Mrs Hannah Bres1, Mrs Rachel Resuggan1
1Child And Adolescent Health Service, Nedlands, Australia
Biography:
Hannah Bres is an Allied Health Educator at Perth Children’s Hospital. She has a Masters of Dietetics and over 10 years’ experience working as a Paediatric Dietitian and Dietetic Clinical Educator. She was the inaugural Allied Health Educator at Child and Adolescent Health Service in Perth WA, where she has developed and implemented an interprofessional paediatric education service.
Abstract:
Child and Adolescent Health Service (CAHS) is Western Australia’s only government funded, paediatric healthcare service and encompasses several services including community health (CACH), mental health (CAMHS), Perth Children’s Hospital (PCH) and Neonatology. In 2024 there were over 1,100 allied health and health science clinicians at CAHS from 23 professions, demonstrating the vast and varied training needs of the workforce.
In November 2023, the inaugural Allied Health Educator position commenced at CAHS, tasked to develop an interprofessional education service that meets the diverse needs of allied health staff across the organisation. To determine the training needs, a training needs analysis was undertaken and an additional 19 hours of stakeholder engagement with allied health leadership across the organisation. The needs of the staff were grouped into four themes—professional behaviours and attributes; interprofessional paediatric knowledge and skills; orientation to the organisation; and staff wellbeing.
The four themes have formed the basis of the vision for the Allied Health Education Department. Subsequently, four training programs have been developed and are launching in 2025:
1. Transition to Practice (T2P)—Allied Health Graduate Program
2. Understanding Paediatrics in Allied Health (UPAH)—new starter interprofessional paediatric training program.
3. Allied Health wide orientation
4. Staff wellbeing calendar that meets the needs of a paediatric allied health clinicians.
This presentation outlines the steps taken to develop our education service in the first 18 months, including a reflection on the lessons learnt for other interprofessional educators to take into their own organisations