1:30min
Photo: Department of Health and Human Services
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By Ashleigh McMillan
Journalist
Victoria’s Department of Health and Human Services has released a review tool and videos to improve the quality of clinical supervision during student and graduate placements.
The Clinical Supervision Skills Review Tool assists allied health professionals nation-wide to analyse the level of support and knowledge they are providing to both students and those in the early stages of their careers.
The review tool uses national benchmarks from the National Clinical Supervision Competency Resource, which was published in March 2014 by Health Workforce Australia, to outline expected competencies of allied health professionals who act as supervisors.
Optometry Australia policy and advocacy adviser Tin Nguyen says the use of the tools could improve the placement experiences of students and supervisors.
‘Student experiences during clinical placements are variable, based on the competency of their supervisor. The quality of their placements can often affect their desire to go into the profession after they have graduated,’ he said.
‘There are also lots of practitioners who feel they don’t have the capacity to take on a student, as it often takes different skills to supervise clinical placements and be perceptive of student needs.
‘The review tool and resources will give optometrists and other allied health practitioners greater ability to be good supervisors, as well as extra support to upgrade the skills they already have,’ Mr Nguyen said.
A new resource guide provides an implementation plan for using the National Clinical Supervision Competency Resource within Victoria. The suite of resources on the Victorian KnowledgeBank website also includes a video case study of Barwon Health, explaining how the review tool can be used across different levels of clinical supervision.
All resources can be found on the Victorian KnowledgeBank website.