Development of digital education resources for delegated practices in rehabilitation services
Tamsin Mahoney1, Ruby Armstrong2, Eliza Wallis2, Isabella Burling2, Ellen Kneipp2, Marcia Lear1 1Surgical, Treatment And Rehabilitation Services (stars), Herston, QLD, Australia2University of Queensland, St Lucia, Queensland, Australia
Abstract
Background
Delegation to the support workforce has shown to be an effective strategy for the efficient and timely delivery of allied health services in order to achieve better outcomes for patients and the community.
Delegation to an Allied Health Assistant (AHA) is the process by which a Health Practitioner (HP) delegates clinical activities to an AHA who has appropriate education, knowledge and skills to undertake the activity safely and competently.
In 2022, the STARS Occupational Therapy (OT) Department onboarded 13 new AHA’s, whom all required training in OT task delegations. Training involves providing education and supervision of the AHA until they are deemed competent to perform safely and independently.
Method
Four UQ students progressed development of 8 video resources as part of a clinical project. This involved:
-Co-design of the video educational resources with our AHA workforce
-Review of existing written education resources
-Development of video education resources
Each video education resource lasts approximately 30 minutes, saving our OT workforce 4 hours in training time for each new AHA.
Results
OT and AHA surveys revealed:
-All AHA’s have revisited the training videos
-All AHA’s found the videos helpful or very helpful
-OT’s report the videos have saved them time in training
-OT’s rate the videos 4.75/5 in terms of satisfaction
Recommendations
Development of these digital resources has shown to be an effective and efficient method for delegation training. Subsequently, we will progress development of video education resources for our remaining OT tasks delegations.
Biography
Tamsin Mahoney is the Occupational Therapy Director at STARS. Tamsin has worked across a number of tertiary hospital facilities throughout Queensland and holds the Clinical Assistant portfolio for STARS. Tamsin has a strong interest in both interprofessional practice and delegation practices that support patient outcomes and experiences.