Year in review

Supporting the COVID-19 health response, lifelong learning and providing quality and accessible education were three areas of focus for the Health Education and Training Institute (HETI) over the past year. These focus areas were brought to life through the delivery of timely, high-quality and evidence-based education and training to the NSW Health workforce and to the Institute’s higher
education students.

As part of the COVID-19 health response, the Institute collaborated to provide training to close contact tracers, with the program recognised as a finalist in the Recovery and Resilience category in the 2020 Premier’s Awards.

We delivered a mid-year medical graduate recruitment process for unfilled intern positions to support the medical workforce surge strategy and designed and delivered a bespoke Care Assistant Program as a COVID-19 strategy in the event of catastrophic staffing shortages.

The Senior Executive Development Program adapted to virtual delivery, maximising the virtual environment to present dynamic and engaging group presentations to senior staff, which included the Secretary NSW Health. We delivered the NSW Health Leadership Program in partnership with local health districts and contextualised to their strategic and operational challenges. The Institute was also a key partner with the NSW Ministry of Health’s Health System Strategy and Planning Branch on the NSW Health Future Health Strategy Consultations. Through the Allied Health Workplace Learning Grant Program, we supported allied health professionals to upskill in clinical knowledge and capability to support patient care.

HETI Higher Education doubled its student numbers in the last year. It redesigned the Graduate Certificate Applied Mental Health Studies into shorter modules to support more accessible learning for award study, which can be stacked towards a later award or for professional development, all for improved mental health outcomes.

This snapshot of achievements highlights a successful year for the Institute in promoting and supporting a connected and responsive learning community across NSW Health. Thank you to all our staff for their dedication and commitment to learning, training and development.

Key achievements

• Developed and implemented a process to enable prevocational medical accreditation surveys to occur virtually. This enabled HETI to continue monitoring and accrediting facilities to ensure high-quality education and training and junior doctor wellbeing.
• Welcomed 12 medical graduates in intern positions in July 2020 and planned for the recruitment of a subsequent mid-year intake to commence in July 2021.
• Assisted in identifying and coordinating 63 facilitators to deliver 98 workshops across the state on the NSW Health Future Health Strategy Consultations, including delivery of the Facilitation Development program to 22 NSW Ministry of Health staff.
• Delivered the virtual Senior Executive Development Program to 22 participants to September 2020.
• Delivered the NSW Health Leadership Program to a total of 263 participants. * Supported 100 participants to complete the bespoke Care Assistance Program, with the one-week program delivered via online workshops supported by My Health Learning modules.
• Trained over 600 close contact tracers, in collaboration with the NSW Ministry of Health, by rapidly developing and delivering a rolling program of innovative, interactive and just-in-time online training as part of the critical COVID-19 pandemic response.
• Increased recruitment and engagement of junior doctors training in rural NSW for the Rural Generalist Medical Training Program with 52 Foundation Year trainees enrolled and 29 trainees undertaking the 12-month advanced skills training. A further eight general practitioners undertook 12 months of advanced skills training.