Supporting Northern Territory Top End allied health graduates and early career staff by means of an interprofessional graduate program.

Abstract

Objectives For allied health graduate staff, entry into the workforce can be challenging and complex to navigate. Formal, structured graduate programs in the Northern Territory are limited and are typically discipline specific. Discipline-specific graduate programs focus on clinical and specific skill sets. However, there is a need to support graduates and early career staff within a diverse and large health service by developing and encouraging interprofessional practice, as well as reflective and critical thinking skills. This article outlines a pilot inter-professional allied health graduate program trialled in the Northern Territory Top End, including program development, implementation and outcomes. Methods A formative study design using online pre- and post-program surveys for participants and their line managers was adopted. Results There was significant improvement noted in the graduates' confidence levels of understanding other professional roles after the pilot program. Graduates also reported an improved sense of support and reflective skills moving into their subsequent year of professional practice. Managers of graduates reported improved interprofessional practice and collaboration with other health professionals. Conclusions The pilot program provided a sustainable model of learning and development for early career allied health professionals. Supporting the Top End graduate allied health workforce proved to be an important factor in facilitating interprofessional practice from an early stage, as integrated care and interprofessional practice are crucial to patient treatment. What is known about the topic? Research from within Australia and internationally has demonstrated that preparing allied health professionals for interprofessional practice helped facilitate collaboration and partnerships among different professions. This, in turn, improved quality of patient health care outcomes. Interprofessional education has been documented as an effective means of educating clinicians. What does this paper add? This paper describes how interprofessional learning and education in the form of a structured graduate program affected the perceptions of staff and implementation of interprofessional practice in the Northern Territory (NT). The Top End of the NT is unique in that a large number of allied health professionals work within integrated multidisciplinary teams or hold sole positions within regional settings. This is the first graduate program for NT allied health professionals. What are the implications for practitioners? Allied health professionals are an integral part of a health service and fostering interprofessional practice early on can prepare new employees to collaborate and support each other with an understanding of the roles of other professionals.