Communities across regional NSW are set to benefit from a major boost to allied health services, as part of the Rural Allied Health Educator Program.
Minister for Regional Health Ryan Park said the program which will create a pipeline of Allied Health workers to our regions will be rolled out across Hunter New England, Western NSW, Murrumbidgee and Southern NSW Local Health Districts.
“The Rural Allied Health Educator Program will support the employment of up to seven Allied Health Educators across these four regional Local Health Districts, which will boost the number of allied health student clinical placements we can provide,” Mr Park said.
“By bringing these clinical educators on board, more than 100 additional speech pathology, occupational therapy and other allied health students will undertake clinical placements across these regions each year.
“We are doubling the number of allied health students who undertake clinical placements.”
Minister for Regional NSW Tara Moriarty said increasing student clinical placements is essential for boosting the future allied health workforce in rural and regional NSW, where there is very high demand for these services, particularly for children and families.
“Allied health professionals play a vital role in the health system, delivering patient-centred care to the community across a number of specialities including occupational therapy, speech pathology, psychology and much more,” Ms Moriarty said.
“We are very pleased to help create stronger training and education pathways for future allied health staff in NSW.
“This program will help support rural allied health clinicians, and we encourage them to apply for new graduate and early career roles within regional Local Health Districts in the future.”
The Allied Health educators will directly supervise allied health students who are treating patients. They will also provide teaching and coordinate clinical placements to help ensure allied health students have great experiences in regional NSW.
Clinical placements typically take 4-6 weeks and give students experience across a range of clinical areas. The Rural Allied Health Educator Program will have a particular focus on health and developmental checks for pre-school children.
The educators will also support allied health new graduate programs and early career clinicians with education and training.
The Rural Allied Health Educator Program is a joint venture between NSW Health and the Department of Regional NSW.
The Department of Regional NSW has invested $1 million per year over three years into the Rural Allied Health Educator Program.