Dr Belinda Henry1,2, Dr Janice Wu1, Ms Lia Traves1, A/ Prof Wayne Wilson2
1Queensland Children's Hospital, South Brisbane, Australia, 2The University of Queensland, St Lucia, Australia
Biography:
Dr Belinda Henry is an Advanced Audiologist at Queensland Children’s Hospital and team leader for the Quality, Training, Education, Research stream, and is a Senior Lecturer Academic Title holder at The University of Queensland. She has a PhD in Audiology, with research interests in cochlear implants and paediatric audiology, as well as education and training models and outcomes. She has experience in both the health and academic sectors and integrates her clinical practice, research, education and training expertise to shape and optimise value-based health care.
Abstract:
Health workforce capability development, through the continuous process of enhancing the skills, knowledge, and attitudes of healthcare professionals, underpins the sustainable provision of high-quality clinical practice. A key strategy to support this is the implementation of high-quality training programs that ensure healthcare providers develop, maintain, and enhance their clinical skills. Learner-centred competency-based training models that emphasise the application of knowledge, skills and attitudes are well-suited to the health sector. Health professional bodies often have broad, principle-based professional competency standards that provide a benchmark to assess competence, while remaining sufficiently high level and dynamic to be applicable across clinical practice areas/settings. However, these standards often lack the detail necessary to support training. Competency-based training is optimised when specific competencies are developed to translate the high-level competency standards to clinical practice requirements for specific clinical practice areas. We have developed a Clinical Learning Framework for paediatric audiology clinical practice areas that is competency-based, promotes reflective learning, is learner-centred and supported by formal clinical supervision, and supports professional development across the continuum from early to advanced career. Specific competencies are aligned with, and expand on, professional competency standards. The training programs include pre-clinical learning, and directly and indirectly supervised clinical practice. Embedded governance enables effective monitoring and workforce planning. This Clinical Learning Framework can be tailored to specific clinical practice areas and has applications to various health professions, and to training across sites, including regional, rural, and remote areas, through interconnected professional networks providing high quality training based on standardised competency-based learning programs.