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In rural areas, the lack of psychologists available makes it difficult for patients to receive the care they need. The lack of psychologists available perpetuates the stigma that it is not “normal” to go to a psychologist. Also, working in rural areas is difficult for psychologists because there is a need for special training and instruction and there is not enough funding for training in rural psychology. This study aims to describe the current educational practices of graduate counseling and clinical psychology programs and post graduate internship and fellowship programs in preparing professionals to serve rural populations. Surveys created to assess rural professional training programs were sent to internship/fellowship programs and graduate programs in the United States identified as having a rural focus. Surveys were completed by 33 doctoral programs (21% response rate) and 61 internship/fellowship programs (19% response rate). Then, the responses from both types of programs were compared and contrasted. The three main barriers to educating psychologists to serve rural populations as indicated by the internship/fellowship programs are lack of interest of students working in rural areas, lack of employment opportunities in rural areas, and lack of third party reimbursement for counseling services provided. For the doctoral programs, the top three barriers are lack of qualified supervisors, accreditation requirements not allowing students enough electives to take a course related to rural mental health, and a tie between lack of employment opportunities and distance of university from rural areas. Results were also analyzed for the educational approaches to educating rural psychologists and the steps being taken to address the barriers to educating rural psychologists. The main action taken to overcome barriers by fellowship programs is providing didactic experiences related to providing behavioral health services for rural populations 55% and for graduate programs 53.8% chose integrating content related to providing behavioral health services to rural populations in required courses. Also, recommendations were made for enhancing rural training, improving internship and fellowship experiences, and addressing policy issues for graduate and post graduate programs. Both the graduate programs and fellowship programs agree that students are not as interested in going to rural areas. This could be because lack of funding in rural areas, lack of employment opportunities, and lack of third- party reimbursement for services provided by the graduate student or intern. Rural training should include educating students about rural areas by allowing students to take courses in rural psychology, placing students in rural areas, greater funding for training psychologists in rural areas, possible tele-health training to make working with rural patients easier if the location is distant from university or internship, ways for students to have an internship available after graduate school and a job after the internship, and teaching students ways to reduce the stigma of psychology in rural areas. Integrating psychology into primary care would help rural patients not worry as much about the stigma associated with seeing a psychologist and seeing a psychologist would not require an extra co-pay.

This course will help psychologists-in-training begin to develop the knowledge, attitudes, and skills to provide leadership, clinical and consultation services, as well as program development and evaluation assistance in primary care settings. The “plug and play” structure of the course is designed to enable all graduate programs, even those who do not have faculty with direct primary care experience, offer training to students in this burgeoning area of integrated primary care. Each module includes PowerPoint lectures with faculty notes, student exercises, illustrative videos that are easily accessed when the PowerPoint is in full screen mode and wifi is available, resources, and references. Instructor manuals elucidate key concepts and provide additional readings and resources. The modules can be supplemented to meet individual program needs and individual modules can be used as colloquia lectures or as adjunct lectures in existing classes. The curriculum was developed by a core group of nine primary care psychologists with vast experience working and training in integrated primary care. Some of the topic modules, such as working with older adults and managing chronic pain, were written by experts in particular subject areas, in collaboration with the core team to ensure that they retained a foundation in primary care.

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This study was designed to gather information in regard to job satisfaction, up-date demographic information, and to measure the difference between actual and desired amounts of time spent in different role activities by Virginia school psychologists. The results were compared to Levinson's 1983 study of Virginia school psychologists and to the results of a national study (Brown, 1992). Data were collected through mailed surveys consisting of a demographic data form and a modified version of the Minnesota Satisfaction Questionnaire. A total of 351 randomly selected subjects were mailed survey materials, and 83.97% responded. The data analysis utilized the responses from 197 school psychologists employed full-time in the public schools. The current sample of Virginia school psychologists indicated that 81.2% are either satisfied or very satisfied with their jobs, while 18.8% reported that they are dissatisfied with their job. Virginia school psychologists are satisfied as shown by 17 of the 20 scales measured by the modified Minnesota Satisfaction Questionnaire. The three areas of job dissatisfaction were advancement opportunities, school system policies and practices, and compensation. The results of regression analysis revealed three factors as predictors of job satisfaction: control over the types of activities performed, decision to remain in the position for the next five years, and the desire to spend more time in research activities. Virginia school psychologists report spending more time in assessment activities and less time in counseling, consultation, and research than they desire. The level of overall job satisfaction for the current sample compared to their 1983 counterparts and to a 1992 national sample is virtually identical. Although some variations exist, the top seven and last seven factors are the same for all three studies. There are no differences in levels of satisfaction between the current sample and those in the 1983 study. Virginia school psychologists are, however, less satisfied than their national counterparts in the following eleven areas: ability utilization, advancement, authority, policies and practices, compensation, creativity, independence, recognition, responsibility, supervision-relations, and variety. Implications drawn from this study were discussed. Recommendations were made for school psychologists, university trainers, employers, and professional organi / Ph. D.