To Be or Not to Be Board Certified? A Question of Quality and Identification for Psychologists

Achieving board certification in psychology is an important step in a psychologist's professional development. Board certification serves as a quality indicator for consumers, employers, and other stakeholders while providing enhanced opportunities for psychologists who complete the peer‐review process that leads to it. This commentary provides an update on trends in board certification in psychology and explores the roles and benefits of board certification as well as barriers to pursuing board certification. Board certification is an important issue to consider because more mental and physical healthcare clinicians and researchers are now embracing the biopsychosocial model. Board certification could well help with maximizing reimbursement or clinical opportunities, as well as produce a greater understanding of the biobehavioral underpinnings of comorbid mental and physical disorders. Specialist data from the American Board of Professional Psychology and membership data from the American Psychological Association were reviewed across specialty areas. The work was archival and involved no human subjects, and therefore, this study was exempt from review by the Institutional Review Board of the University of Minnesota. There are currently 4,198 board certifications across the 15 boards of the American Board of Professional Psychology. These represent a relatively small proportion (less than 4%) of U.S. licensed psychologists. The numbers correlate positively with membership ...
Source: Journal of Applied Biobehavioral Research - Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Tags: Commentary Source Type: research