Availability of Psychology Postdoctoral Training in Critical Care Settings

Purpose/Objective: US health organizations, including Division 22 of the American Psychological Association, the Society for Critical Care Medicine, and the American Thoracic Society advocate for psychological treatment that improves long-term outcomes in critical illness survivors. However, limited information exists on psychology training opportunities in critical care settings. We aim to identify and describe (1) existing psychology programs with training in critical care settings and (2) barriers to finding these training opportunities. Research Method/Design: Using aspects of the Arksey and O’Malley Framework and PRISMA-ScR reporting checklist as a guide, two independent reviewers searched the Association of Psychology Postdoctoral and Internship Centers (APPIC) Directory and Universal Psychology Postdoctoral Directory (UPPD) to identify programs with training experiences in critical care settings. Results: Searching the APPIC Directory did not reliably or accurately identify training opportunities in critical care settings for pre-doctoral interns. After duplicates were removed, searches using the UPPD yielded 31 programs for review. Of those, 22 programs met inclusion, offering heterogenous training, in critical care settings.Conclusions/Implications: These results suggest few opportunities for training in critical care settings exist and that they are hard to find using standard search methods. The identified challenges also emphasize the need for advanced search features for training opportunities within APPIC/UPPD and/or a list of programs offering these training opportunities. Our results highlight the importance of program descriptions that accurately and comprehensively reflect training opportunities–particularly relating to opportunities in critical care settings.