No abstract

How will the accelerating profusion of knowledge affect the durability of knowledge within the various specialties and proficiencies in the field of professional psychology? A Delphi Poll was conducted to examine the current and future "half-life" of professional knowledge, regarded as the time it would take, in the absence of any new leaming, for someone to become roughly half as knowledgeable as a function of the development of new knowledge in a given field. Results of the current study indicated that the overall half-life of knowledge in professional psychology was expected to decrease within the next decade from nearly 9 years to just over 7 years, with substantial variability across various specialties and proficiencies. The anticipated half-life of knowledge varied from as much as 19 years (in the specialty of Psychoanalytic Psychology) to as little as 3.3 years (in the proficiency of Psychopharmacology). The implications of these findings are discussed in relation to the continuing movements toward professional specialization, on the one hand, and the maintenance of competence on the other.

Implications for the future of professional psychology are discussed and related to the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, patient-centered health care homes and accountable care organizations, and the growing importance of interprofessional competencies in health care. The need for increased information about the psychology workforce is related to the history of the institutional practice of psychology and how that data must be used to plan for the supply of psychologists required to meet the service demands of the changing health care system. Several challenges to the field of psychology are offered, along with steps that must be taken by the profession to prepare for increased institutionally based health care services in the future. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved).

the Editor's request, key points were taken from that presentation and focused here on pediatric and child health psychology.

Society expects autonomous professions to ensure the competency of it practitioners, and professions should facilitate the continuing education and training of its members. Given the shift from psychology as a mental health profession to that of a health profession, the authors propose a self-assessment model for the individual practitioner to gauge his or her readiness to provide professional service in expanded areas of practice. This model could also be useful to the American Psychological Association, state psychological associations, and other purveyors of continuing education programs in systematically developing postgraduate experiences. A template for self-assessment that reflects well-accepted core domains of knowledge and skills is presented.