The integrated scientist-practitioner: A new model for combining research and clinical practice in fee-for-service settings.

Abstract

American Psychological Association (APA) guidelines require that all psychologists be trained to integrate science and practice in their work. The majority of psychologists have been trained in a scientist-practitioner model to both utilize and produce scientific research. However, the day-to-day integration of research and clinical practice is rare for most psychologists. Changes in the health care system, increased emphasis on evidence-based practices, diminished funding for psychosocial research, and decreases in tenure track faculty positions mean that new models are needed for both clinical practice and research productivity. Although this rapidly changing professional landscape poses significant challenges, these changes may also create new opportunities to fulfill the ideal of an integrated psychological science. Some fee-for-service settings could be restructured based on social business models to promote research productivity among clinicians, improve clinical outcomes, and provide a new home for psychological researchers who would like their work to be more connected to the applied aspects of their science. In this paper, we outline some of the reasons why, to this point, psychosocial research has never occurred in a robust fashion in private fee-for-service settings. We then outline some potential ways of overcoming barriers to conducting research outside of academia, including how to carve out and fund dedicated research time within a clinical practice setting. Finally, we provide a case example of a new business model to support this research, called the clinical-research social business model, in which profits from the income-generating activities of the business serve as a stable, internal funding source for in-house research endeavors.

Exploring differences in psychological professionals' attitudes towards and experiences of complementary therapies in clinical practice

“…While psychology is firmly based within the scientistpractitioner model and reliant on evidence-based practice (O'Kelly, 2004) attitudes towards evidence-based practice can differ between psychologists working predominantly in clinical practice and psychological professionals working predominantly in academia. These differences relate to the consumption, implementation, usage, and attitudes towards empirical research and evidence-based practice (Appleby, Roskell, & Daly, 2015;LeJeune & Luoma, 2015). Some practicing psychologists working in clinical practice may be more resistant to using evidence-based practice to inform their clinical practice than academics working in a researchbased role (Lilienfeld, Ritschel, Lynn, Cautin, & Latzman, 2013).…”

“…The convention in the empirical literature (LeJeune & Luoma, 2015) is to refer to psychological professionals who predominantly work in clinical settings as "professional psychologists." These professional psychologists are more likely to be consumers of research rather than producers and are engaged predominantly in a clinical role, such as an independent private practice or community mental health (Kavanagh, 2015).…”

“…The convention in the empirical literature (LeJeune & Luoma, ) is to refer to psychological professionals who predominantly work in clinical settings as “professional psychologists.” These professional psychologists are more likely to be consumers of research rather than producers and are engaged predominantly in a clinical role, such as an independent private practice or community mental health (Kavanagh, ). In contrast, professionals predominantly working in academia are usually referred to as “academic professionals.” Academic professionals are likely to have an academic appointment, such as a lecturer, and be the manufactures and creators of research.…”

President's Message

“…Many other barriers to conducting practice-based research exist (e.g., difficulty accessing an Institutional Review Board [IRB], time, financial constraints, etc.) and their proposed solutions have been the subject of other papers (see LeJeune & Luoma, 2015) as well as forthcoming works (see Codd, in preparation).…”

Establishing Consumer Protections for Research in Human Service Agencies

“…In the field of psychology, a mature and well-established profession, the scientist-practitioner model was developed at the Boulder Conference in 1949 as a mechanism to produce integration between research and practice (Baker & Benjamin, 2000). Training on the scientist-practitioner model has long been required as a part of graduate-level coursework in clinical psychology (American Psychological Association, 2013); however, the requirement has fallen short in supporting the day-to-day integration of research into clinical practice (LeJeune & Luoma, 2015). The field of behavior analysis, a much younger but rapidly growing independent discipline, might find itself in similar straits if there is not a fluid interchange between the science of behavior analysis and the professional practice of the discipline.…”