Educational Preparation and Clinical Training within a Medical Setting

Abstract

The diversity and depth of knowledge required to educate a professionally competent clinical psychologist have expanded significantly since the early 1980s. Although the Boulder model (Raimy,1950) of the scientist-practitioner is still favored in many programs (Perry,1979 Perry,1983), there is disagreement on how much emphasis to place on training in science or practice (Peterson,1987). New models, such as the scientist-professional or scholar-professional, enjoy popularity and compete significantly with the traditional model. The reality that the majority of clinical psychologists will spend most of their lives as practitioners sometimes conflicts with the aspirations of academicians to educate persons who will devote their careers to research. It is no small task to weave an educational experience that recognizes these diverse forces and purposes into an integration of the current richness found in psychology. Some of this difficult integration was attempted at the National Conference on Graduate Education in Psychology (Bickman & Ellis,1989). A more sophisticated statement was developed at the 1990 National Conference on Scientist-Practitioner Education and Training for the Professional Practice of Psychology. This chapter focuses on one piece of this education: what clinical training possibilities exist in a hospital setting and how such training helps fulfill psychology’s larger goal, the education of scientifically minded clinicians.