The what, the when and the how: A qualitative study of allied health decision-maker perspectives on factors influencing the development and implementation of advanced and extended scopes of practice in Australia.

Background: Health workforce supply is critical to ensuring the delivery of essential healthcare and may be enhanced via mechanisms which alter the scopes of practice of health professions. The aim of this paper is to study the collective perspectives of allied health decision-makers on factors which influence their development and implementation of advanced and extended scope of practice initiatives, and how they contribute to scope of practice change. The reasoning for the selection of each factor will also be examined.

Unlocking potential: a qualitative exploration guiding the implementation and evaluation of professional role substitution models in healthcare.

Background: As role substitution models gain prominence in healthcare, understanding the factors shaping their effectiveness is paramount. This study aimed to investigate factors that impact the implementation and performance evaluation of professional role substitution models in healthcare, with a focus on understanding the variables that determine their success or failure in adoption, execution, continuity, and outcomes.

Methods: The exploratory qualitative study used semi-structured interviews with key opinion leaders, decision makers, facilitators, recipients, and frontline implementers, who had influence and involvement in the implementation of professional role substitution models.

Measuring performance in allied health professional role substitution models of care: a clinician survey.

Background: Professional role substitution models of care have emerged as a key strategy to address increasing healthcare demand. Gaining insights from those actively engaged in the process of these models' implementation and evaluation is pivotal to ensuring sustainability and further successful implementation. The purpose of this study was to describe allied-health clinicians' perceptions, practice, and experiences of healthcare performance evaluation in professional role substitution models of care.

Health-related quality of life in people with different diabetes-related foot ulcer health states: A cross-sectional study of healed, non-infected, infected, hospitalised and amputated ulcer states.

Aims: Diabetes-related foot ulcers (DFU) are a leading cause of infection, hospitalisation and amputation. However, to our knowledge no studies have compared the health-related quality of life (HRQoL) of people with DFU that were infected, hospitalised or amputated. This study aimed to investigate and compare the HRQoL of different groups of people with healed, non-infected, infected, hospitalised, or amputated DFU.

Developing a knowledge translation program for health practitioners: Allied Health Translating Research into Practice.

Background: Front-line health practitioners lack confidence in knowledge translation, yet they are often required to undertake projects to bridge the knowledge-practice gap. There are few initiatives focused on building the capacity of the health practitioner workforce to undertake knowledge translation, with most programs focusing on developing the skills of researchers. This paper reports the development and evaluation of a knowledge translation capacity building program for allied health practitioners located over geographically dispersed locations in Queensland, Australia.

Evaluation of a teleaudiology service in regional Australia.

Objective: Evaluate accessibility, effectiveness, acceptability and efficiency of a student- assisted teleaudiology model of care in a regional hospital in Queensland, Australia.

Design: Prospective mixed method service evaluation study.

Study Sample: Demographic, service and satisfaction data were collected from 233 patients (children aged ≥5 and adults) who received teleaudiology assessment.

Teaching the principles of safe prescribing to a mixed profession postgraduate cohort: program development.

Background: Prescribing medicines is a complex task. A robust prerequisite curriculum that enables the efficient and consistent training of safe and effective prescribers is important. Despite differing prescribing contexts and professional attributes, the core elements of safe and effective prescribing relevant to all prescribers can be identified.

Allied health pre-entry student clinical placement capacity: can it be sustained?

Objective Meeting the demand for clinical placements in an environment of increasing university cohort growth and changes in health service delivery models is challenging. This paper describes the outcomes of a quality review activity designed to gain key stakeholder perspectives on the enablers and barriers to sustaining effort to placement provision and reports on: (1) measures used to determine the effect of a jurisdiction-wide initiative in clinical education for five allied health professions; (2) outcomes of data related to key factors affecting placement supply and demand; and (3) qualitative perspectives from management, workforce and university stakeholders on placement sustainability. Methods This study reviewed clinical placement, staff full-time equivalent numbers, university program and student cohort data for five allied health professions from 2013 to 2016.

Do patients discharged from advanced practice physiotherapy-led clinics re-present to specialist medical services?

Objective The aim of the present study was to determine the rates of re-referral to specialist out-patient clinics for patients previously managed and discharged from an advanced practice physiotherapy-led service in three metropolitan hospitals. Methods A retrospective audit was undertaken of 462 patient cases with non-urgent musculoskeletal conditions discharged between 1 April 2014 and 30 March 2015 from three metropolitan hospitals. These patients had been discharged from the physiotherapy-led service without requiring specialist medical review.

Audit of allied health assistant roles: suggestions for improving quality in rural settings.

Problem: There is considerable potential for allied health assistant roles to address rural workforce shortage, but there is also a need to ensure quality of these roles.

Design: A total of 41 allied health assistant trial roles were audited using an intensive onsite audit by independent clinicians.

Setting: Queensland public health services across rural/regional and metropolitan settings.

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

Objectives: The Clinical Education Workload Management Initiative (the Initiative) is a unique, multiprofessional, jurisdiction-wide approach and reform process enshrined within an industrial agreement. The Initiative enabled significant investment in allied health clinical education across Queensland public health services to address the workload associated with providing pre-entry clinical placements. This paper describes the outcomes of a quality review activity to measure the impact of the Initiative on placement capacity and workload management for five allied health professions.