Interprofessional collaboration and the professional competence of psychologists from the perspective of certified public psychologists in psychiatric care

精神科医療に従事する公認心理師の視点からみた多職種連携と心理職の専門性

Interprofessional collaboration and the professional competence of psychologists from the perspective of certified public psychologists in psychiatric care

Degree Grantors Yamaguchi Prefectural University

In recent years, in psychiatric care, certified public psychologists have come to be clearly positioned as members of multidisciplinary collaboration and team-based care, against the backdrop of their establishment as a national qualification. However, it remains difficult to say that how the professional expertise and strengths of psychologists are recognized and exercised within multidisciplinary collaboration in psychiatric care has been sufficiently visualized. Furthermore, research on multidisciplinary collaboration in psychiatric care from the perspective of certified public psychologists remains limited.
This study aimed to clarify the aspects in which certified public psychologists are able to exercise, as well as those in which they feel unable to exercise, their professional expertise and strengths within multidisciplinary collaboration, based on an understanding of the expertise and strengths as perceived by certified public psychologists working in psychiatric care. By doing so, the study sought to obtain insights that would contribute to the qualitative improvement of psychiatric care and to the more effective utilization of certified public psychologists within multidisciplinary teams. The participants were nine certified public psychologists employed at psychiatric medical institutions across Japan. Semi-structured interviews were conducted online. The verbatim interview data were analyzed using co-occurrence network analysis with the quantitative text analysis software KH Coder 3. The extracted subgraphs were then examined in context using KWIC concordance, followed by categorization and naming.
The results of the analysis revealed that the professional expertise of certified public psychologists is not limited to individual, technique-based expertise such as psychological tests and psychotherapy. It was shown that certified public psychologists exercise their expertise through a “translation” role—understanding patients’ internal experiences and conveying them in an accessible manner to other professionals—as well as through a “lubricant” role that facilitates and coordinates relationships among different professions. In addition, certified public psychologists were found to function with both patients and the medical team in view, serving as a link between individuals and between professional groups, and this role was recognized as an important strength in psychiatric care. On the other hand, aspects were also shown in which professional expertise was felt to be unable to be fully exercised due to differences in treatment policies, organizational structures, differences in professional expertise, and a lack of opportunities for communication. In such circumstances, certified public psychologists were found to make ongoing efforts to present their expertise and strengths in ways that could be effectively communicated, through measures such as devising electronic medical record documentation, engaging in informal communication, and conducting study sessions and psychoeducation. In order for certified public psychologists to fully exercise their professional expertise and strengths within multidisciplinary collaboration, it is important to build an environment that facilitates collaboration, including not only individual efforts and devising but also the development of in-hospital systems and mechanisms for sharing professional expertise among multiple professions. In addition, such environmental development is considered to lead to improvements in the quality of patient support.
The findings obtained in this study serve as guidance for certified public psychologists in clinical settings to recognize their own professional expertise and strengths and to further demonstrate them in their daily clinical practice. Based on these findings, it is expected that the professional expertise and strengths of certified public psychologists will be further clarified, thereby contributing to the enhancement of psychological support in psychiatric care and to the provision of comprehensive support tailored to each individual patient.

Creators Suwa Yoko