Fitness to Practice in the Profession of Psychology: Should We Assess this During Clinical Training?

Assessment of Fitness to Practice (FTP) within clinical psychology training programmes requires balancing the individual’s right to pursue their vocation of interest and the rights of others with whom that person comes in contact. The past decade has seen international growth in policies related to formal FTP assessment built into tertiary health care training programmes leading to professional qualifications. Australian clinical psychology training programs are part of this movement; several programmes have such policies in place, and others are constructing them or considering adopting them, but opinions on the matter vary. We draw data on FTP policies from a survey of 35 clinical psychology programmes in Australia and provide discussion of the central issues raised by consideration of such a policy. Both clinical directors and clinical student trainees identified students who persist in wanting to pursue training despite grave difficulties coping with the non-academic aspects of learning to effectively treat clients as a major concern. There is a need for discussion and debate about FTP policies within the profession in order to determine the best way to move forward in this area.