Chief Executive’s Year in Review

Excellence and innovation in education and training were the focus for the Health Education and Training Institute (HETI) in 2016-17, with further options for advancement and continuous development delivered to the NSW Health workforce in partnership with Local Health Districts and Specialty Health Networks.

In late October 2016, HETI was awarded registration as a Higher Education Provider through the Tertiary Education Qualifications and Standards Agency (TESQA). It was granted full accreditation as an entity and for its two submitted Mental Health frameworks: Psychiatric Medicine (PM) and Applied Mental Health Studies (AMHS). These recovery-oriented programs, which commenced in 2017 are designed to meet the needs of health professionals across the state and beyond. January 2017 concluded the transition of the former NSW Institute of Psychiatry to HETI as a dedicated Mental Health Portfolio.

HETI placed a record 992 junior medical officers into NSW Health hospitals in 2017. Five new posts for the NSW Rural Generalist Medical Training Program were funded, bringing the total to 40 in rural NSW.

With a renewed focus on self-managed learning, the state-wide eLearning Management System (formerly HETI Online) was reintroduced as 'My Health Learning'. HETI developed 115 new e-learning modules and courses that were added to My Health Learning - covering topics including refugee health, identifying homelessness, building a safe workplace culture and clinical care of people who may be suicidal. Five eLearning modules received national and international awards celebrating excellence in contemporary education design.

In recognition of workplace diversity, HETI introduced translations for a number of mandatory eLearning modules: Aboriginal Culture - Respecting the Difference, Violence Prevention and Management and Hazardous Manual Tasks are some of HETl's eLearning modules now available in Arabic, Chinese, Korean, Thai and Vietnamese.

Further face-to-face workshops and other resources were delivered to support violence prevention in emergency departments; build capacity in the guardianship application process, and understand changes to the Mental Health Act, to name a few.

Developing leadership and management capabilities continued to be a focus for HETI. New resources including Foundations in Managing Health Resources and Mentoring for Health Management were introduced, adding to the comprehensive selection of courses available to health professionals. The newly created NSW Health Senior Executive Development Program provided 21 talented individuals the opportunity to develop their senior leadership capabilities. In addition, 30 future leaders from rural locations participated in the re-revised Rural Leadership Essentials Program.

An Educational Research and Evidence Based Practice team was established to support HETl's commitment to individual and lifelong learning, innovation and insights into program design to ensure a strong connection between theory and the realities of practice.

Audited financial statements for the Health Education and Training Institute for the 2016-17 financial year can be accessed via the NSW Health website.