Fostering telecompetence: A descriptive evaluation of clinical psychology predoctoral internship and postdoctoral fellowship implementation of telehealth education.

PURPOSE: Telehealth education within clinical psychology predoctoral internships and postdoctoral fellowships has become a frequent recommendation designed to prepare future providers with evidence-informed telehealth skills that can be applied to rural populations. Unfortunately, the availability of telehealth training among internships and fellowships, as well as areas for growth, remains unclear. Thus, the current study evaluated graduate clinical psychology internship and fellowship integration of telehealth training components before and after the onset of COVID-19.

METHODS: Individuals representing 74 internships and 29 fellowships completed author-created REDCap-hosted demographic and telehealth training surveys.

FINDINGS: Before COVID-19, 2 internships and 4 fellowships reported implementing telehealth education, with a majority of materials for both types of programs being optional educational targets and generally encompassing 0-15 hours of student education. After the onset of COVID-19, 72 internships and 27 fellowships indicated implementing telehealth education, with a majority indicating materials as mandatory and encompassing between 0 and 50+ hours. Despite increases, 73.6% of internship programs and 62.1% of fellowship programs noted a desire for their students to receive additional telehealth education in the future. Integrated educational foci are discussed.

CONCLUSIONS: The current study demonstrated positive trends in the development of telehealth education among internships and fellowships. Nevertheless, some programs can likely benefit from additional integration of telehealth components, as well as more formal programming built around field-supported competencies and models. While work is required to further clarify field offerings, the current study provided a preliminary evaluation of internship and fellowship telehealth educational offerings.