Hello, I'm Taylor and I'm Jess.
We are current psychology
interns at the Orlando VA.
We're so excited.
You all are interested
in the APA accredited
Orlando VA
internship program
and want to share a little bit
about the site and program with you.
The Orlando VA,
as part of the Department
of Veterans Affairs,
which is the nation's
largest health care system,
which provides health
care to the nation's military veterans.
It serves over
9 million veterans each year
throughout the 151
VA hospitals and clinics.
The Orlando VA was established
in 2006
and has grown to be the fourth
largest hospital within the VA.
It serves over 114,000 veterans
each year throughout the Orlando
and Central Florida region
and mental health alone,
we see over 34,000 veterans each year.
The Orlando VA's Primary Hospital at Lake
Nona is one of the newest VA
hospitals in the nation,
opening around 2015.
Other facilities
include the Lake
Baldwin Outpatient Clinic
near downtown Orlando,
two other outpatient clinics
at Daytona Beach and Viera,
and five smaller community
based outpatient clinics
throughout Central Florida.
Within the Mental Health Service,
we have over 100 psychologists
with a wide range of clinical expertize.
The diversity of our community
population is reflected within our staff.
For example,
there are a number of psychologists
who are able to provide mental health
services in both English and Spanish,
which is great
given the large
spanish-speaking population in Orlando.
It's also important to note
that within the Orlando,
VA, psychologists are viewed
as valued members
of the medical staff
were integrated
into almost every area of the hospital
and provide
a wide range of services in both mental
health and medical clinics.
From the mental health perspective,
we offer services in outpatient,
inpatient and residential settings.
Psychologists are also integrated
into a variety of medical settings,
such as primary care teams,
and provide
specialty medical evaluations
and treatments
such as transplant evaluations,
health behavior
interventions and psychiatric evaluations
within medical units.
Psychologists
even hold a variety of leadership
and administration positions
throughout the hospital.
You could say
we're kind of a big deal around here.
Now let's get into the good stuff.
The internship program?
Definitely.
The Orlando VA internship as a generalist
pre doctoral internship program
that follows
the scholar practitioner model
of training across
a wide range of clinical rotations
experiences offered
through the internship year.
one of the available rotations
is in the Behavioral Health
Integrated Program, or BHip,
which is the behavioral health
outpatient clinic.
Each Bhip
team is made up of psychiatrists,
psychologists, social workers,
nurses and mental health counselors.
The Bhip is basically the home base,
and each
veteran is assigned to be Bhip team.
Exactly.
While on the Bhip
rotation, interns are an integral
part of the interdisciplinary team
and experience
a wide range of clinical diagnosis
and treatment approaches.
At times, patients from the bhip
teams will be referred out to various
specialty clinics
for additional focused care,
and it's on those specialty services
that interns can learn
more focused interventions or work
with more specific diagnoses, right?
For example,
the trust team is the PTSD
treatment clinic.
It provides short term evidence
based treatment
for PTSD,
including cognitive processing therapy
and prolonged exposure.
While on the PTSD rotation,
interns gain experience
treating a variety of traumas,
including combat, military, sexual trauma
and nonmilitary trauma,
like adverse childhood events.
As a side note,
trust was my personal favorite rotation
because it was so rewarding
to see patients
I was working with makes
such treatment progress
in a short amount of time.
Another popular rotation
for interns
is the mental health
residential rehabilitation
treatment or DOM.
The Orlando VA has two doms
which are residential
treatment programs,
servicing veterans with multiple
and severe
medical conditions,
psychological disorders, addiction
and or psychosocial challenges.
The residential component
is really exciting to work in
because it emphasizes
a therapeutic community
that incorporates clinical treatment
into the veterans lifestyle and self-care
and personal responsibility,
while on Adobe
rotation, interns experience and engaging
residential environment
and receive
a lot of great clinical experiences
with groups as well as one on one.
If you're interested in
treatment of addiction,
the substance use disorder
intensive outpatient
program is a great option
because interns gain experiences
with assessment
and treating mild to severe substance
use disorders.
While in the rotation, interns engage in
both group and individual psychotherapy,
as well as work closely
with the other
interdisciplinary team members.
If you're more interested in a fast
paced, exciting experience
in health psychology
than primary care,
mental health integration or PC
may be a great fit for you.
Here, psychologists are integrated
into the VA's primary care medical teams.
While on rotation, interns work
alongside primary care
physicians and nurses
to provide brief functional assessments
and interventions
focused on both medical
and mental health conditions.
In addition to the major
rotations, interns have the.
Option of completing
minor experiences in areas
like hospital administration
or specialized
psychological evaluations
or interventions, too.
And these are just a few of the awesome
opportunities available.
You can check out the Internships
brochure for an updated
and comprehensive
list of available rotations
and minor experiences.
We've touched on this a bit already,
but one of the great things
about the Orlando VA's
internship program is
that interns are an integral
part of their rotations.
Interdisciplinary team
As part of the team, interns attend
regular team meetings and huddles
where they frequently provide
patient updates,
assessment results
and consultation to other providers.
Frequently, interns are providing
feedback and consultation
with a wide range of other professionals,
including psychiatrists,
social workers,
case managers, nurses,
pharmacists, primary care physicians.
Occupational physical therapists.
Basically everyone in the hospital.
Speaking of interacting
with other professions,
we have regular
interdisciplinary didactic
where we receive training alongside
other mental health trainees.
Like psychiatry residents
didactic cover
a wide range of topic areas,
including evidence based
practices, assessment,
diagnosis, diagnostics, ethics
and professional development.
Special attention is given to issues
related to diverse
populations and multicultural factors.
There are also weekly seminars covering
new and relevant
research, as well as case
conceptualization skills.
Interns additionally receive
specific training on
how to provide supervision,
which consists of training
and competency based supervision skills.
This training
also has an experiential component
where we provide tiered supervision
to graduate level
practicum students for part of the year.
Your experience
an internship extend beyond your training
and time at the hospital.
Orlando and Central Florida
have so much to offer
in terms of quality of life.
Let's talk about some of the things
this area can
offer during your internship here.
first, Orlando is huge.
Within Orlando, there are 115 unique
neighborhoods and districts, each
with their own personality and flavor.
For example,
the area just outside the main
VA hospital in Lake
Nona is known as medical city
because of the numerous hospitals,
medical research facilities
and the UCF Medical School.
Many of the VA staff
and trainees choose to live in this area
because it's close to the main
VA hospital,
but also because it's a developing area
and new restaurants
and businesses
are popping up all the time.
Boxey Park
is a personal favorite of mine.
It's an outdoor event venue
with various permanent food trucks
and live music on the weekends,
Lake Nona as also close
to the Orlando International Airport,
which is really convenient for travel.
Prior to the main hospital
at Lake
Nona being built, Lake Baldwin
was the main facility for the Orlando VA.
It's a newly renovated
large outpatient clinic
and the other main site
for the internship program.
It's located in Baldwin Park,
which is closer to downtown Orlando,
and Baldwin Park itself is a trendy area
for young professionals,
complete with great restaurants
running trails around the lake
and what I believe
is a five star dog park
and the happiest place in Orlando.
Orlando
is a great place
to live and has a lot to offer outside
of the internship.
Obviously, Orlando
is known for its amusement parks
such as Disney World,
Universal Studios and SeaWorld.
Along with the parks,
there are many other attractions
such as the Orlando Eye,
which is a giant ferris wheel,
internationally known shopping outlets
convention centers, farmers
markets and more.
Orlando is also home to the Orlando Magic
basketball team
and the Orlando City Soccer clubs.
If sports isn't your thing,
we also have a rich performing
arts culture,
including a professional ballet company,
a philharmonic orchestra,
museums, concert venues and for theater.
The new Dr.
Phillips Center for Performing Arts
and just outside Orlando.
There's so much more to explore.
You can unwind at the various beaches
and check out nearby
coastal towns such as Daytona Beach.
You can also watch a rocket launch
from Kennedy Space Center,
or you can explore
the numerous natural springs
where you can kayak paddleboard.
Check out all the wildlife
and maybe even swim with the manatees,
but don't try to ride them, right?
Don't try to ride them.
All in all,
Orlando is a wonderful place to live in
and has something to offer for everyone.
Now, before we leave you,
we want to share
that the experience both
within the internship
and life outside has been invaluable
and we would not trade it for the world
as Taylor
and I go on to the next steps
in our careers.
We feel the internship at the Orlando VA
has been instrumental in
preparing us for our futures
as psychologists.
Many of the interns found working
within the VA system to be very rewarding
and have chosen to stay within the VA
for their careers.
Broadly speaking,
the generalist training
has set interns up for careers
in all settings,
including clinical work research.
research within a wide range
of specialties,
past interns have gone on to work
in specialty areas such as trauma,
substance abuse, health psychology
and general mental health.
Overall, the Orlando
VA internship genuinely offers
something for everyone,
and it doesn't hurt to live in a place
where there are 1,000,000 fun and unique.
Things to do outside of internship,
having been through the
internship process ourselves,
we recognize the importance
of finding an internship
that's a good fit for you
both professionally and personally.
We believe the Orlando VA
internship is a great fit for those
looking for a generalist training,
especially if you're considering
the possibility of a career
serving veterans.
As we leave you,
we wish you all the very best
in the match process
and cannot wait to work
as colleagues in the future.