Supervision
Our commitment to provide multiple supervisors who are actively involved and easily available to help with daily cases is a real strength of our program. This multiplicity also affords Residents exposure to different clinical and conceptual styles. Residents typically receive 4 or more hours of supervision per week and feel very positive about the amount and quality of supervision they receive. Residents have an Overall (primarily administrative) Supervisor, morning Rotation Supervisors, afternoon Track Supervisors, and have access to any faculty person as a case supervisor or mentor.
Overall Supervisor
 Due to the complexity of Residency training and the diverse interests and educational needs of Residents entering Residency training, the MCG/Charlie Norwood VAMC Residency provides an Overall Supervisor (OS) for each Resident prior to the beginning of the Residency. The OS is more in an administrative role, charged with the duty to develop an understanding of the unique educational needs and interests of the Resident and to develop and monitor a yearlong strategy to maximize the training experience available. The OS plays a vital role throughout the year in addressing Rotation schedules and insuring that target areas of need and interest are adequately addressed.
Rotation and Track Supervisors
 While the OS orchestrates the mixture of training throughout the year, the Rotation and Track Supervisors supervise clinical cases at a particular training site. It is possible to have more than one supervisor during a rotation and one or two track supervisors as well. The Rotation Supervisor's responsibility for a Resident's cases generally ends with the ending of the 4-month rotation, whereas the Track Supervisor remains in a supervisory role throughout the year. Supervisors serve to model and instruct in the desired clinical and professional skills. Most of the rotations involve multiple supervisors; therefore, the average individual supervision time provided to the Resident exceeds 4 hours per week.
Based on our Empirical Clinician training model, all supervisors are encouraged to:
- Provide didactic discussions regarding research findings pertinent to case material
- Provide research articles/books pertinent to the research findings relevant to case materials
- Routinely probe the resident regarding learning issues around case materials that would lead to resident searches of research findings relevant to case material
- Encourage residents to include research references in written treatment plans.
To develop integrative approaches to health care issues, all supervisors are encouraged to:
- Review the contributions that could be made by other health care disciplines in the care of residents' patients
- Review medications being prescribed for their patients and provide guidance regarding the nature of medications being used - their benefit and potential side effects
- Assist residents in identifying reference materials (including web-based databases) in efforts to better understand medical issues pertaining to their patients. Also, supervision by non-psychology faculty is encouraged
 It is required that the Rotation and Track Supervisors have a relatively formal discussion with the Resident of her or his progress six weeks after beginning the rotation. Each supervisor makes a report not less than every four months to the Residency Core Committee after discussion between the supervisor and supervisee concerning the evaluation of the Resident's performance. These evaluations are used to assess educational progress and further develop educational plans for the Resident.
Case Supervisor
If special expertise is needed on a case, or if the Resident has a special interest in working with a faculty person, a Case Supervisor can be added at any time. This includes supervision of a research project. The Case/Research Supervisor, though not responsible for most of the Rotational or Track experiences, would be responsible for the appropriate supervision of the case or research project and must provide feedback in verbal and written form to the Resident and to the Training Director and Core Committee each 4-month block.
Mentor
 After the Resident gets to know the faculty, we encourage, but do not require the Resident to seek a personal mentor relationship with a faculty person. In the past, the faculty mentor has acted as a friend, informal counselor, ombudsman, role model, and case supervisor. Mentors can be changed at will; when this occurs, it should be reported to the Training Director.
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