New England - Training
Training and education opportunities were provided to New England Area Health Service paediatricians, nurses and allied health professionals to update normal development knowledge and enhance intervention strategies for infants and children with learning difficulties, feeding difficulties, musculoskeletal problems, developmental delay and those with the potential for mental health problems.
Two streams of education provision were undertaken:
- allied health staff, specifically speech pathologists but inclusive of others who see children with feeding problems via a paediatric feeding workshop.
- child and family health nurses, utilising the Family Partnerships training programme over a four month period
Paediatric Feeding Workshop
This workshop targeting speech pathologists, but also of interest to early childhood nurses, dietitians, occupational therapists and medical practitioners was hosted at Tamworth.
- Video conferencing facilities were used
- Participants from other area health services within the NCHN were invited to attend
- Speech therapists from DADHC also attended
- Participant satisfaction surveys were conducted
In total 41 people working in the fields of speech pathology, nutrition/dietetics and community nursing attended the feeding and swallowing workshop. Participants attended from New England, Mid-North Coast and Hunter Area Health Services. 29 completed surveys were returned - 100% stating that the workshop was appropriate to their clinical needs. From the responses received the workshop was received extremely positively. Many staff felt that they would not have attended at all if the workshop had not been free of charge and/or not in their local area, even though they recognise the value in having a specialist workshop provided for their benefit. Many participants received no subsistence allowance from their AHS and incurred costs. It is therefore very clear that allied health staff will seek out and support specialist training opportunities when they are offered the appropriate conditions - that is, little or no cost to their unit and minimal travel time.
Staff also very much appreciated the opportunity to network with other professionals from other units and Area Health Services and suggested a follow-up consolidation conference in several month's time. Due to the organisational value derived from the workshop, several Speech pathologists from the other Area Health Services indicated an interest in also pursuing funding to conduct a similar workshop.
Family Partnerships Training
Two 6-day workshops were held in March and April in Glen Innes and Tamworth. 12 community nurses attended the course at two venues. All completed the assessment survey and all acknowledged an increase in their skills. Several have instituted changes to their practice, including time allocation and referral practice and are more confident in seeking support for themselves
Generally, the theme of change that has occurred for the participants is an awareness of looking after themselves better as service providers and in turn, providing a better service to their clients. Participants are now more conscious of the quality of the time they spend with their clients and to listen more effectively; to not shoulder the client's problems but to empower their clients to deal with their own problems by coming up with their own solutions (with guidance if necessary). Participants were made more aware of professional boundaries and to be more confident in seeking out professional support in the forms of debriefing and/or supervision.