Transprofessional Practice at Fiona Stanley Hospital in the acute setting – Physiotherapy & Occupational Therapy
Silas Lee1, Jessica Legg, Julia Murray, Gracie Reynolds1Fiona Stanley Hospital, Perth, WA, Australia
Abstract
Transprofessional practice (TPP) is based on skill sharing across Allied Health (AH) professions rather than demarcating skills according to traditional roles. Simply put, Physiotherapists (PT) are trained in basic Occupational Therapist (OT) skills and vice versa to allow for a single clinician to assess and complete basic intervention on behalf of more than one AH professional.
Over the last few years, we have improved and increased this practice by :
– Producing TPP online training videos for OT’s and Physio’s to access (rather than face to face) available digitally on our hospital’s e-module data base.
– Creating a TPP Working Group to review TPP Guidelines, troubleshoot issues arising on wards and initiate.
– Creation of quarterly TPP Education and supervision sessions for all Acute Care AH team members.
– Creation of TPP SharePoint page
– Expansion of the practice to our General Medical ward and Acute Geriatric ward.
The overall feedback from staff has been that the efficiency on the ward improved with less duplication of assessment, less occasions of service required and more time available for profession specific rehabilitation. The single point of contact between the patient and staff member also allows for clear communication and better case management. This strategy also worked well whilst Covid had a large impact as staff were limited on their ability to access patients due to contact restrictions.
Biography
We are senior therapists working across acute areas including ED, the Frailty Assessment Unit and the Acute Medical Unit at Fiona Stanley Hospital. We are all in the Transprofessional (TPP) Working Group and have been involved in the recent improvements to the TPP service.