FACTORS INFLUENCING CLINICAL COMPETENCY IN TRAINEE CLINICAL PSYCHOLOGISTS

Abstract

Clinical competency describes the values, attitudes, knowledge, and skills for a clinical psychologist. Clinical competency frameworks are useful in guiding the shift towards competency-based education in professional training programmes. However, not much is known about the factors that influence clinical competency in training programmes for trainee clinical psychologists. Therefore, two studies aim to address the question: “What pretraining characteristics influence the achievement of clinical competency in trainee clinical psychologists”. Study 1 utilized a Delphi poll, to qualitatively investigate the opinions of 18 subject matter experts. The panel developed and validated a list of 11 factors representing essential characteristics that prepared trainee clinical psychologists for professional training. Study 2 analyzed archival data from 72 trainees from the NUS master of clinical psychology programme. The study found that trainees who were research assistants or educators, performed better than associate psychologists in research components of the program, while associate psychologist had better odds of passing clinical placements on the first attempt, compared to educators These findings are discussed along with potential implications, limitations, and future research in clinical competency for trainee clinical psychologists.