Dr Susan Alexander1
1Fiona Stanley Fremantle Hospital Group, Roleystone, Australia, 2Fiona Stanley Fremantle Hospital Group, Murdoch, Australia
Biography:
Sue commenced her Allied Health professional life as a Speech Pathologist specialising in neurology and acquired brain injury. After Head of Department roles her career segued through 10 years in safety and quality management to the last 14 years leading health workforce education and training services. She currently leads both the AH Education and the Allied Health Assistant Services at Fiona Stanley Fremantle Hospital Group in Perth, WA, and has recently completed Doctoral studies investigating mandated workplace training in the public health sector.
Abstract:
The Australian public health sector invests significant expenditure on planning, delivering and monitoring compliance of mandated workplace training intended to improve safety in the workplace. The evidence for the impact of this training on safety outcomes is limited and staff often express dissatisfaction at the requirement to complete training they consider compliance driven rather than evidence based.
This presentation will discuss the outcome of a study conducted in WA investigating how to optimise the uptake of mandated workplace training in the public health workforce. It will specifically detail the findings related to allied health staff: what mandated training they are currently required to undertake, what subjects they want to be mandated, what they understand to be the purpose and impact of mandated training, their levels of engagement with the training and the barriers and enablers of their engagement.
The presentation will include recommendations for how organisations can design and deliver training that optimises uptake and has a positive impact on safety in the workplace.