Pre-entry student clinical placement demand: can it be met?

Area of Science:

• Health Professions Education
• Workforce Development
• Quality Improvement in Healthcare

Background:

• The Clinical Education Workload Management Initiative (the Initiative) is a unique, multiprofessional, jurisdiction-wide reform process.
• It involved significant investment in allied health clinical education within Queensland public health services.
• The goal was to address workload challenges in providing pre-entry clinical placements.

Purpose of the Study:

• To describe the outcomes of a quality review activity assessing the Initiative's impact.
• To measure the Initiative's effect on placement capacity and workload management for five allied health professions.
• To report data on factors influencing placement supply and demand, alongside qualitative workforce perspectives.

Main Methods:

• Appraisal of quality review data, including placement activity, workforce, and student cohort statistics.
• Analysis of emerging themes from stakeholder perspectives reported in workforce surveys.

Main Results:

• Placement offers increased despite declining full-time equivalent (FTE) staff numbers and rising university program/student numbers.
• Initiative-funded positions were key to practitioners accepting more students.
• Staff and managers valued the support provided by funded positions for placement coordination and university partnerships.

Conclusions:

• The Initiative facilitated a coordinated approach to meeting clinical placement demand.
• It enhanced collaborations between the health and education sectors.
• Sustaining pre-entry student placement provision remains an ongoing challenge.