Maximizing placement opportunities: How we can assess each others' students

Introduction/background: In contemporary healthcare there is increasing focus on inter-professional (IP) practice to provide quality and sustainable client services. Professional standards, including both discipline specific and generic competencies, underpin quality professional practice and health service delivery. These competencies are often developed and demonstrated during clinical placements. Despite this centrality of clinical placements in allied health (AH) students’ education, the sustainability of historical placement models is under threat. In rural areas, capacity is further limited by a paucity of AH professionals. Innovative placement models such as IP assessment, whereby supervisors from different professions assess students’ generic competencies, are required to address this issue.

Aim: This project aimed to: identify common key competencies across a range of AH professions; explore AH professionals’ understanding of, and willingness and confidence in assessing students from other professions; identify barriers to adoption and implementation of IP assessment; and develop an IP assessment form and training package to support capacity building in assessing students from other AH professions.

Discussion: Health Workforce Australia (HWA) identified an increasing need for competent supervisors to support health professional students’ clinical training in the workplace, while advocating for IP learning. This presentation will discuss preliminary study findings including common key generic professional competencies, barriers to IP assessment, and implications for development of an IP assessment form and innovative training program to develop clinical supervisors’ capability to assess students from other professions. This innovative placement model would enhance student learning and ensure sustainability of clinical education through an expansion of placement capacity.