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Predictors of graduate student attitudes toward prescription privileges for psychologists
Author(s) -
Luscher Kristen A.,
Corbin William R.,
Bernat Jeffrey A.,
Calhoun Karen S.,
McNair Lily D.
Publication year - 2002
Publication title -
journal of clinical psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.124
H-Index - 119
eISSN - 1097-4679
pISSN - 0021-9762
DOI - 10.1002/jclp.2008
Subject(s) - medical prescription , psychology , privilege (computing) , certification , medical education , field (mathematics) , graduate students , board certification , social psychology , malpractice , clinical psychology , pedagogy , medicine , nursing , political science , law , mathematics , residency training , pure mathematics
The issue of gaining prescription privileges and its potential impact on the field of clinical psychology has special relevance for graduate students. This study was designed to investigate clinical graduate students' attitudes toward prescription authority, identify salient variables that contribute to these attitudes, and ascertain preferred models of training. Only 42.5% of respondents personally desired to obtain prescription privilege, although 61.8% of respondents favored efforts of the American Psychological Association to acquire prescription authority. Proponents and opponents were compared on their ratings of positive and negative aspects of the debate. There was strong agreement that the training should not be predoctoral and that it should lead to board certification. The strongest predictors of graduate students' attitudes were concerns about fundamental change to the field, malpractice premiums, and whether they considered it a logical extension of the field. This study provides a framework for understanding important factors influencing the decision‐making process among clinical psychology graduate students. © 2002 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Clin Psychol 58: 783‐792, 2002.