New93 role standards, now public
MedTality
Role standards

Behavioral health

Psychologist

What a licensed psychologist must be able to do without supervision: assess and diagnose soundly, test to standard, treat with evidence, and judge and manage risk to the client and others, drawn from the skills examination US and Canadian psychology boards use to license independent practice.

Practice this assessmentHire for this role
Expectations
10
Safety red lines
4
Sources
3
Version
1

Built from Association of State and Provincial Psychology Boards, American Psychological Association. Reviewed by clinicians, last on .

01What the role is measured on#

Every verdict is made of the same five dimensions. Each is scored on its own, so a candidate sees where they are strong and where to work.

  • Clinical skillsThe hands-on and judgement work of the role: recognising what matters, acting in the right order, and knowing when something cannot wait.
  • Workflow and toolsGetting the work done in a real setting: the systems, records, equipment and handoffs the role runs on, used correctly and on time.
  • Patient communicationHow the role talks with patients, families and colleagues: listening, explaining plainly, and confirming what was understood.
  • Compliance and safetyThe rules that protect people: privacy, consent, infection control, reporting duties and the safety checks the role is accountable for.
  • Role knowledgeKnowing the job itself: what the role is responsible for, where its scope ends, and who to bring in when it does.

02What a ready hire does#

What a competent psychologist does on day one, dimension by dimension.

Clinical skills

  • Builds a diagnosis from history, mental status, collateral and measures against current DSM-5-TR criteria, rules out medical and substance causes, and states the differential and what would change it.
  • Chooses a psychotherapy with evidence for this problem and person, delivers it with fidelity, measures progress, and changes course when it is not working.

Workflow and tools

  • Selects instruments with evidence for this person and question, administers them exactly as standardised, scores and interprets them against fitting norms with validity checks, and states any departure and its limits in the report.
  • Keeps accurate, timely records that show the assessment, the reasoning and the plan, and corrects them openly.

Patient communication

  • Explains, in words the person can use, the service, its risks, benefits and alternatives, fees, who will see results and the limits of confidentiality, confirms understanding and voluntariness, and revisits consent when things change.
  • Works in a way that assumes trauma may be present, gives the person control over pace and disclosure, and avoids retraumatising them.

Compliance and safety

  • Asks directly about suicide, assesses ideation, intent, plan, preparation, means, history and protective factors, formulates the level of risk, and acts on it with a safety plan, lethal means counselling and the right level of care.
  • Recognises when the law requires a report or protective action, makes it promptly through the right channel, and discloses no more than the law requires.

Role knowledge

  • Keeps the relationship in the client's interest, avoids multiple relationships that risk exploitation or impaired judgement, and manages unavoidable ones openly with consultation and documentation.
  • Recognises an ethical or legal problem in their own or a colleague's practice, consults, and raises it through the right route when informal resolution fails or is not appropriate.

03Safety red lines#

Any one of these keeps a candidate from Ready Day One, whatever the rest of the score. They are published so nobody meets them for the first time in the assessment.

  • Assigns a primary psychiatric diagnosis to a presentation with clear red flags for a medical, neurological or substance-induced cause - new cognitive decline, first psychosis late in life, a recent head injury, focal neurological signs, a new medication or heavy substance use - without arranging medical evaluation.

    A tumour, a bleed, a delirium, a medication toxicity or a dementia treated as depression or psychosis goes untreated while the person gets therapy for a condition they do not have.

  • Lets a person with current suicidal ideation and intent, a plan, preparatory acts or access to lethal means leave without a safety plan, means restriction and an arranged next step, or relies on a no-suicide contract or the person's reassurance in place of assessment.

    The period after a disclosure is when a person with a plan and means is most likely to die, and a contract or a reassurance protects the clinician's anxiety rather than the patient.

  • Reports test scores as valid, or bases a diagnosis or legal conclusion on them, after an administration they know departed from standard procedure - altered instructions, coaching, an untrained family interpreter, a third party present, norms that do not fit the examinee - without stating the limitation.

    Invalid scores presented as valid decide diagnoses, benefits, custody and legal outcomes on numbers that do not mean what the report says they mean.

  • Would enter a sexual or romantic relationship with a current client, or with a former client within two years of termination, or a business or financial relationship with a current client that serves the psychologist's interest.

    Sexual and exploitative relationships with clients cause lasting harm, are prohibited by the ethics code and are grounds for loss of licence in every jurisdiction.

04Outside the role#

Knowing where the role stops is part of the standard. Going past it is not extra credit.

  • Does not prescribe or adjust psychotropic medication, except in the few US jurisdictions that grant prescriptive authority to specially trained psychologists, and then only within that credential.Refers to or collaborates with a prescriber, and shares observations about response and side effects.
  • Does not use instruments, treatments or populations outside their education, training and supervised experience.Refers, or practises under consultation or supervision while gaining the competence.
  • Does not assume the duty-to-protect, mandated reporting or emergency detention rules of one jurisdiction apply in another; they differ across US states and Canadian provinces, including for telehealth across borders.Knows the law where the client is physically located, uses the local emergency evaluation pathway, and consults a colleague or attorney when unsure.
  • Does not release test materials - manuals, protocols, stimuli - to people not qualified to use them.Releases test data under a valid client release or court order, protects the materials, and offers to send them to a qualified professional.

05How it is assessed#

  • A spoken assessment

    An examiner talks the candidate through realistic cases from this role, and follows up the way a senior colleague would.

  • Five dimensions

    Each answer is read against the expectations above and rated on the same four-level scale.

  • The 70 bar

    Every scorecard shows the score against 70, overall and for each dimension, with the reason for the verdict.

  • Safety first

    Crossing one of the safety red lines holds a pass back, however strong the rest was.

The four levels

  1. Not yet
  2. Developing
  3. Proficient
  4. Exemplary
How a verdict is made

06Sources and review#

Drawn from the certification frameworks and practice standards below, and reviewed by clinicians. Version 1, last reviewed .

Cited as sources. Not an endorsement by the organizations named.

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