In our field of neuropsychology, significant changes are occurring affecting you, the applicant, you the patient, and as the treating/training doctors. This movement of managerial control began in 1997 with the Houston Conference, a self-proclaimed group of neuropsychology experts deciding what the curriculum should consist of leading to defining what a legitimate neuropsychologist is and the skills the student should possess in order to treat patients. This has carried over currently to the Minnesota Conference, an extension and elaboration of the Houston Conference.
What the two conferences have distilled down to is managerialism – The unfounded belief that everything can be deliberately designed and controlled from the top down. To rephrase this concept, we now call it “evidence-based practice.” In neuropsychology, this manifests through “guidelines” imposed upon neuropsychologists in the treatment of patients. These “guidelines” affects the training academic curriculum of the aspiring neuropsychologist, which has been declining in terms of practical clinical skills entering residency/fellowship programs and also we as teaching/treating doctors as to what we believe is most important for the student to succeed in the real clinical professional world, be it hospital or private practice.
Clinical skills come from what we do, including failures, adaptations, and gradually getting better with our clinical habits. Without hands-on experience across the neuropsychological spectrum, all the academic book knowledge, rote – memorization, and Zoom lectures, will not inoculate you, the aspiring doctor, from the significant changes occurring in neuropsychology, now a discipline in the medical community. The conventional clinical psychology model taught in universities or carried over into hospital neuropsychology residency/fellowship programs, will not fully prepare you for the clinical demands made upon us by physicians in their various disciplines.
Here at Neuropsychology Rehabilitation Services|LifeSpan, our 45-year history has done just that – preparing our applicants for hospital or private practice, or a combination of both. Our graduates have gone on to successful achievements in a variety of areas in society.
If our clinical environment meets your aspirations, give us a call and we will be happy to answer all your questions.
Dr. Robert Sica, PhD, ABN
Principal Partner, Founder of NRS|LS