Article archive / February 1, 2012
Originally published: . Volume 3, No. 6. Source pages: 5.
The Louisiana State Board of Examiners of Psychologists will likely go forward with updating requirements for continuing education, Executive Director Ms. Kelly Parker told the Times recently when asked about the board’s progress on this topic. While any changes to the law will be immediate, they will not affect the current reporting period.
Ms. Parker pointed to the November minutes where Chair Tony Young was still waiting to hear from the Association of State and Provincial Psychology Boards (ASPPB) regarding their recommendations. In the November meeting Dr. Young made the motion to move forward with changes and suggested preparing a draft of changes for the boards approval. The motion passed.
The board had previously discussed requiring licensees to earn 40 units every two years and discussed new categories of credit suggested by ASPPB.
The ASPPB provided its draft proposal on “competence and licensure” which presented ideas about new licensing requirements for maintaining competency. The authors recognized a growing trend in many professions that acknowledges that educational activities may not always lead to genuine competence. Self- assessment of competence is not always accurate, and approaches to continuing education assume that the psychologist can accurately rate his or her own abilities and deficits, the authors of the report explained.
The new guidelines for the LSBEP will likely track the ASPPB’s recommendations, according to various reports. If so, psychologists will be able to include peer consultation hours, practice outcome monitoring, writing for peer-reviewed publications, and other new methods for showing competence and receiving credits that can be submitted to the board when they renew their licenses.
The ASPPB noted that studies have found that people overestimate their abilities and this is particularly true for those falling in lower quartiles. Another concern that emerged was “…the common educational practice of massed training (a one day workshop, or two or three successive days), while appearing to promote the rapid acquisition of skill and self- confidence does not necessarily promote the retention of skill.”
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