The National Register’s Three-Year Strategic Plan

To align with our mission, vision, and values, the National Register developed a three-year strategic plan to map out high-priority actions to benefit psychologists and the field of psychology.

The following strategic directives will guide our organization for 2025 through the end of 2027:

• Community engagement and leadership​
• Clinical education​
• Advocacy​
• Practice and professional issues​
• Credentialing and membership​
• Charitable impact​

Community Engagement and Leadership​

The National Register fosters a strong, inclusive, and interactive community for psychologists and practice-oriented organizations to engage in thoughtful and productive dialogue on professional and clinical issues.

Strategic plan objectives:

• Facilitate member-to-member connection and collaboration through listservs, community boards, and roundtable discussions.
• Create and sustain safe spaces for peer interaction, support, and mentoring.
• Foster a sense of belonging in psychologists of all backgrounds and empower members to feel ownership and agency over the strategic direction of the National Register.
• Offer leadership and volunteer opportunities for members to engage and contribute to the future of the organization.
• Lead interorganizational efforts to support Health Service Psychologists.

Clinical Education

The National Register is a leader in the development of engaging, high-quality clinical education and the dissemination of evidence-based practice resources.

Strategic plan objectives:

• Provide Health Service Psychologists with high-quality clinical education through monthly webinars, quarterly workshops, annual training series, the annual National Practice Conference, and the Journal of Health Service Psychology.
• Deepen the learning opportunities in our evidence-based clinical content offerings.
• Provide up-to-date information on emerging topics through nontraditional clinical education channels such as podcasts and roundtables.
• Create access to clinical education on culturally responsive care and other topics related to diversity, equity, and inclusion.
• Launch a new Learning Management System to provide Health Service Psychologists (and others) with a hub for archived clinical education courses and banked continuing education certificates.
• Develop a more robust data-gathering mechanism to guide content decisions and continuously evaluate our clinical education program.
• Pilot learning strategies that are grounded in the science of andragogy to enhance effectiveness of CE offerings.

Advocacy

The National Register advocates for clinical and practice issues impacting Health Service Psychologists.

Strategic plan objectives:

• Collect robust data on advocacy priorities for Health Service Psychologists and establish a regular cadence for collecting data to remain abreast of the changing healthcare landscape.
• Enhance engagement with advocacy coalitions.
• Support the work of the National Register Advocacy Committee and engage interested Health Service Psychologists in advocacy efforts.
• Establish state-level relationships and templates for rapid response to emergent state-level concerns.
• Generate and disseminate advocacy calls for action.

Practice and Professional Issues

The National Register is a respected source for Health Service Psychologists to navigate trends and emerging issues in professional practice.

Strategic plan objectives:

• Develop trainings on business of practice and career opportunities for Health Service Psychologists across the professional lifespan.
• Leverage the HSP community to share information to improve the practice of psychology.
• Engage with the education and training community to prepare the next generation of Health Service Psychologists for professional practice.
• Provide resources to members specific to the impacts of technological advances and generative AI on the practice of psychology.
• Engage with organizations focused on interprofessional practice to ensure that psychologists are recognized as essential members of the healthcare team.
• Promote psychological services to members through an updated FindaPsychologist.org site to help consumers better understand psychological services and find qualified and appropriate providers.
• Engage members to provide support as the profession acknowledges the continuum of training that includes master’s and doctoral-level psychology practitioners.
• Advance understanding of the distinctiveness of the doctoral degree through development of resources that help doctoral psychologists understand the many transferable skills they acquire in their training.
• Develop enhanced mechanisms to solicit information and respond to Health Service Psychologists’ concerns about professional issues.

Credentialing and Membership

The National Register will promote the Health Service Psychologist credential and create opportunities for US and international licensed psychologists through new membership options.

Strategic plan objectives:

• Promote the recognition and prestige of the Health Service Psychologist (HSP) Credential to healthcare entities, consumers, and licensing boards.
• Enhance the perception of value of HSP credentialing beyond licensure amongst psychologists and psychology doctoral students.
• Develop expanded membership structures to include the opportunity for additional licensed psychologists in the US/Canada and international psychologists to affiliate with the National Register.
• Explore additional certifications and credentialing opportunities.

Charitable Impact

The National Register’s charitable impact will create meaningful opportunities for psychology doctoral students, licensed psychologists, and professional psychology organizations.

Strategic plan objectives:

• Expand the number of psychology doctoral students who receive support through the Next Generation Fund.
• Provide awards and innovative funding to State, Provincial, and Territorial Psychological Associations (SPTAs) to support their advocacy efforts.
• Continue and grow awards program for psychology doctoral students and early career psychologists.
• Foster a strong culture of giving within the National Register community using storytelling and data to showcase the impact of our initiatives.

Review the National Register’s mission, vision, and values.