Job Description

About Shepherd Center

With five decades of experience, Shepherd Center provides world-class clinical care, research, and family support for people experiencing the most complex conditions, including spinal cord and brain injuries, multi-trauma, traumatic amputations, stroke, multiple sclerosis, and pain. An elite center ranked by U.S. News as one of the nation’s top hospitals for rehabilitation, Shepherd Center is also recognized as both Spinal Cord Injury and Traumatic Brain Injury Model Systems. Shepherd is the only rehabilitation facility in the nation with an intensive care unit on-site, allowing us to care for the most complex patients and begin the rehabilitation process sooner. Shepherd Center treats thousands of patients annually with unmatched expertise and unwavering compassion to help them begin again.

Shepherd Center's culture is one of hope, humor, and hard work. You will enjoy career growth, strong relationships with co-workers, strong support from leadership, and fun activities that have kept over 12% of staff members working at Shepherd for more than 20 years.

Shepherd Center in Atlanta, Georgia, is recruiting for a full-time Outpatient Rehabilitation Psychologist with their Pathways program, in Decatur, GA https://www.shepherd.org/patient-programs/brain-injury/day-program. Patients in the Pathways programs work with interdisciplinary treatment teams for comprehensive rehabilitation needs. Applicants should have experience working with the full spectrum of traumatic brain injury, concussions, stroke, and trauma recovery issues. The psychologist should have specialty training in neuromedical patient populations, rehabilitation psychology, psychological assessment, and have interdisciplinary treatment team experience.

Primary responsibilities include active interdisciplinary team participation, and providing rehabilitative services for patients and their families/caregivers, which may include individual, group, and family therapy/interventions, assessments, consultations, and education. The Department of Psychology is a large collaborative group of specialists, with services in brain injury, spinal cord injury, multiple sclerosis, and pain management. The Rehabilitation Psychologist will also be involved with training postdoctoral fellows and pre-internship trainees.

JOB RESPONSIBILITIES

The Neuropsychologist provides psychological services to hospitalized and non-hospitalized patients of Shepherd Center. Accountabilities:

• Reports directly to Psychology Department Supervisors and is an active member of the Psychology Department and Shepherd Center committees and mission.
• Completes initial assessment of newly admitted patients within 72 hours of admission.
• Completes documentation and billing in the EHR on day of service.
• Provides timely documentation of progress/updated goals, as evidenced by documentation in the medical record.
• Demonstrates appropriate knowledge in the competency areas of Psychology appropriate to the patient population and setting.
• Provides education to interdisciplinary staff on potential neuropsychological, psychosocial, cognitive, emotional, and behavioral issues associated with injury/illness.
• Provides training as needed for new staff psychologists, students, and trainees.
• Provides timely consultation and communication of recommendations for biopsychosocial issues and/or behavioral issues identified by the patient’s interdisciplinary treatment team.
• Demonstrates understanding of scope of practice by seeking appropriate consultation when needed.
• Follows appropriate procedures as identified by the Department of Psychology Director (including time off requests, conference attendance, daily attendance, etc.)
• Maintains continuing education and licensure according to state and pertinent board requirements.

ADDITIONAL JOB RESPONSIBILITIES

Accountabilities:

• Thoroughly evaluates patient’s neuropsychological functioning, cognitive status, emotional functioning, and psychological history, which are subject to departmental standards and peer review.
• Formulates appropriate, individualized treatment plans and recommendations as evidenced by documented goals.
• Participates effectively in team conferences by providing communication and reports that relate to patients’ progress on their documented goals and providing feedback to address issues identified by the treatment team.
• Provides meaningful team leadership by facilitating effective team functioning through the identification of conflicts/issues that impair team functioning and the determination of appropriate solutions.
• Identifies the unique needs of a diverse patient populations (e.g., adolescent through geriatric in age, multicultural) as evidenced by the patients’ treatment plans.
• Provides culturally competent training supervision and consultation as appropriate.

QUALIFICATIONS

PhD or PsyD from an APA/CPA-approved doctoral training in Psychology.

· APA-accredited internship completion.

· 1 or 2-years supervised postdoctoral training in Rehabilitation Psychology or 2+ years’ work experience with neuromedical patient populations.

· Experience working in medical settings and interdisciplinary treatment teams is preferred.

· Eligible for licensure as a psychologist in the State of Georgia.

· Eligible for board certification in rehabilitation or health psychology.

PHYSICAL DEMANDS

• Basic office physical demands.
• Sedentary work involving sitting most of the time but may involve walking or standing for brief periods of time or exerting up to 15 pounds of force occasionally or a negligible amount of force frequently to lift, carry, push, pull, or otherwise move objects, including the human body.

WORKING CONDITIONS

• Some potential for exposure to blood and body fluids.

The above statements are intended to describe the general nature and level of work performed by people assigned to this classification. They are not intended to be an exhaustive list of all job duties performed by the personnel so classified.