There is an often unacknowledged difference between urban and rural practice in psychology which lacks clarity, in part, because of the lack of a common definition of rurality. Rural psychology in Canada presents complex and nuanced aspects of professional practice. The professional and social milieus of rural communities position the practising psychologist within a context that may differ vastly from urban settings. The rural context highlights the need to define this specific practice setting. This paper proposes a tentative definition of rural Canadian professional practice in psychology. This is meant to elucidate the distinct practice, training, and ethical considerations that may be the realities of the psychologists who are in professional practice in rural Canada. Rural professional practice is unique and Canadian training programs are urban-based. Training of future psychologists needs to acknowledge the unique features of rural practice to meet our obligations to students specifically and to rural Canadians generally. This is enhanced with a shared definition of rural professional practice in psychology.

Although the literature in rural, northern, and remote (R&N) psychology and professional ethics for this setting is limited, it is clear that this area of psychological practice presents a specific context which must be considered for ethical decision-making. Existing literature suggests that overlapping relationships, community pressure, generalist practice, interdisciplinary collaboration, and professional development concerns are aspects of R&N practice that may be more prevalent. When they are, they pose risks by complicating professional practice and the resolution of related ethical issues. This article highlights the ways that demographic and practice characteristics may instigate ethical issues in R&N professional practice. We briefly review these considerations in relation to the literature, professional ethics, the Canadian Code of Ethics for Psychologists (Code), and case examples from our own practices. More specifically, we discuss how the Code provides guidance in applying the ethical principles to decisionmaking in R&N communities. Further, we suggest practical applications for ethical decision-making acumen inherent in the Code.

In this paper we present a case study of a self-paced university course that was originally designed to support independent, self-paced study at distance. We developed a social media intervention, in design-based research terms, that allows these independent students to contribute archived content to enhance the course, to engage in discussions with other students and to share as little or as much personal information with each other as they wished. We describe the learning design for the intervention and present survey data of student and tutor perception of value and content analysis of the archived contributions. The results indicate that the intervention was positively received by tutors and by the majority (but not all) students and that the archive created by the students' contributions was adding value to the course. We conclude that the intervention was a modest, yet manageable example of a learning enhancement to a traditional cognitive-behavioral, course that has positive impact and potential with little negative impact on workload.

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The complexities of professional ethics are best understood and interpreted within their sociohistorical context. This paper focuses on the experience of 20 rural psychologists from across Canada, a context rife with demographic and practice characteristics that may instigate ethical issues. Employing hermeneutic phenomenology, these qualitative research results are indicative of professional struggles that impacted the participants' experience of professional ethics and raised key questions about policy and practise. Concerns regarding competition highlight potential professional vulnerability, beget the idea of fostering general psychological practice, and question the role of professional bodies in addressing rural shortages. Dependency on government funding models and decisions highlights the benefits and medical cost-offset effect of psychological services' role in funded medical care. The controversial prescriptive authority debate for psychologists raises myriad concerns that are particularly salient to rural practitioners. These include changes to training and practice, with risks of psychopharmacology gaining prominence over behavioural health interventions. National inconsistencies in level of registration add to the growing shortage of practitioners. Finally, the results illuminate the need for advocacy to move beyond the literature and into public policy to increase public awareness, decrease the stigma of mental illness, and develop rural Canadian psychology. Although limited to this study, these results allowed for a fuller and more robust understanding of rural practice in consideration of professional ethics, which may inform policy, science, or ethical clinical practice.