The science of training III: Supervision, competency, and internship training.

Abstract

In this third installment of our review on the science of training, we examine empirical articles associated with two pan-training areas, supervision and competency, before considering the capstone predoctoral training experience of internship. Critical issues considered include supervision effectiveness, differences and diversity in supervision, competency assessment, competency problems, internship match, and internship training. We offer conclusions and discuss intersecting implications across these areas (e.g., changes to the internship application to reflect norm-referenced assessments of competency by supervisors). We reiterate our call for a decrease in tribalistic rhetoric and a sharpened focus on curating an evidence-based approach to training. To that end, we advocate for greater stewardship concerning the science of training. We encourage directors of health services psychology training programs to disseminate program evaluation efforts into the peer-reviewed literature. We also encourage accrediting bodies to more clearly ground regulations in an empirically derived evidence-base. We conclude by proposing a recurrent conference designed to provide (a) pragmatic assistance to directors in transforming program evaluations into submission ready articles for dissemination into the peer-reviewed literature, (b) a venue for establishing collaborative research that builds on data accumulated across programs, and (c) opportunities for learning necessary methodological or analytic skills.

Applicant factors contributing to interview selection, ranking determination, and judgement of “Fit” among health service psychology internship training programs

“…, 2006). Incorporating empirical literature reading into the pre-doctoral internship curriculum is also useful for training (Callahan & Watkins, 2018;Stewart & Chambless, 2007), and research skills are also necessary for interns to fully read and appreciate the findings of those articles. Given the frequent desire for training in evidence-based practices observed in qualitative coding (i.e., Therapy/Theoretical Orientation) and that favorable views of research are also related to positive perceptions of evidence-based treatments (Cooper et al, 2008), the reason for a lack of emphasis on research production seems somewhat unclear.…”

Development of the standardized supervisee framework as a novel approach to supervision training.

“…Therapists in training receive monitoring and feedback of their work (paradoxically, via supervision!) which facilitates growth; supervision is the primary vehicle for learning how to be a therapist (Callahan & Watkins, 2018). And yet, even though simply doing supervision is not sufficient to ensure competence (Mann & Merced, 2018), many supervising psychologists never receive monitoring or feedback on their supervision (Falender, 2018), which may explain the unfortunate prevalence of harmful supervision (i.e., a form of inadequate supervision causing psychological, emotional, or physical harm to supervisees; Ellis, 2017; Ellis et al, 2013; Mann & Merced, 2018).…”

Supervision training in APA-accredited school psychology doctoral programs: An analysis of syllabi.

“…References to Professional Competency Problems were also limited in syllabi, and this domain was the focus of only one week on only one syllabus, and was not evaluated. This may be viewed as problematic for a number of reasons (see recent summaries by Callahan &Watkins, 2018, andForrest &Elman, 2014), but especially because excluding this topic from supervision training might mitigate supervisors' preparedness to serve the critical gatekeeping function of supervision.…”