Medical psychologist: organizational and legal regulation of activity and personnel training system

The qualification requirements for the position of a medical psychologist are analyzed. The demand for the professional activity of a medical psychologist in the provision of psychiatric, narcological, neurological and general somatic care is shown. The knowledge, skills and abilities of medical psychologists are widely used in the providing medical care for diseases and behavioral disorders, in the consideration of forensic psychiatric examination. There is a tendency to further strengthening the interaction of medical psychologists with psychiatrists and psychotherapists. The features of undergraduate and postgraduate training in the specialty “Clinical Psychology” are highlighted. A comparative analysis of the staffing of medical organizations of the Russian Federation by medical psychologists was carried out, the unevenness of this indicator across the regions of the country was shown. The conclusion is made about the relevance of the adoption of the professional standard “Medical Psychologist” for optimizing the qualification characteristics of professional activity and creating an objective basis for building professional higher and postgraduate education programs in clinical psychology, taking into account the requirements of the employer. Prospects for increasing the role of medical psychologists in the organizations of the Russian Ministry of Health are associated with the inclusion of their functional duties in the Procedures for providing of medical care in general somatic practice and with the expansion of the number of universities providing training in the specialty “Clinical Psychology”.