Using the guidelines

The Allied Health Education and Training Governance Guidelines consist of 5 elements that outline the processes and structures that embed needs-based allied health education and training to ensure this can and does happen in an accessible manner.

The 5 elements are:

• Patient driven
• Clinician focussed
• Leadership
• Organisational factors
• Resources

Under each element there is a brief description followed by what is included and some possible examples attached to three specific stakeholder groups:

• Individuals - outlines the expectations of individual allied health professionals to meet the specific guideline
• Managers - outlines the expectations of managers/leaders to support achievement of the guideline
• Organisation - outlines the expectations of the Allied Health Directors, Chief Executive and Board of the Local Health District (LHD) or Specialty Health Network (SHN) to support achievement of the guideline for allied health education.

Online self-assessment checklists

There are three online self-assessment checklists, one for each stakeholder group.

There are 5 elements in each self-assessment. These are made up of a series of questions from each of these elements.

It is recommended that an action plan is created using the prompts provided with each question. To create this action plan, you are prompted to include:

• A timeframe to complete
• Nomination of who would be responsible
• Describe the evidence for completing this action i.e. how you would know that this was completed? Some examples are provided under the ‘I’ symbol next to each question.

Once you have completed the online self-assessment and accompanying action plan, this will be emailed to you.

Implementing the guidelines

Implementation strategies

These guidelines include three levels of focus. They can be used by individuals, teams and organisations.

• At an individual level they can be used to guide professional development needs and planning as well as to contribute to the performance review process.
• At a team level they can be used to inform team/service planning.
• At an organisational or team level they can be used to advocate within the LHD/SHN.

Implementation strategies for Individuals

The best way to implement these guidelines as an individual is to complete the Individual online self-assessment form. There are 5 elements in this self-assessment. This is made up of a series of questions from each of these elements.

It is recommended that you create an action plan using the prompts provided with each question and relevant action. To create this action plan, you are prompted to include:

• A timeframe to complete
• Nomination of who would be responsible (in this self-assessment, this is likely to by yourself)
• Describe the evidence for completing this action i.e. how you would know that this was completed? Some examples are provided under the ‘I’ symbol next to each question.

Once you have completed the self-assessment online form, the action plan you have developed will be emailed to you.

Implementation strategies at a department, professional group or organisational level

These guidelines can also be implemented at a department, professional group and organisational level.

The details of the elements relating to both managers and organisations can be found on the home page of this webpage.

Implementation strategies related to these broader groups are included below.

1. Get to know the guidelines

   Familiarise yourself with the guidelines using the content on the web page.

2. Identify what already exists

   There are a number of ways to identify what already exists to support allied health education and training in your setting. You could:

   • Identify existing resources – human, financial and physical
   • Identify passionate people “champions” who are strong advocates for education
   • Identify existing committees, management groups or structures who could support improvements to education and training
   • Set up an allied health working group specifically to focus on this task.
3. Consultation

   Consultation can increase awareness, knowledge and ‘buy in’ to the education and training needs of allied health. (See Stakeholder analysis guide below for more details). Consultation could be facilitated by:

   • Distributing the education and training governance guidelines web-link to members of your team/unit/service
   • Identifying opportunities to table the guidelines for discussion at meeting agendas
   • Placing education and training as a standing item on all meetings
   • Completing presentations to key stakeholder groups who you require ‘buy in’ from both at team and organisational level (see 'Stakeholder analysis guide' below).
4. Self-assessment

   Completing the online self-assessment at a team and organisation level can establish baseline activity and performance and create an action plan.

5. Action plan prioritisation

   Prioritise the resulting action plan by considering:

   • Relevant statewide priorities
   • Current LHD/SHN educational priorities
   • Gaps identified by stakeholders.
6. Establish KPIs and or targets

   Examples include:

   • Individuals have access to an Allied Health Professional educator in the workplace
   • Policies and procedures exist for staff to request education and training
   • Percentage of staff have completed Aboriginal cultural awareness training and/or cultural safety training
   • Systems are established/in place to promote staff engagement in continuous professional development (CPD)
   • Percentage of staff with supervision agreements in place
   • Audits are undertaken of staff participation in supervision
   • Impact of education and training is measured.
7. Action plan implementation

   Consider the best way to implement the action plan by considering:

   • Modification of the action plan from the priorities identified
   • Submitting the action plan to senior parties to gain support
   • Including the action plan as an agenda item on relevant meetings to monitor progress.
8. Factor in sustainability

   Ensure sustainability measures are included in strategies by:

   • Ensuring actions are not dependent on one individual
   • Building actions into systems, processes and reporting
   • Including regular reviews to endure material/strategies remain up to date and relevant.
9. Evaluation

It is important to plan to evaluate by:

• Determining how you will know when you have achieved what was intended.
• Re-doing self-assessment checklists to determine improvements and assess against the baseline.
• Utilising other existing activities to gather data.
• Considering what further actions are required to continue improvement.

Stakeholder analysis guide

The aim of this section is to assist with identifying and analysing potential stakeholders. This links to the consultation step above.

Stakeholder identification

A stakeholder can be described as a member or a system who affects or can be affected by an organisation’s actions.

An understanding of stakeholders who are important to a health service will assist with planning and implementing activities. To do this, it is important to identify who they are and what their contribution is relating to the health service and delivery of patient care.

The first step in this process is to identify relevant stakeholders. Completing Table 1 below may assist with this process.

Table 1. Process for identification of stakeholders

Stakeholder analysis

Guidelines

a. Inform: Who really needs to know? Who wants to just be kept in the know?

b. Consult: Who wants to have some input on the implementation? Whose input do you need in order to clarify the
implementation priorities?

c. Engage: Who is going to work with you? Who is going to action the implementation plan? Who will be affected by the change? How will you manage people who are not happy with the changes being made?

d. Decision makers: Who is going to use the recommendations to make decisions?

Table 2. Stakeholder Analysis

Stakeholder engagement

The third step in the process is to commence engaging your stakeholders. You may choose to engage stakeholders through a number of options depending on the size of your organisation/service/department and what resources are available to you, including:

• Forums
• Focus groups
• Surveys
• Meetings
• Newsletters

In selecting the method of stakeholder engagement it is useful to look at what avenues are already available to obtain stakeholder "buy in". For example tabling the self-assessment action plan for discussion at existing meetings at various levels of the organisation as a first step (from department level up to LHD/SHN Board and Executive level). You may be able to complete a short presentation for groups that need to understand the importance of education and training for allied health to get “buy in” from key individuals. Ensure there are a number of people given the responsibility to “spread the word” with a view to then arranging additional events such as strategic planning sessions, forums and focus groups to assist with drilling down the needs of individuals and developing the action plan for implementation.

Adapted from the Internal HETI Evaluation Manual November 2013