 hours and 45 minutes away from Springfield, Missouri where interns must travel to monthly didactics. Due to the distance, interns at this location will be provided with some travel reimbursement considerations for monthly didactic training.

Possible Internship Placements:

• Lakewood Counseling Service: This outpatient center opened in 2006 to provide mental health and substance abuse services to citizens of Eastern Jackson County. It provides a broad range of clinical services for children, adolescents, and adults.
• Healing Canvas: This outpatient center provides mental health services to citizens in the downtown Kansas City area. It provides a broad range of clinical services for children, adolescents, and adults.

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Life in Kansas City, MO

The Kansas City metropolitan area offers a wide range of activities and attractions to ensure there are plenty of ways to unwind during time away from training.

Sports

Kansas City offers multiple professional and semi-professional sporting events throughout the year, including baseball, ice hockey, football, soccer, college basketball, and auto racing. Be here to watch the 2015 World Series Champions in action.

Museums and the Arts

Kansas City has a variety of activities related to music, the performing arts, and visual art, including the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts, the 18th and Vine Jazz District, Crossroads Art District, Negro Leagues Baseball Museum, WWI Museum at Liberty Memorial, Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, and multiple indoor and outdoor concert centers.

Shopping and Entertainment

The Kansas City area provides several excellent shopping locations, including the Country Club Plaza and Legends Outlets. It also offers a variety of nightlife options, including the Power & Light District, Westport District, and multiple casinos. There are also multiple locations for family fun, including amusement and water parks, the Kansas City Zoo, LEGOLAND Discovery Center, and the Kansas City Sea Life Aquarium.