Allied Health Professional training in delegation to Allied Health Assistants and Psychiatric Service Officers

Mrs Lucy Whelan1,2, Ms Lauren Hall1

1Monash Health, Clayton, Australia, 2Monash University, Clayton, Australia

AIM
A training package has been developed to provide Allied Health Professionals (AHP) with the understanding of why delegation is required for safe and effective treatment of patients at Monash Health. The delegation training package aims to:

  • Clearly define delegation and describe examples of appropriate delegation in healthcare professional teams.
  • To clearly identify the limits of scope of practice of an Allied health Assistant (AHA) working at Monash Health and
  • Clearly highlight the importance of effective communication for safe delegation.

METHOD

  • The AHA Delegation working party facilitated face to face training sessions to new graduate Allied Health Professionals. Adhoc sessions were organised for discipline teams who requested the training.
  • COVID-19 restrictions required a shift of this training to an online platform where working party representatives continued to co-facilitate the sessions via WebEx.
  • For consistency of delivery, the working party identified the need for the same training to be delivered flexibly to a wide range of clinicians.
  • The working party converted the current presentation into an online module accessible via Monash Health’s learning management system.
  • The training package was endorsed as required training for all AHPs at Monash Health annually.

RESULTS

  • Training takes approximately 15minutes to complete. This includes an interactive knowledge component, finished off with a short quiz.
  • To date a total of 210 (>14% of Monash Health AHP workforce) staff have completed the training package with positive feedback.

CONCLUSION
We aim to continue evaluating the completion rate of the training package and associate delegation practice outcomes. Once appropriate, in a safe COVID environment, we aim to facilitate face to face sessions as follow up to the online module and ensure that AHPs have the opportunity to interact directly with the AHAs, sharing experience of effective delegation.


Biography:

Lauren Hall is a Certificate IV AHA qualified allied health assistant who holds the role of AHA team leader at Casey Hospital. Lauren is passionate about optimal utilisation of Allied health assistants and has led the Delegation working party for the last three years.

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