Rural and remote psychologists' views on provisional psychologist supervision

Abstract

Objective: South Australia's rural and remote psychology workforce is experiencing shortages. However, in seeking to place provisional psychologists in rural settings, universities have found it difficult to recruit supervising psychologists. This study seeks to understand what rural and remote psychologists view as the barriers and facilitators of supervising provisional psychologists.

Method: A qualitative research methodology was used. Ten rural or remote psychologists participated in semi-structured interviews. Data were analysed using reflexive thematic analysis.

Results: Barriers and Facilitators were explained by participants, including three sub-themes to Facilitators not previously reported in the literature: Benefits, Ownership, and Motivation. All participants expressed altruistic motivations for supervision however factors such as the Medicare rebate rates, feelings of division within the profession of psychology, and confusion about required qualifications to supervise acted as deterrents to offering supervision. Differences were evident between supervision in public and private practice contexts.

Conclusions: The findings from this study warrant further exploration and action from the profession and government. Proposed solutions to the barriers identified include government funding for supervision, equalising the Medicare rebate items, and better promoting the benefits of supervising. This research offers novel insight into the views of rural psychologists on supervision and professional commitment more broadly.

Keywords: Psychology; rural and remote; supervision.

Figure 1.

Concept map.