Responding to graduate students' professional deficiencies: A national survey

Abstract

Seventy‐one doctoral programs in professional psychology were surveyed with respect to the incidence of studentS' professional deficiencies and related procedures. Professional deficiencies, particularly limited clinical skills and personality/emotional problems, were reported by 89% of the respondents, twice the number that have official policies for dealing with such problems. Incidence of limited clinical skills was related positively to interviewing applicants and use of practicum grades for evaluation and related negatively to using recommendation letters and reliance on clinical supervisor's assessment. Responses to deficiencies reflected appropriate due process concepts and were most likely to include terminating students and psychotherapy referral. Recommendations are made for definitions of professional competencies, development of policies, and research on the reliability and validity of screening and evaluation mechanisms.

Criteria of Nonacademic Characteristics Used to Evaluate and Retain Community Counseling Students

“…Within the literature, terms such as counselor competence and counselor impairment have been used to de-scribe personal behaviors and characteristics (Procidano, Busch-Rossnagel, Reznikoff, & Geisinger, 1988). In fact, as early as the 1950s, these terms were used to describe the "personality predictors of effectiveness in counseling" (Carlozzi, Campbell, & Ward, 1982, p. 233).…”

Challenges in Addressing Graduate Student Impairment in Academic Professional Psychology Programs

“…Because of the challenges inherent in self-and peer monitoring of graduate student impairment given their developmental stage, responsibility then falls upon individual academic training programs. However, in a survey of doctoral programs, Procidano, Busch-Rossnagel, Reznikoff, and Geisinger (1995) found that although 89% of graduate programs reported graduate student impairment because of insufficient clinical skills and/or personality or emotional problems, only half of those reported having official policies for dealing with such problems.…”

Msx1 and Msx2 are expressed in sub‐populations of vascular smooth muscle cells

“…Most program chairs (76%) reported identifying one to three problematic student behaviors per year that required some sort of response from the program faculty. In a comparable study, Procidano et al (1995) surveyed 71 doctoral programs in professional psychology (including clinical, counseling, and school psychology) and found that approximately 52.5% of responding programs indicated that they had some policy in place for dealing with professional deficiencies among students, but only about 35 programs had policies that were written. Thus, according to their findings, one fourth of doctoral clinical, counseling, and school psychology programs have no policy (not even an informal one) for dealing with issues of professional competency among students, and approximately half do not have written policies in place.…”