This submission is in response to the Review’s issues paper one. The issues paper is built on initial evidence and input collected by the Review. Another paper will be developed later this year. UA outlined the important role of universities in health workforce development through our previous submission and through the review’s other consultation opportunities. We are pleased to see this input included. UA agrees with the five key themes highlighted in issues paper one and the critical issues associated with them identified by the Review.
Recommendations
- Fund greater multidisciplinary placements specifically in primary care services. Funding could flow through the primary health networks who would be tasked with working with universities and other education providers in their region to coordinate the placements and build capacity to showcase full/advanced scopes in primary care.
- Provide clinical training funding (CTF) to universities to work with all health services to provide additional supervisory capacity to students on placement. A key deliverable of the funding could be to assist health service staff deliver, and students to experience, full and where relevant, advanced practice scopes.
- Develop a framework of shared competencies across the different health disciplines for health professional accreditation bodies. Through the framework, shared, cross-disciplinary student competencies could be assessed by any qualified health professional whose scope includes those skills.
- Incentivise health services to provide a greater number of multi-classified positions. These positions do not designate roles to a specific discipline but are open to a range of qualified health professionals with relevant skills.
- Strengthen access to relevant technology and increased internet speed/bandwidth in rural Australia where digital approaches can support practitioners work to their fullest scope.
