Pilot implementation of allied health assistant roles within publicly funded health services in Queensland, Australia: results of a workplace audit

Stute, Michelle; Hurwood, Andrea; Hulcombe, Julie; Kuipers, Pim

doi:10.1186/1472-6963-14-258

Cited by 21 publications

(50 citation statements)

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“…PTs/OTs with more advanced practices increasingly delegate high-volume, less-skilled tasks to PT/OT assistants [25, 116, 117], in countries where these exist [25]. This task-shifting has been effective particularly when well-planned, studied or enabled by supervision or supportive tools [118, 119], but can be detrimental to both costs and outcomes otherwise (e.g.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Human resources for health (and rehabilitation): Six Rehab-Workforce Challenges for the century

et al. 2017

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BackgroundPeople with disabilities face challenges accessing basic rehabilitation health care. In 2006, the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) outlined the global necessity to meet the rehabilitation needs of people with disabilities, but this goal is often challenged by the undersupply and inequitable distribution of rehabilitation workers. While the aggregate study and monitoring of the physical rehabilitation workforce has been mostly ignored by researchers or policy-makers, this paper aims to present the ‘challenges and opportunities’ for guiding further long-term research and policies on developing the relatively neglected, highly heterogeneous physical rehabilitation workforce.MethodsThe challenges were identified through a two-phased investigation. Phase 1: critical review of the rehabilitation workforce literature, organized by the availability, accessibility, acceptability and quality (AAAQ) framework. Phase 2: integrate reviewed data into a SWOT framework to identify the strengths and opportunities to be maximized and the weaknesses and threats to be overcome.ResultsThe critical review and SWOT analysis have identified the following global situation: (i) needs-based shortages and lack of access to rehabilitation workers, particularly in lower income countries and in rural/remote areas; (ii) deficiencies in the data sources and monitoring structures; and (iii) few exemplary innovations, of both national and international scope, that may help reduce supply-side shortages in underserved areas.DiscussionBased on the results, we have prioritized the following ‘Six Rehab-Workforce Challenges’: (1) monitoring supply requirements: accounting for rehabilitation needs and demand; (2) supply data sources: the need for structural improvements; (3) ensuring the study of a whole rehabilitation workforce (i.e. not focused on single professions), including across service levels; (4) staffing underserved locations: the rising of education, attractiveness and tele-service; (5) adapt policy options to different contexts (e.g. rural vs urban), even within a country; and (6) develop international solutions, within an interdependent world.ConclusionsConcrete examples of feasible local, global and research action toward meeting the Six Rehab-Workforce Challenges are provided. Altogether, these may help advance a policy and research agenda for ensuring that an adequate rehabilitation workforce can meet the current and future rehabilitation health needs.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12960-017-0182-7) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Human resources for health (and rehabilitation): Six Rehab-Workforce Challenges for the century

et al. 2017

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“…11 Although increasing evidence supports the benefits of AHAs organisationally, 1,2,5,12 there is limited evidence exploring the relationship between workforce capacity building, the extent to which AHAs are working to their full scope of practice and the effectiveness of the AHA within the health workforce. 13,14 In addition to growing the AHA workforce in traditional settings and disciplines, establishing AHAs in non-traditional settings is a golden opportunity to strategically support clinical service delivery into the future.…”

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confidence: 99%

Building allied health workforce capacity: a strategic approach to workforce innovation

Somerville¹,

Davis²,

Elliott³

et al. 2015

Aust. Health Review

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Objective. The aim of the present study was to identify areas where allied health assistants (AHAs) are not working to their full scope of practice in order to improve the effectiveness of the allied health workforce.Methods. Qualitative data collected via focus groups identified suitable AHA tasks and a quantitative survey with allied health professionals (AHPs) measured the magnitude of work the current AHP workforce spends undertaking these tasks.Results. Quantification survey results indicate that Victoria's AHP workforce spends up to 17% of time undertaking tasks that could be delegated to an AHA who has relevant training and adequate supervision. Over half this time is spent on clinical tasks.Conclusions. The skills of AHAs are not being optimally utilised. Significant opportunity exists to reform the current allied health workforce. Such reform should result in increased capacity of the workforce to meet future demands.What is known about the topic? Increasing skill shortages across Australia's health workforce necessitates that the capabilities of all healthcare team members should be used optimally. AHA roles are an important and growing response to current health workforce needs. Increasing workforce capacity will ensure the right health workers are matched to the right task by skill, experience and expertise. What does this paper add? This paper presents a model that assists services to identify tasks suitable for delegation to an AHA by an AHP. The model is unique because it describes a process that quantifies the need for AHAs and it has been successfully implemented in rural, regional and metropolitan health services in Victoria. What are the implications for practitioners? Working collaboratively, with executive support, will lead to a sustainable and integrated approach to support workforce capacity building. Altering the skill mix of healthcare teams through increasing the role of AHAs has benefits for AHPs, patients and the healthcare system.

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“…AHAs are well accepted by clients, who appreciate the additional therapy time they receive. Healthcare benefits from using health assistants include increased intensity of clinical care, optimised patient flow, better professional skill usage and increased patient satisfaction (Lizarondo et al, 2010;O'Brien et al, 2013;Stute, Hurwood, Hulcombe, & Kuipers, 2014).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The diversity of tasks and work settings of AHPs, and therefore AHAs, provides challenges in defining and ensuring consistency in regards to scope of practice, skill utilisation and patterns of patient care responsibilities (Stanhope & Pearce, 2013). Multiple studies have concluded that AHA roles need further clarity in order to promote better utilisation (Lizarondo et al, 2010;O'Brien et al, 2013;Pearce & Pagett, 2015;Stute et al, 2014). Limited role clarity has also contributed to the inefficient use of AHAs in new models of care projects (Nancarrow et al, 2013).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The provision of clinical treatment and administrative tasks were identified as the most commonly performed tasks by AHAs in community and ambulatory settings. Delegation is also a documented challenge for AHPs, as it depends on the professional's confidence in the clinical skills of AHAs and their own ability to delegate tasks (Stute et al, 2014).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Educational needs and workplace opportunities of allied health assistants: A qualitative pilot

Mickan

Golenko

Buys

2018

FoHPE

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Introduction: Healthcare assistants perform a broad range of clinical and administrative tasks across many clinical settings and are supervised by most professional groups. This diversity creates challenges for maintaining a consistent scope of practice and consistent patterns of skill utilisation. It is not clear whether formal education in universities for allied health assistants (AHAs) could better shape the role and opportunities for the AHA workforce. Methods and analysis: An exploratory qualitative study was designed to investigate the perspectives of senior allied health clinicians and academics about the educational needs and workplace opportunities for AHAs. We were interested in whether university education for AHAs could help to shape consistent roles and expectations of AHAs for the future workforce. A convenience sample of participants was invited to exploratory semi-structured interviews, and their responses were thematically analysed and integrated. Results: Twelve participants, representing eight different allied health professions, were interviewed. Three themes emerged. Participants described the diverse roles, capabilities and expectations of the health assistant workforce. Current vocational training was considered inconsistent and insufficient, and participants reported significant local training occurring to meet the expectations of different work environments. Future educational pathways in university were not supported by any participants for many, largely practical, reasons.

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Pilot implementation of allied health assistant roles within publicly funded health services in Queensland, Australia: results of a workplace audit

Cited by 21 publications

References 23 publications

Human resources for health (and rehabilitation): Six Rehab-Workforce Challenges for the century

Human resources for health (and rehabilitation): Six Rehab-Workforce Challenges for the century

Building allied health workforce capacity: a strategic approach to workforce innovation

Educational needs and workplace opportunities of allied health assistants: A qualitative pilot

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