To exercise health professions requires various assessments that can be considered tedious and lengthy, as well as expensive. This discourages many specialists from practicing in Texas and prefer other careers.
This is the case of the psychologists in Texaswho, since 2016, have to pass a series of evaluations to be able to practice in this state, investing thousands of dollars and passing various exams. That is why John Bielamowiczpresident of the state’s Board of Psychologists, has proposed changes to the licensing process.
What would it be?
According to John Bielamowicz, his proposal still needs approval from parliament and would be applied from 2026. This would be a modification to the alternative to the national exam with the aim of reducing costs.
To obtain a psychologist license in Texas, you must have a doctorate and pass three exams. The first is a knowledge exam that costs $800, followed by a jurisprudence exam that costs $210 and an oral exam that requires an investment of $320.
Added to this is the supervision of a psychologist who has to supervise a 3,500-hour job, which costs US$340. To this they want to add a skills test valued at US$450 to evaluate skills, which is what the Texas bar wants to avoid.
“We prefer to keep things as they are, but that is not an option. We do not want to take the new exam, but we have to do something.”Bielamowicz said.
For this reason, John Bielamowicz criticized the work of the legislators of USA “Our congressmen gave us the directive to reduce or eliminate unnecessary barriers to encourage people to choose health professions“, he concluded.
That’s why Texas is trying to reduce the number of tests to encourage people to study mental health professions and counteract the shortage in this area in the Lone Star State.
Video credit : YouTube | @NathaliaCareers
