Pre-entry student clinical placement demand: can it be met?

OBJECTIVES The Clinical Education Workload Management Initiative (the Initiative) is a unique, multiprofessional, jurisdiction-wide approach and reform process enshrined within an industrial agreement. The Initiative enabled significant investment in allied health clinical education across Queensland public health services to address the workload associated with providing pre-entry clinical placements. This paper describes the outcomes of a quality review activity to measure the impact of the Initiative on placement capacity and workload management for five allied health professions. Data related to several key factors impacting on placement supply and demand in addition to qualitative perspectives from workforce surveys are reported. METHODS Data from a range of quality review actions including collated placement activity data, and workforce and student cohort statistics were appraised. Stakeholder perspectives reported in surveys were analysed for emerging themes. RESULTS Placement offers showed an upward trend in the context of increased university program and student numbers and in contrast with a downward trend in full-time equivalent (FTE) staffnumbers. Initiative-funded positions were identified as a major factor in individual practitioners taking more students, and staff and managers valued the Initiative-funded positions' support before and during placements, in the coordination of placements, and in building partnerships with universities. CONCLUSIONS The Initiative enabled a co-ordinated response to meeting placement demand and enhanced collaborations between the health and education sectors. Sustaining pre-entry student placement provision remains a challenge for the future.