Question:
Discuss about the Allied Health Workforce Redesign for Dentists.
Allied Health is a term used to show a large variety of medical specialists that are not nurses, dentists or doctors. Allied health experts aspire to avert, make a diagnosis and give treatment to several of illnesses and frequently work within a health crew having persons of different disciplines to give the patient the best posible results.Allied health professionals are employed in several locations including but not limited to: schools, universities, care homes, , community health centers, and hospitals. Allied Health Professionals are roughly 25% of the Australian health labor force. More than 154,000 Allied Health Professionals cataloged with APHRA in 2013, an 18% growth from 2012, and the field is continually experiencing positive increament (Wood, Schuurs, &Amsters,2011). This report aims first to outline the allied health workforce redesign initiative, how far it has been implemented within Australia, and what role alterations have happened both in the allied healthcare professionals role and associated health worker roles. It will also show the benefits of the initiative to redesign the allied healthcare workforce even identifying which of the six principles outlined by Nancarrow has been tackled in the workforce redesign. Also, it will discuss if the redesign undertaking has brought about positive outcomes for both the patients and the allied healthcare workforce. Finally, it will identify what strategies can e implemented so that all the six principles outlined by Nancarrow shall be met and also to bring about a largescale implementation of the workforce redesign.
The redesign initiative that has been undertaken for the allied health workforce is the Victorian Assistant Workforce Model. The Victorian Assistant Workforce Model (VAWM) for the allied health is a labor force redesign methodology to aid medical services to sustain the growing demands for allied healthcare (Yates, Wells,& Carnell,2007).The VAWM toolkit gives a methodical approach to creating a maintainable and beneficial allied health workforce which is ripe for a drive, with the ability to provide the correct proficiencies at the correct period, place and amount.It will aid medical services to enhance access to allied health, letting more patients benefit from care provided.This workforce redesign aims to ensure allied medical experts and allied medical assistants work in the full range of their jobs and practices.Currently, in Australia, there is an aggregate of 1112 AHPs and 135 AHAs from 27 healthcare facilities. In a study carried out, AHPs observed that 24% of their time was consumed doing duties that could be tasked to an suitably trained and regulated AHA safely. It equals to 6837 hours that may have been used to progress and increase the AHP practice functions or developed patient-centered care systems. The VAWM redesign initiative shows an ability for a more skillful execution of assistant workforce responsibilities across allied health (Wilson, Whitaker,& Whitford, 2012).
Several role changes have happened in both the allied health workforce and other health practitioners. First, when we focus more on improving and redesigning the allied health workforce and not the whole health care system, there is a risk that when these two groups work together, they will not fulfill their roles well as one works a well-oiled machine while the other is a bit dysfunctional. Also, when the workforce is redesigned, it may result in overlap of roles where for example a nutritionists part may be taken over by a doctor who knows about nutrition hence causing kind of friction. Again, with this redesign, it will define everyone’s roles. Therefore, everyone will work with cohesion and patients can be treated well and as fast as possible (McGrath, Henderson, Tamargo, & Holewa, 2011).
The benefits of allied healthcare work redesign include the following. First, it leads to staff getting a greater sense of satisfaction hence giving them better opportunities to develop their careers. When the team gets their roles well defined n the redesign, they get satisfied in their jobs consequently perform better at work leading to the obtaining of more chances for promotion. Secondly, it leads to coming up with more maintainable job roles in the organization. When the functions are defined, these jobs can be filled up since everyone knows what is expected of them at work and thus these functions can be sustained in the long term. It also leads to a perception that allied health workers can perform and finish their job tasks faster doing in sound quality (Nancarrow, Roots, Grace, Moran, & Vanniekerk-Lyons, 2013).Another benefit is that workers can be matched to tasks that better suit their skill sets. When one is matched to the correct function, they can perform their jobs better hence serving the patients better. They also get to learn a new set of skills so that they can take on more roles in the workplace since these functions are defined leading to an amplified sense of accomplishment by learning of new proficiencies and getting a more comprehensive information base, especially the allied health workers (Smith, Brown, & Cooper,2009).. The workers also get the sense of being included in a team of different types of professions in the healthcare industry thus feel good and needed leading to a sense of satisfaction and patients getting better care and faster because these professionals are in a team and can work together. Also, these AHP can concentrate on bettering their skills as the AHAs can carry out the primary roles hence improve the care they can provide to their patients in the long run (Mason, 2013).
The principle, to enhance workforce flexibility that is used in this allied health workforce redesign initiative is the one that says “enable practitioners to work to their full scope of practice; delegate tasks where required.” It is because, with the VAWM redesign initiative, the allied health assistants aid the allied professionals in performing their duties when they have delegated these tasks. It enables the AHPs to be able to perform their job responsibilities to their best of their ability as they have more time (Comans, Clark, Cartmill, Ash, & Sheppard, 2011). It ensures patients get the best care possible from the professionals. They also get to improve the skills of the assistants who practice on roles they have been given hence with time the number of allied healthcare professionals who are qualified increases.
This allied health workforce redesign initiative has brought about positive and amplified outcomes for patients and the healthcare providers. These include first, their chances for career growth and opportunities to grow for the allied health assistant workforce community increases and thus they can develop and improve their lives. Also, the patients get better health care services as roles are divided between the assistant’s professionals hence everyone does their part well (Segal,& Bolton,2009). The chances for growth needs to be combined with the advancement of regulation and assignment of job roles to the assistants with the allied health professional labor force to make sure that an combined labor force is created hence providing a functioning medical care system in the community. Patients can also get one on one specialized care until they get well as there will be an increased number of medical practitioners in the allied health field.
Also when the allied healthcare workforce is redesigned, and their number increased through the assistants, they will be able to reach more of the chronically ill patients in Australia and give them specialized care. It will lead to these patients lives being saved as every patent will get the best care possible wherever they are because the allied medical professionals are many and thus can even reach the rural areas in Australia (Scott, Albrecht, O’Leary, Ball, Hartling, Hofmeyer, & Thompson, 2012). It has also been beneficial to medical care professionals and assistants in that with the increase in their number; they get competitive pay and benefits across the field, and also it ensures that there is job security for them. It has also made them flexible as they can perform a range of healthcare services hence they can work anywhere. I believe this allied healthcare redesign initiative (Comans, Clark, Cartmill, Ash, & Sheppard, 2011).
The following strategies can be applied to this initiative so that the six principles of healthcare flexibility can be achieved.The first policy of “measure health system performance from the perspective of the patient” can be made through having regular surveys in patients receiving the health care from the allied healthcare providers. These answers from the polls will let the allied health care professionals know the opinions of their patients and what they can do to improve their services (Scott, 2009). Hence they will make these systems patients based and know whether or not the level of services they provide is up to the expectations.The next strategy that can be implemented so that this first principle of flexibility can be achieved is by observing the patients and carrying out studies across different scenarios in patients so that the results of the survey can be used to improve healthcare delivery by the allied healthcare workforce (Keane, Smith, Lincoln, Wagner, & Lowe,2008).
The second principle of”minimising training time” can be achieved by using the strategy of first using online training systems and simulations so that practitioners can be trained anywhere and anytime without needing to be physically present at the training centers. It minimises time spent waiting for training sessions and also reduces the amount of money used to travel for these training (Hakkennes & Dodd,2008). Also developing plans so that these training can occur and these professionals and assistants can schedule them around their work. Thus they can provide care for patients as they improve their skill set. Also, these assistants get the experience they need as they do the duties delegated to them. Hence, they will reduce the time they take to receive the necessary education and training for accreditation because of skills learned at work (Moran, Nancarrow, Wiseman, Maher, Boyce, Borthwick & Murphy, 2012).
The third principle of “regulate tasks or competencies, not professions”can be achieved in this allied health care redesign initiative through the following strategies. First, this can be done by explicitly outlining the tasks and responsibility of every worker. When one knows what is apparently expected of them in their job role, they will perform it to their best ability. Also during the recruitment process, the people employed should be able to fill in the positions that the job requires (Schoo, Stagnitti, Mercer-Grant & Dunbar, 2005). If you hire the right person with the right skills the job will be done well also from the education level, it should be ensured that the right set of skills for allied healthcare professionals is being taught. It provides that new people in the field are well equipped to perform their roles. Hence by focusing on functions, the patients receive the best healthcare possible (Lizarondo, Kumar, Hyde, & Skidmore,2010).
For the next principle, “match rewards and indemnity to the levels of skill and risk required to perform a particular task, not professional title.” It can be done by having a reward system that gives workers rewards when they achieve set goals for a fixed period. It will encourage competitiveness, productivity and also improve the level of healthcare provided to patients (Hakkennes & Dodd,2008). When the reward system is configured, it should be specified what kind of task is to be achieved, how it is should be done and the level of quality expected of them. Hence when these are met, they get rewarded thus this is beneficial to all parties involved. Also when the employees see that they get rewarded for having a high level of skill, they will always endeavor to improve themselves to be even better to get more rewards (Nancarrow, 2015).
The last principle, “ensure that practitioners have all the skills they need to perform the tasks required to work in the environment in which they work.” The strategies that can be applied to achieve this includes first by ensuring the training received from the institutions is standardized. It makes sure that the allied health workforce is well trained and have the best skill set when they start working and caring for patients (Dubois & Singh,2009). Also, random tests can be taken to ensure that practitioners in the allied healthcare field are up to date with the current practicess and skillset required in the area. They can also carry out regular training sessions for these practitioners so that this allied healthcare workforce in Australia is up to date in practices and patients receive the best care possible. Also, encouraging specialization ensures that people focus on fields they are best at making sure that when they are given tasks specific to their skill set they can perform it to the best of their ability (Morris, Grimmer, Gilmore, Perera,Waddington, Kyle, & Murphy,2014).
Conclusion
In conclusion, there is little sense for allied health practitioners to perform all duties when they can be helped by qualified allied health assistants to do the same tasks in half the time. It would be both economical and beneficial to both patients and the workforce. They will be able to save time and use it to improve their skills and also serve more patients. It also increases flexibility in the allied healthcare workforce field as more importance is given to them. Hence they can provide specialized care to different patients specifically in their area of specialty. I can say that this initiative if correctly implemented will achieve more of the desired outcome of improving the allied healthcare workforce. If the strategies named above are implemented, it will enhance the allied healthcare workforce drastically enhancing both the patient’s experience and the skill set of the workforce.
References
Comans, T. A., Clark, M. J., Cartmill, L., Ash, S., & Sheppard, L. A. (2011). How do allied health professionals evaluate new models of care? What are we measuring and why?. Journal for Healthcare Quality, 33(4), 19-28.
Dubois, C. A., & Singh, D. (2009). From staff-mix to skill-mix and beyond: towards a systemic approach to health workforce management. Human Resources for Health, 7(1), 87.
Hakkennes, S., & Dodd, K. (2008). Guideline implementation in allied health professions: a systematic review of the literature. Quality and Safety in Health Care, 17(4), 296-300.
Keane, S., Smith, T. N., Lincoln, M., Wagner, S. R., & Lowe, S. E. (2008). The rural allied health workforce study (RAHWS): background, rationale and questionnaire development. Rural& Remote Health, 8(4).
Lizarondo, L., Kumar, S., Hyde, L., & Skidmore, D. (2010). Allied health assistants and what they do: a systematic review of the literature. Journal of multidisciplinary healthcare, 3, 143.
Mason, J. (2013). Review of Australian government health workforce programs.
McGrath, P. D., Henderson, D., Tamargo, J., & Holewa, H. A. (2011). ‘All these allied health professionals and you’re not really sure when you use them’: insights from Australian international medical graduates on working with allied health. Australian Health Review, 35(4), 418-423.
Moran, A. M., Nancarrow, S. A., Wiseman, L., Maher, K., Boyce, R. A., Borthwick, A. M., & Murphy, K. (2012). Assisting role redesign: a qualitative evaluation of the implementation of a podiatry assistant role to a community health setting utilising a traineeship approach. Journal of foot and ankle research, 5(1), 30.
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Nancarrow, S. A. (2015). Six principles to enhance health workforce flexibility. Human resources for health, 13(1), 9.
Nancarrow, S. A., Roots, A., Grace, S., Moran, A. M., & Vanniekerk-Lyons, K. (2013). Implementing large-scale workforce change: learning from 55 pilot sites of allied health workforce redesign in Queensland, Australia. Human resources for health, 11(1), 66.
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