Trainee impairment or deficits in professional competence are terms used in various professions to describe professionals or individuals in training that are exemplifying difficulty achieving the required standards for success. The term "impairment" was used historically in the medical profession and literature. More recently, the term "impairment" was adopted into the psychology literature to inform professional standards and competence for professional psychologists as well as graduate trainees.

Trainee impairment in the mental health field has been studied for the past twenty years and continues to be a growing area of interest. However, to date the majority of the research has included administrators, faculty members, and training directors' views of impaired trainees. Therefore, it is important for research to access graduate trainees' perspectives of their peer's impairment. Researchers proposed that exploration of trainee impairment could help graduate programs create and implement policies that help meet the programs' needs and students' needs throughout their academic and professional development.

This dissertation, using qualitative methodology, explored the phenomenon of trainee impairment in a clinical psychology graduate program from graduate student's perspective. Five female clinical psychology graduate students enrolled in a large Midwestern school of professional psychology participated. Although the sample was small, the participants broadly represented the clinical psychology student body.

Results of the study confirmed that students are in fact observing and having experiences with fellow trainees who they feel are impaired. Interviewees reported witnessing a variety of problems, including interpersonal problems, problems with professional competency, problems with implementing clinical skills and knowledge, emotional problems, and academic problems. Additionally, interviews revealed how students reportedly deal with impaired students, their current beliefs about approaching trainee impairment, and their opinions about their graduate program's ability to manage impaired students. Finally, participants provided a wide variety of programmatic suggestions that could better support all students as well as those who may be impaired or exhibiting deficits in professional competence.