Psychologists Prescription Privileges-Free-Samples for Students

Question: Do you think that Psychologists should have Prescription Privileges? Answer: The given essay is over whether the psychologist should be given the right to prescribe medications. The topic has gained extensive attention over the past 2 decades in United States and most recently now in United Kingdom. Psychologists mainly deal with the mental illness of patients. Some people supported this view that psychologists should be given privileges for prescriptions where some argued that they should not be given this right. The purpose of the given essay is to give supporting arguments in opposition of prescription rights for psychologists. The essay has included some major arguments from literatures to support the point. New Mexico is the first state which gave the rights to the psychologists to prescribe medications. Under the Professional Psychologist Act, the psychologists can apply for a conditional prescription certificate in New Mexico State. There are some procedures which the psychologist has to follow to get the authority to write prescriptions to patients. The law in New Mexico State facilitated psychologists to get 2 years license of prescription medications under supervision of physician by fulfilling these requirements: a.) Passing a national certification exam, b.) completing at least 450 hours coursework that contains the assessments of clinical pharmacology, pharmacotherapeutics, neurophysiology, physical, laboratory knowledge and psychopharmacology, c.) Completing at least 100 patients meeting under expert physician supervision. In all these three procedure steps the supervisor supervises the work of psychologists and if he approves the prescribing record of the psychologist then the psychologist can apply for independent prescription privilege. To continue the prescribing right, the psychologist must contain malpractice insurance and also need to complete at least 20 hours of continuing medical education annually and he has to work together with the patients primary physician. The law has given the power to the psychologists for prescription according to the laboratory test results (DeLeon Wiggins, 1996). In the given paragraph the views are mentioned in the opposition of prescription rights of psychologists. The important question is whether the above mentioned trainings will enable the psychologist to give prescription safely and effectively to the patients. Many big medical associations like the American psychiatric Association, The American Society for Geriatric Psychiatry, American Medical Association, American academy of child and adolescent psychiatry and many other health associations believe that the answer should be no, the psychologists should not be given rights for prescriptions. They all believe that the governor of New Mexico has placed the patients health and safety at risk (Fox et al., 2009). By only passing the certificate examination and completing training, the psychologists cannot get all prescription knowledge. The psychologists generally do not have experience of patients medical background and they might use powerful and strong medications for the treatment. It is obvious that the patient meets the psychologists more than the physician but it does not mean that the psychologist knows the patients illness more than the physician (Sanua, 1995). The psychologists contain the limited knowledge of medications because they get the prescription knowledge from short time course but on the other side the physician gets the medical knowledge through medical education and longtime extensive clinical experiences (McGrath, 2010). Over the past decade, almost 14 state medical associations have rejected psychologists prescription privileges after considering the medical research data and patients health and safety risk. The mental illness of the patient is a serious health problem which cannot be taken lightly. The person with limited training and no medical education should not be given right to take patients life risk. In this case the psychologist also faces legal risk because the patient can die due to wrong prescription (Resnick Norcross, 2002). There are some reasons mentioned in the given paragraph, not to give the rights to psychologist for prescription. Some major reasons are: a.) It is not possible that only a 1 year course can give all the knowledge to the psychologists for prescription where the physician spends 4 to 5 years in medical schools to get the prescription license. b.) To prescribe the medicines it is important to know when it should be prescribed, which medicines should be recommended to diagnose the particular disease, how much dose should be given to the patient for treatment? c.) The drugs used in medicines interact with other drugs and sometimes give negative impact on patients health due to the chemical reactions between different drugs. So the physicians give the advice the patients that they should not to take any prescription without consultation of physician (Gutierrez Silk, 1998). e.) It is also important to know what to do when the medicines give side effects. If the patient is suffering from s everal diseases then the physician gives the prescription after considering all the diseases of the patient and the bodys condition to treat well. f.) If the new symptoms are noticed in the patients body then physician examines appropriately whether the symptoms are due to the prescriptions or they are the indication of new disease. g.) To understand all these critical aspects the psychologist needs to do a deep research which cannot be completed in short time, the medical research takes time of several years (Jameson Blank, 2007). The prescription ability, the physician gets after several years of medical practice and experiences. By that the physician gets the knowledge to deal with different cases of patients and also considers the benefits and side effects of various drugs. The physician handles multiple cases throughout his life time which help to enhance his knowledge. I dont think that psychologists should be given prescription privileges because only a short time course cannot give complete medical knowledge to them and it will not be safe for patient. The psychologists are specially trained to treat the mental illness of the patients and they are expert in understanding the psychology of the patients. Many times they treat the patients by modifying the psychology of the patients but the roles of physicians are different as they treat the patients illness by recommending the right medicines which can fight against the disease (Massoth et al., 1990). Roles of both the psychologist and physician are diffe rent from each other so the psychologists cannot do the work of prescribing medicines. References DeLeon, P. H., Wiggins Jr, J. G. (1996). Prescription privileges for psychologists, American Psychologist. 51(3), 225. Fox, R. E., DeLeon, P. H., Newman, R., Sammons, M. T., Dunivin, D. L., Baker, D. C. (2009). Prescriptive authority and psychology: A status report, American Psychologist. 64(4), 257. Gutierrez, P. M., Silk, K. R. (1998). Prescription privileges for psychologists: A review of the psychological literature, Professional Psychology: Research and Practice. 29(3), 213. Jameson, J. P., Blank, M. B. (2007). The role of clinical psychology in rural mental health services: Defining problems and developing solutions, Clinical Psychology: Science and Practice. 14(3), 283-298. Massoth, N. A., McGrath, R. E., Bianchi, C., Singer, J. (1990). Psychologists' attitudes toward prescription privileges, Professional Psychology: Research and Practice. 21(2), 147. McGrath, R. E. (2010). Prescriptive authority for psychologists, Annual Review of Clinical Psychology. 6, 21-47. Resnick, R. J., Norcross, J. C. (2002). Prescription privileges for psychologists: Scared to death?, Clinical Psychology: Science and Practice. 9(3), 270-274. Sanua, V. D. (1995). " Prescription privileges" vs. psychologists' authority: Psychologists do better without drugs, The Humanistic Psychologist. 23(2), 187.