Pathways to success for psychologists in academic health centers: from early career to emeritus

Experienced Practitioners' Beliefs Utilized to Create a Successful Massage Therapist Conceptual Model: a Qualitative Investigation

Background

The massage therapy profession in the United States has grown exponentially, with 35% of the profession’s practitioners in practice for three years or less. Investigating personal and social factors with regard to the massage therapy profession could help to identify constructs needed to be successful in the field.

Purpose

This data-gathering exercise explores massage therapists’ perceptions on what makes a successful massage therapist that will provide guidance for future research. Success is defined as supporting oneself and practice solely through massage therapy and related, revenue-generating field activity.

Participants and Setting

Ten successful massage therapy practitioners from around the United States who have a minimum of five years of experience.

Research Design

Semistructured qualitative interviews were used in an analytic induction framework; index cards with preidentified concepts printed on them were utilized to enhance conversation. An iterative process of interview coding and analysis was used to determine themes and subthemes.

Results

Based on the participants input, the categories in which therapists needed to be successful were organized into four main themes: effectively establish therapeutic relationships, develop massage therapy business acumen, seek valuable learning environments and opportunities, and cultivate strong social ties and networks. The four themes operate within specific contexts (e.g., regulation and licensing requirements in the therapists’ state), which may also influence the success of the massage therapist.

Conclusions

The model needs to be tested to explore which constructs explain variability in success and attrition rate. Limitations and future research implications are discussed.

Psychologists in Academic Administration: A Call to Action and Service

Academic psychologists' backgrounds may prepare them for many aspects of academic administration such as: understanding and working with people; prioritizing others' needs and institutional needs; and managing projects and budgets, e.g., for research grants or training programs. Contemporary academic health centers also may provide opportunities for psychologists to serve in academic health administration. This article encourages psychologists to consider preparing for and seeking administrative and higher-level leadership roles. Six psychologists serving diverse administrative roles-from vice chairs in medical school departments to presidents of universities with academic health centers-reflected on: their paths to administration; their preparation for administrative roles; and the commonalities and differences between the work and skills sets of psychologist health service providers and the work and skill sets required for higher level administrative and leadership roles.

Career Development and Promotion in an Academic Health Center

This paper examines the successive stages of the career path for psychologists who commit to spending their professional lives working in academic health centers. Key factors for success at each stage are described, as are the steps required for progressing to subsequent stages of professional development. The paper breaks new ground by including consideration of a post-retirement stage, "Professor Emeritus status."

The Career Adjustment Experiences of Women Early Career Psychologists

Each year, approximately 71% of new early career psychologists are women, yet no empirical research has examined the unique career adjustment needs and experiences of women early career psychologists. This study presents the constructivist grounded theory analysis of 22 in-depth interviews with women early career psychologists regarding their experiences of developing a career in psychology. Three primary spheres of influence on career adjustment emerged from the data: identity-based influences, experiential-focused influences, and outcome-oriented influences. These major spheres of influence are further refined into themes and subthemes that play a role in the career experiences of women early career psychologists. The impact of these themes on the women’s career trajectory is explored, and implications for research, training, policy, and practice are presented.

Introducing a primer for career development and promotion: succeeding as a psychologist in an academic health center

Noting a lack of such a resource, the authors developed a primer summarizing key concepts for career development and promotion for psychologists working in an academic health center. The present article presents a brief summary of the primer; however, the full version is available as an APAHC membership benefit (or for a small fee for non-members) by visiting http://www.div12.org/section8/index.html and is a supplement to the December issue of Volume 19 of the Journal of Clinical Psychology in Medical Settings (Supplementary material 1). The primer complements other APAHC membership benefits, which may be helpful for early career or more seasoned psychologists planning for career transitions.

Early Career Boot Camp: a novel mechanism for enhancing early career development for psychologists in academic healthcare

The purpose of this article is to describe a pilot mentoring program for Early Career Psychologists (ECPs) working in Academic Health Centers (AHCs) and synthesize the lessons learned to contribute to future ECP and AHC career development training programs. The authors describe an early career development model, named the Early Career Boot Camp. This intensive experience was conducted as a workshop meant to build a supportive network and to provide mentorship and survival tools for working in AHCs. Four major components were addressed: professional effectiveness, clinical supervision, strategic career planning, and academic research. Nineteen attendees who were currently less than 5 years post completion of doctoral graduate programs in psychology participated in the program. The majority of boot camp components were rated as good to excellent, with no component receiving below average ratings. Of the components offered within the boot camp, mentoring and research activities were rated the strongest, followed by educational activities, challenges in AHCS, and promotion and tenure. The article describes the purpose, development, implementation, and assessment of the program in detail in an effort to provide an established outline for future organizations to utilize when mentoring ECPs.