Correction to: An Interprofessional Framework for Telebehavioral Health Competencies

Psychometric Validation of the Nursing Professional Competence Scale Among Italian Nurses and Albanian Nursing Students

Background and Purpose: The main aim of this study has been the psychometric validation of an Italian translation of the Nurse Professional Competence Scale-Short Form (I-NPCS-SF), testing its validity and reliability. Methods: A multiphase design was used for the I-NPCS-SF translation and psychometric validation: (a) cultural and linguistic validation, (b) content and face validity, and (c) construct validity. Results: The I-NPCS-SF showed adequate linguistic translation, cultural adaptation, and content validity. Confirmatory factor analysis supported a four-factor structure of the I-NPCS-SF, in explaining data obtained from nurses and nursing students. Conclusions: The I-NPCS-SF demonstrated evidence of validity and reliability in measuring four professional competencies. Having an appropriate tool to be applied in the Italian context for professional competence self-assessment constitutes an essential step in measuring professional competencies.

Column on Telebehavioral Health Education, Training, and Competency Development: Current and Future Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 has resulted in many worldwide rapid and major changes in how behavioral health education, training, supervision, and service delivery are being done and will have significant long-term implications for the future of telebehavioral health (TBH). Mandates for social distancing during the pandemic necessitated urgently changing from in-person forms of education, training, supervision, and service delivery to uses of telecommunications, often with minimal preparation. This column on telebehavioral health education, training, supervision, and competencies presents some examples of how organizations, programs, and practitioners generally successfully adapted and responded to these sudden circumstances. How some of the major barriers to the adoption of telebehavioral services in the USA were quickly changed, and considerations for the future education, training, and service delivery of telebehavioral health are identified.

"What Next?": Toward telebehavioral health sustainability in couple and family therapy

As a response to the COVID-19 global crisis, many in the couple/marital and family therapy (CMFT) professional community quickly met the challenge of providing services to clients via telebehavioral health (TBH) services. As this public health emergency endures, family therapists must continue to engage in TBH practice professionally and ethically. The rapid adoption of TBH with minimal training and experience during this public health emergency can result in crises for both individual therapists as well as for the profession in implementing electronic record-keeping, conducting virtual sessions, and communicating online with various clinical populations. The risk of insufficient training and supervision create a challenge to new and experienced family therapists. This article summarizes the work done by the profession thus far to respond to this public health emergency and presents a roadmap of recommendations for navigating those challenges into the future and offers ideas about how to sustain quality TBH practice.

Responding to the Psychological Needs of Health-Care Workers During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Case Study from the Medical College of Wisconsin

With the advent of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, health-care workers have been faced with an inordinately high level of trauma as frontline providers. The Medical College of Wisconsin (MCW) partnered with affiliate hospitals and community partners to mobilize a matrix of available support and interventions to deliver psychological services to reach all levels of health-care providers in timely, accessible formats. While virtual peer support groups were the most utilized resource among the support group options, other opportunities also provided unique benefits to learners whose education had been disrupted by the pandemic. Mental health must be prioritized for health-care workers in the event of future public health crises. Lessons learned from this pandemic indicate that it is critical to involve learners early on in the process in order to meet their educational needs and to increase access to evidence-based care.

Toward proficiency in telebehavioral health: applying interprofessional competencies in couple and family therapy

During the coronavirus pandemic, many behavioral health professionals providing psychotherapeutic services, including couple/marriage and family therapists (C/MFTs), quickly changed from providing in-person services to telebehavioral health (TBH) services, with specific reliance on teleconferencing. Many therapists were thrust into telehealth with minimal or no prior telebehavioral health experience, education, or training. Although TBH services have been shown to be effective and efficient with mental health and substance abuse problems, the teaching and learning of telebehavioral competencies have generally not been included in the formal education and training received by C/MFTs. This article presents an existing interprofessional telebehavioral health competencies framework not before published in C/MFT journals. This article will also demonstrate how those competencies are applicable to the education, training, and practice of telebehavioral health by C/MFTs. Implications for educational, service, and regulatory organizations are presented.

A consolidated model for telepsychology practice

OBJECTIVE

In this paper, we identify available telepsychology guidelines, understand similarities and differences, and organize the contents into a model of core practice domains pertinent to a variety of applications of telepsychology practice.

METHOD

A scoping review of current telepsychology guidelines was conducted to identify, organize, and distill available telepsychology guidelines (Arksey & O'Malley, 2005, Int J Soc Res Methodol, 8, 19-32).

RESULTS

We identified overlap among five sets of telepsychology guidelines currently available and presented a consolidated model including nine practice domains influenced by practice setting and modality.

CONCLUSIONS

Telepsychology has the potential to address current issues in availability, accessibility, acceptability, anonymity, and affordability of mental health services but establishing or engaging in telepsychology practice has been daunting for many practitioners. Telepsychologists can disseminate applications of this model in different settings and with different modalities and this practice model can inform future development of competencies.