No abstract

Psychologists on the faculties of this country's 115 schools of medicine were surveyed to ascertain whether or not they were full voting members of the medical staff of their university hospital. The results indicate that despite the fact that some of these teaching hospitals had dropped psychologists from full membership on the medical staff following the recent rounds of hospital reaccreditation site visits by the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Hospitals (JCAH), 6 of these hospitals have recently amended their bylaws to include qualified psychologists as full voting members. A review of the JCAH accreditation policies reveals that the medical staff of a hospital has more discretion in this area than previously may have been apparent.

A national survey of psychologists in medical schools was conducted, and the results were compared with those of two earlier surveys. Although many characteristics of these psychologists have remained the same, increases in age and seniority have been accompanied by increases in academic rank. Research continues to be done largely with mental health collaborators, as opposed to nonpsychiatric physicians, and to occupy more of the full-time PhD's and MA's time than any other activity. Despite the consistent finding that research is temporally the major activity of psychologists in medical schools, the strong increase in the proportion of time devoted to research that was evident from 1955 to 1964 actually receded in 1977 to below its 1955 level. Time spent doing supervision, teaching, and administrative work has been increasing. Direct survey data regarding salaries, minorities, individual freedoms, and other variables are presented here for the first time.The first survey of psychologists in American medical schools was conducted in 1913 by Franz, Southard, and Watson (Franz, 1913). The survey followed a 1911 APA recommendation that medical schools introduce psychology into their curricula and a 1912 symposium concerned with the status of psychology in medical education. Only 7 of the 71 schools that responded in 1913 offered a course in psychology (Franz, 1913). Even as recently as 1940, fewer than a dozen medical schools had appointed psychologists to their faculty (Mensh, 1962;Routh & Clarke, 1976). After World War II, however, the growth of psychology in medical schools was very rapid. The results of several surveys that document this growth are shown in Figure 1.

Close to 90% of the senior medical school psychologists surveyed in 1967 preferred that psychology be represented in medical schools as an independent department or as part of an autonomous department of behavioral science rather than as a division in psychiatry or through individual appointments (Witkin, Mensh, & Gates, 1972).

The number of psychologists holding academic appointments in schools of medicine is an index of the degree to which comprehensive medicine has advanced. It is also an indication of how viable the medical school is as an occupational setting for psychologists.A national manpower study conducted in 1976 and concluded in 1977 consisted of three modules: In the first module, chief psychologists in the 115 U.S. medical schools were surveyed regarding the number, sex, full-time-part-time status, and names of psychologists holding faculty appointments. (This survey is unique in that 100% of the medical schools provided usable returns.) Chief psychologists also were asked to indicate if they were voting members of their medical school faculties (Matarazzo,