WACTN UPDATE
The Australian Government Department of Health has kindly agreed to extend the timeframe for the Simulated
Learning Environments recurrent agreement and the original Integrated Regional Clinical Training Networks
(IRCTN) agreement in addition to the new IRCTN funding agreement. The WACTN will continue to focus its work
on the priorities identified by the Communities of Interest and other consultations.
CLINICAL
SUPERVISION
AWARDS ON AGAIN
International simulation
training course a hit
Do you know an outstanding supervisor in the
clinical setting? After the tremendous success of
the 2013 awards, which elicited more than 150
nominations, the WACTN is pleased to announce that
the Clinical Supervision Awards will be held again in
2015, made possible through funding from the
Australian Government and supported by WA Health.
‘Challenging’, ‘stimulating’, ‘inspirational’,
‘rewarding’ and ‘energising’ were some of
the accolades attributed to a medical
simulation training course taught in Perth
recently by the Center for Medical
Simulation’s Harvard Medical School
faculty.
The awards will again recognise and celebrate the
impact of clinical supervisors and the teams who
support them in four main categories:
1) Excellence in Clinical Supervision
2) Excellence in Clinical Facilitation
3) Innovation in Clinical Supervision
4) Lifetime Achievement in Clinical Supervision.
Nominations will open from April to individuals, teams,
organisations and initiatives that support students at all
levels of study (certificate through to postgraduate) from
all clinical professions.
All nominees and nominators will be invited to the
Clinical Supervision Awards presentation and cocktail
evening on Tuesday 4 August.
For more information and to nominate visit
www.health.wa.gov.au/wactn/home/awards.cfm or
email wactn@health.wa.gov.au
The WACTN partnered with Edith Cowan
University (ECU) to enable the Center for
Medical Simulation (CMS) to deliver the
Institute for Medical Simulation (IMS)
‘Simulation as a Teaching Tool’ course at
ECU’s Joondalup campus in February. This
was the first time the course had been
delivered in Western Australia and
competition for places was strong: there
were more than 60 applicants from Western
Australia alone for the 20 available places,
Placement
system evaluation
underway
In January 2015, WA Health commenced a project with
Planet Software to test whether Sonia – a placement
management platform primarily designed for education
providers – can meet health users’ needs.
New features are also being developed to improve the
system’s user-friendliness for a health audience. The
Project’s User Group has generated a list of 47
requirements related to:
 enabling ‘composite placements’ (across multiple
organisations, sites or professions)
 user-friendly graphic planning and management tools
 efficient processes and workflow (eg automated
notifications when a change occurs)
 enabling Activity Based Management.
The project will deliver its finding in June 2015. If Sonia is
rated as a viable solution, WA Health and its private health
project partners will implement the system in 2015/2016.
For further information, contact Michael Price on
(08) 9222 2178 or michael.price@health.wa.gov.a
with strong interest shown from clinicians
throughout Australia.
The IMS course, which is highly regarded
internationally, is an interprofessional
program for health educators that use
simulation as a learning method. Over four
intensive days, the course participants
learned how to foster clinical, behavioural
and cognitive skills through simulatedbased learning using scenarios, lectures,
small and large group discussions, and
practical exercises with feedback.
Professor Cobie Rudd, ECU Pro-ViceChancellor (Health Advancement), and
Host for this event, said the program was a
fantastic opportunity to boost the skills of
instructors in Western Australia.
Participants at the Institute for Medical Simulation (IMS) instructor training course at ECU.
Allied health rural placement grants
Late last year, the WACTN governance
committee agreed to fund the Rural
Student Placement Travel Support
program for 2015. In partnership with
Rural Health West, the fund provides a
travel grant of up to $550 to eligible
undergraduate and graduate entry allied
health students undertaking clinical
placements in country Western Australia.
Funding is allocated based on the
distance travelled from the student’s
university and the placement town.
Professions eligible to apply for the travel
grant are:
 Physiotherapy
 Occupational Therapy
 Speech Pathology
 Dietetics
 Social Work
 Pharmacy
 Medical Imaging Technology
 Podiatry
 Audiology, and
 Psychology, Counselling and Clinical
Psychology.
The travel support program encourages
more students to undertake their clinical
placements in rural Western Australia so
that they are more likely to work in rural
settings.
For application forms and further details
about the travel grants, visit the WACTN
website or contact Rural Health West on
choosecountry@ruralhealthwest.com.au
or (08) 6389 4500.
Member Profile: Michelle Dillon
The reconfiguration of the South Metropolitan
Health Service (SMHS) and the opening of the
new Fiona Stanley Hospital in Murdoch have
seen major changes to services within SMHS.
The 783-bed, state-of-the-art hospital is now
the region’s major tertiary facility, absorbing
a number of services from other hospitals
and health facilities.
As Area Director of Nursing and Midwifery for
SMHS, Michelle Dillon has helped to drive these
changes, reshaping the nursing and midwifery
workforce to accommodate the shifts in location
and service focus.
At the same time, she led the development of a
clinical placement system that has centralised
undergraduate placement allocations for nurses,
midwives and paramedics within SMHS. The
system won the Clinical Training category of the
2014 WA Health Excellence Awards.
“The project was prompted by the need to increase
placements in some areas due to the downsizing of
Royal Perth Hospital and Fremantle Hospital, and
the simultaneous increase in placement demand
from the education sector,” explains Michelle, a
Registered Nurse with extensive experience in
intensive care, education and management who
has worked in the United Kingdom and India as
well as on Australia’s east coast.
“This process has culminated in many
achievements including the endorsement of clear
guidelines on the management of clinical
placements; development of a standardised
methodology for equitable allocation of students;
strengthened relationships between the health and
education sectors; and the development of the
state’s first standardised student orientation and elearning package.”
She said a database had also been developed that
has captured some of the most reliable data on
placement activity to date. This includes data on
placement requests from individual education
providers, demand for particular types of
placements and rates of cancellations.
This information is being used to ensure equitable
access to placements by all education providers,
not just those with the biggest student cohort. It is
also helping to discourage the wastage of
placement opportunities, with educators closely
monitored through the system and penalties
applied for last-minute placement cancellations.
“The information on demand for particular types of
placements is also very valuable,” added Michelle.
“For example, the data has illustrated the
particularly high demand for operating theatre and
maternity placements.
Embedding
interprofessional
learning in
placements
The qualitative review of interprofessional clinical
placement opportunities in Western Australia has
now been completed. The report, Embedding
Interprofessional Learning in Placements in
Service Delivery, aimed to explore the current
status of Western Australian clinical placements
and to gather specific qualitative information
regarding interprofessional learning, and how such
placements could be framed in health
organisations.
Through in-depth interviews with 19 health and
disability teams in Western Australia and a review
of current literature, four main recommendations
were made to embed interprofessional learning in
placements. The full report will be available on the
WACTN website shortly.
I can now plan the future workforce by ensuring
that students have adequate learning
opportunities in these areas and are work-ready
for areas experiencing workforce shortages.”
The database also captures peaks and troughs in
demand for placements over time. This
information can be used to encourage more
placements during low-demand periods (such as
Christmas and semester breaks), so that
education providers get the placements they
need and the variable workload on placement
staff is evened out.
POSITIVE FEEDBACK ON
CLINICAL SUPERVISION TRAINING
Feedback to date on the Clinical Supervision Training courses has been very positive,
with many comments made about the value of their interprofessional nature and the
quality of the interaction.
Enrolment by profession (Figure 1) is
consistent with previous clinical
supervision training where nursing and
allied health made up the bulk of the
participants. Enrolments by sector
(Figure 2), shows a small proportional
increase in private and non-government
organisation sectors compared with
training provided in 2013.
A formal evaluation of the skills initiative
program is being conducted nationally
by the Commonwealth Department of
Health and is not yet complete for
Western Australia. Initial data from the
Clinical Supervision Training threemonth evaluation suggests that the
training was valuable in helping health
professionals to more successfully
navigate the role of clinical supervisor.
There is still capacity in the foundational
and intermediate courses in Broome
on 7 and 8 May. For more information,
see the WACTN website or email
wactn@health.wa.gov.au.
Cultural Safety Training on offer
Free Cultural Safety Training, delivered by the Aboriginal Health Council of Western Australia,
will be offered by the WACTN in Highgate on Monday 11 May. The training is open to health
professionals who currently (or soon will) provide clinical supervision or support for the clinical
placements of Aboriginal Health Work students. Places are limited. Please contact the WACTN
to register your interest on (08) 9222 2166 or wactn@health.wa.gov.au.
Contact us
WA Clinical Training Network
Level 1, B Block
189 Royal Street
EAST PERTH WA 6004
Web: http://www.health.wa.gov.au/wactn
Email: wactn@health.wa.gov.au
Telephone: (08) 9222 2166 or
(08) 9222 2278