Bell Karen E, Hall Fiona, Pager Sue, Kuipers Pim, Farry Hayley
Allied Health Professional Leader (Workforce) Allied Health Professions Office, Australian Service and Clinical Innovation Division, Queensland Health, Brisbane, QLD, Australia.
Hum Resour Health. 2014 Oct 8;12:57. doi: 10.1186/1478-4491-12-57.
Evidence suggests that professional support for allied health professionals contributes to improved clinical practice, better client outcomes, enhanced workplace satisfaction, increased workplace morale and better clinical governance within organizations. Despite these benefits, the uptake of formal professional support is surprisingly low and implementation often ad hoc. Further, research investigating the development, evaluation and outcomes of implementing policy to establish such support is limited.
Queensland Health has developed an organization-wide approach to supporting allied health professionals through a Professional Support Policy and guidelines. The processes of development, implementation and the evaluation framework of this State-wide Professional Support Policy are described. An evidence-based Professional Support Policy that is structured, collaborative and well evaluated will have benefits for allied health professions. However, policy introduction cannot occur in isolation. Current practice does not follow current evidence in the area of professional support implementation. This study describes a current practice baseline for participation prior to the mandating of such a policy. There is a need for improvements in participation rates, documentation and capacity building.
A workforce policy with broad scope should increase the access to, and consistency of, professional support to allied health practitioners. Such policy should facilitate a higher quality clinical practice, better client outcomes, enhanced workplace satisfaction and morale. It may also maximize the recruitment and retention of allied health professionals. Mandating policy should see participation commensurate with that policy. A future step will be a Post Policy Implementation Review to determine the success and effectiveness of the Professional Support Framework within Queensland Health.
有证据表明，为专职医疗专业人员提供专业支持有助于改善临床实践、提高客户治疗效果、提升工作场所满意度、增强工作场所士气并改善组织内的临床治理。尽管有这些益处，但正式专业支持的采用率却出奇地低，而且实施往往是临时的。此外，调查制定此类支持政策的发展、评估和结果的研究有限。
昆士兰卫生部门通过一项专业支持政策和指南制定了一种全组织范围的方法来支持专职医疗专业人员。描述了该全州范围专业支持政策的制定、实施过程和评估框架。一项基于证据、结构化、协作且经过充分评估的专业支持政策将对专职医疗行业有益。然而，政策的引入不能孤立进行。目前在专业支持实施领域的实践并未遵循现有证据。本研究描述了在强制实施此类政策之前参与情况的当前实践基线。在参与率、文档记录和能力建设方面需要改进。
一项范围广泛的劳动力政策应增加专职医疗从业者获得专业支持的机会并提高其一致性。这样的政策应促进更高质量的临床实践、更好的客户治疗效果、提升工作场所满意度和士气。它还可能最大限度地提高专职医疗专业人员的招聘和留用率。强制实施政策应使参与情况与该政策相匹配。未来的一个步骤将是进行政策实施后审查，以确定昆士兰卫生部门专业支持框架的成功和有效性。
