Originally published here.

It is projected that by 2045, racial/ethnic minorities in the U.S. will become the majority. Unfortunately, the numbers of racial/ethnic minority psychologists have not kept up with population trends. This discrepancy poses challenges for many psychology training sites, including the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA). There is a lack of data on what factors are important for psychology applicants, including racial/ethnic minority trainees when they are considering internship and postdoctoral training sites.

This quality improvement project surveyed 237 VA psychology trainees (59% psychology interns, 32.5% psychology postdoctoral fellows, 69.6% White, 9.3% multiracial, 6.8% Asian American or Pacific Islander, 5.1% Black/African American, 4.2% Latinx American, 0.8% Native American, 0.8% Middle Eastern) to study what factors are important when considering training sites. Results indicated that overall, racial/ethnic minority and White trainees endorsed similar primary factors when considering training programs.

Site related factors (e.g., perceived workload, training opportunities) and future work related factors (e.g., ease of licensure, obtaining a first job) were top considerations regardless of race/ethnicity. The groups diverged in secondary factors with racial/ethnic minorities desiring infusion of diversity in training more than White applicants and White applicants considering quality of life factors such as extracurricular opportunities and convenience of daily living more important than racial/ethnic minority applicants.

Qualitative data indicated applicants perceived VA training sites to be more welcoming and offer more opportunities for learning about diversity than non-VA sites. Recommendations for recruiting psychology trainees in general, and then specifically for racial/ethnic minority applicants are discussed. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).

Recruitment recommendations include the following: (a) developand highlight the presence of a diversity committee or mentorshipprogram in advertising materials and during interviews, (b) provideeducation and guidance for staff regarding the explicit incorporationof cultural humility in language, including discussing questions thatmay be asked during an interview to increase staff members’understanding of their stimulus value and impact.

Such actionsmay also empower other staff members to engage in more opendialog about diversity by providing a language for which to havethese discussions, (c) encourage staff members to initiate discus-sions related to the variety of training opportunities and any over-lapping interests in topics that incorporate other marginalizedidentities (e.g., race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, religion). This approach centers skills/interests while also opening the conversationto discussions of diversity topics without it becoming an automaticassumption associated only with minority trainees.

Best practicewould involve the construction of interview questions focused onthe role of culture and diversity within an applicant’s clinical andresearch work, (d) develop relationships with graduate programsthat typically train underrepresented groups such as HistoricallyBlack Colleges and Universities and other Primarily MinorityServing Institutions, and (e) communicate training sites’valueand incorporation of diversity in conversations with local graduateprograms as this communication demonstrates and models theimportance of racial/ethnic diversity to graduate students.Improvements Needed in Diversity ResearchPsychology is a profession that values diversity, particularly inthe consideration of best practices for clinical care and research.

A critical piece is the development of cultural sensitivity of psychol-ogy trainees and the recruitment of diverse trainees of color. Yet,limited attention has been paid to diversity within psychologyinternship and postdoctoral training programs and how they canbest recruit diverse trainees. The absence of data-driven inquiry inthis area is inconsistent with the psychology profession’s statedpriority of creating an inclusive psychology training environmentand workforce. As stated before, “if diversity, inclusiveness, equity,advocacy, and social justice really matters to us, we need to mobilizeas a profession and as a science.

The time is right. The time is now”(Borrego, 2018, p. 300).This quality improvement project is an important step in mobi-lizing the diversity of psychology to highlight factors that resonatewith VA psychology trainees broadly and what racial/ethnic minor-ity trainees specifically prioritize when considering training sites.Our results suggest that racial/ethnic minority trainees value factorsthat are distinct from those described by White trainees.

These results can foster much-needed attention and conversation withinpsychology about improving approaches for diversity and inclu-siveness in training programs and the recruitment of a diversepsychology workforce. It is important for the field to build on thesefindings to apply to non-VA training sites. More research in this areacan further refine the APA Standards of Accreditation to includedata-driven recommendations for the recruitment of racial/ethnicminority candidates into the psychology workforce, and the inte-gration of multiculturism in training programs.

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