2034 outcomes
- Establish 9 future roles to create additional capacity in the healthcare system, support new models of care, and improve pathways.
- Develop innovative education models for career agility, including reskilling pathways across professions.
- Increase supply of 20 standardised advanced roles to improve the ability of existing roles to operate to the top of scope.
- Increase cross-skilling programs for integrated and person-centered transdisciplinary care.
The rapid mobilisation of new roles and the adaptation of existing ones during the pandemic showed our health system’s strengths in establishing innovative models of care and roles.
It also highlighted that, in some roles, healthcare workers are working to a broad scope that can present a risk to the efficacy of service delivery, or a narrow scope that limits career growth and satisfaction.
There are opportunities to develop new roles and grow existing ones, which will build stepped career paths while supporting professionals to operate to the top of their scope.
This strategy focuses on a broad range of roles that will enable the modernisation of healthcare service delivery, including:
- medical
- rural medical generalists
- medical assistants
- nursing
- nurse practitioners
- registered undergraduate student of nursing/midwifery
- allied health
- allied health advanced/extended scope of practice
- rural allied health generalist
- allied health assistants
- other
- paramedic practitioners
- patient support officers
These roles can create additional capacity in the healthcare system. They can also improve the ability of existing roles to:
- operate to the top of scope
- support new models of care
- improve career pathways.
The sector wants increased scope of practice, advanced scopes, diversity of work, continued opportunities to learn and develop.
Growing and diversifying skills
Consultation identified that health professionals want to improve their skills, diversify their work and respond innovatively to new challenges.
There is complexity in identifying not only where roles can grow but also how to successfully delegate and redefine activities to ensure balanced workloads and opportunities for sharing and teaching new skills.
With ever-increasing demand for health services, and changing community needs, it will be necessary to work differently. Establishing new and innovative roles, including contemporary credentialling and scopes of practice, is a priority for Victoria in delivering modern health services. Growing peoples’ skills in line with their desire for engaging careers will also aid longer-term retention in the health sector.
We need to enable systems to adapt to change, rather than defining the workforce in a more static way – the workforce needs to be dynamic.
Case study: innovative models of care
Several health services have created advanced practice dietitian roles to identify people on the gastroenterology waitlist with symptoms compatible with irritable bowel syndrome. The dietitian reviews these patients and provides a comprehensive assessment.
Some patients have ‘red flags’ for faster escalation to the gastroenterologist, while others receive symptom management while waiting for their medical appointment.
Some patients are managed and treated within a dietetics framework and removed from the gastroenterology waiting list entirely, which improves timeliness and quality of care.
Using innovative roles can improve patient care and make better use of the breadth of skills held across health professional groups.
Skills for person-centred care
Ensuring healthcare workers have opportunities to develop new technical and general skills is integral to enabling our people to achieve their purpose and pursue meaningful and varied careers in a way that supports centred-person care.
The Health and community services industry report 2022 published by the Victorian Skills Authority articulates the need to develop workers’ multidisciplinary skills to effectively respond to government reform.
As government reform repositions the health and community services industry to be more integrated and driven by service users’ needs, this requires workers to have inclusive, person-centred, and digital skills to lift quality service delivery.
While certain skills are in shortage across the industry, others relate to sectors or occupations. A 2021 survey of health and community services industry employers identified five skill needs for continued development in the sector.
- the right attitude (mindset, motivation, consistency)
- job-ready skills (teamwork, problem solving, communication, initiative)
- technical/job specific skills (for a specific role)
- digital skills (working with digital devices, applications & networks)
- foundation skills (language, literacy, and numeracy skills).
Embedding opportunities for healthcare workers to develop these skills at all points in their career journeys will further support the desired outcomes of this strategy and will be a focus throughout implementation.
Action areas
The following activities will be delivered in the short term, from 2024 to 2026.
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- Develop a consistent and scalable process to formalise new and expanded roles.
- Establish career pathways and progression models for new and expanded roles.
- Work with education providers to develop new or updated qualifications and pathways to new and expanded roles.
- Develop baseline scope of practice, qualification and credentialling requirements for each innovative role.
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- Establish innovative employment models that maximise the development and transferability of skills across multiple settings and professions.
- Partner with Ahpra and professional bodies to expand skills and scopes of practice through interjurisdictional advocacy.
Medium-term reforms
- Expand systems and processes that allow new roles and approaches to be piloted, established, and scaled.
- Expand innovative workforce models, including those that have been developed locally, in Australia and overseas.
- Enable new settings to embed innovative roles.
Long-term reforms
- Work with the sector to develop a standardised baseline scope of practice and credentialing requirements, and a standardised approach to endorse future roles.
- Identify and systematically address relevant legislative or regulatory barriers to new roles and models of care.
- Work with Ahpra and other groups to ensure training and accreditation requirements remain fit for purpose as new roles, technologies and techniques develop across the health system.
Reviewed 27 March 2024