Five Ways to Streamline the Introduction of Allied Health Assistants Into Your Service
Are you struggling to meet your allied health service demand? This article is aimed at allied health service leaders, managers, directors and CEOs who are considering employing an allied health assistant to increase their service capacity. We describe the five key systems and structures that will help you to plan for smooth and successful implementation of a new allied health assistant role.
Allied health assistants as a solution to allied health workforce capacity issues
Many organisations and business are at breaking point with difficulties servicing current levels of demand. With significant workforce shortages for allied health professionals (AHPs), one solution some workplaces are pursuing is allied health assistants (AHAs). However, implementing allied health assistants into your workplace is a resource intensive solution that can place extra strain on an already stretched workforce.
The impact of allied health workforce shortages include:
- Individuals and communities are missing out on vital services to improve their quality of life
- There are long waiting lists
- Staff are frustrated and demoralized because there is insufficient capacity to provide the frequency or intensity of therapy required for clients to achieve their goals
- Staff are burnt out
- Staff are leaving their jobs and their profession
- Businesses can ‘t grow
- Managers are frustrated and demoralized
- Recruitment advertisements are ineffective
- There are ongoing job vacancies
The risk of introducing allied health assistants without considering systems and resources first
In a resource constrained environment, it is imperative that the workforce you DO have is cared for, nurtured and retained so that you can maximise their capacity to deliver high quality care without burning them out. This is a difficult balance to achieve.
Allied health assistants are often perceived to be a ‘quick fix’ for allied health workforce shortages. However, without appropriate resources, business systems and infrastructure to support and introduce the new roles into your workplace, you risk adding more workload to already stretched staff.
The essential ingredients to successfully introduce allied health assistants
Research shows that AHAs can positively influence patient outcomes as well as increase service capacity; provide more direct care; enable more quality improvement activities; increase time for staff development; improve continuity of care within services; allow for more flexibility within the workforce; and provide more and better client centred care.
However the extent to which these outcomes are achieved is directly related to effective role design, implementation and support.
Specifically, the sustainable and successful implementation of new (assistant) roles requires:
- Strategic support, engagement and direction from everyone in the organisation likely to be impacted by the new role
- That the role is appropriate to the context (local, geographic, population, clinical, professional, regulatory)
- Legal structures to be in place to reinforce the new role
- Clearly defined and understood, unambiguous delegatory processes
- Delegating practitioners to have confidence in delegation which comes from them understanding the roles, training and competencies of the practitioners to whom they are delegating, and
- Systematising processes of implementation
In the twenty years we have been researching the allied health workforce and assistant models of care, we know that implementing new roles without adhering to these principles can lead to much less successful outcomes and can compound inefficiencies rather than address them.
5 systems and structures to consider when introducing an allied health assistant
Considering the following 5 key systems and structures before you implement your allied health assistant role will help you to fully realise the contribution allied health assistants can make to enhancing your service and workforce capacity.
1. Develop a clear implementation plan
As outlined here, it is worth investing time and energy into planning out this process thoroughly. When you can specifically identify the problem you are trying to address, you can clearly identify the roadmap you need to follow to address the problem effectively. And, we are all time poor so having a clear plan will also help you to execute the implementation efficiently.
2. Engage existing staff
Successful implementation of allied health assistants relies heavily on the buy in and engagement of your staff (1, 2, 3, 4). Staff should be engaged in the following decisions to optimise the successful implementation of any allied health assistant role, including the identification of:
- gaps an allied health assistant will fill in the team/service
- tasks that could be delegated
- clients that would benefit from allied health assistant input
- supervision needs and structures
- who will take responsibility for producing systems
3. Draw on existing support structures and systems to support implementation
The following processes are required to ensure allied health assistant roles are efficient and effective. A range of tools and resources have been developed to specifically to enhance the introduction of AHAs. Draw on these, and other existing workforce planning tools where possible to streamline your processes of introducing the new roles:
- recruitment profile and strategy
- onboarding tools
- supervision frameworks
- delegation frameworks
- communication frameworks
- training programs for allied health assistants and allied health professionals in delegation
- supervision programs for allied health assistants and allied health professionals in delegation
- training programs for allied health assistants
- career pathways for allied health assistants and allied health professionals
- professional development programs for allied health assistants
4. Develop new implementation systems
We have seen amazing examples of supervision, communication, delegation and training programs that have been systemised so well that they can be implemented with allied health professionals and allied health assistants using minimal effort and minimal staff time. For example one disability provider in regional NSW uses online training to upskill all allied health professionals and allied health assistants in their local delegation processes for their organisation.
Whichever way you choose to implement and systemise these important activities, all staff will need sufficient quarantined time to:
- undertake or participate in on-barding your new allied health assistants
- undertake or participate in supervision of allied health assistants
- undertake delegation using the systems developed
- use appropriate communication strategies and systems to ensure excellent collaboration and seamless client journeys
- undertake or participate in training programs for allied health assistants and allied health professionals in delegation
- undertake or participate in supervision programs for allied health assistants and allied health professionals in delegation
- developing training programs for allied health assistants to upskill and learn your service systems
- work towards new career pathways
- undertake or participate in professional development programs for allied health assistants
5. Introduce systems to check, review and improve your allied health assistant model
You can only improve what you measure.
Efficiency of your allied health assistant and allied health professional workforce is paramount in a resource constrained environment. Given these roles are resource intensive to implement, it is vital your systems are highly streamlined and working effectively. This will enable high efficiency of your workforce which in turn will increase your service capacity and the quality of the care you provide to your clients.
As we have identified in this article there is always opportunity to improve the systems you have in place to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of your workforce.
Furthermore, all healthcare, disability, aged care and private providers have the same ultimate goal; to serve their customers or clients through delivery of more and better client centred care. So finding the “sweet spot” where staff resourcing is minimised and the quality of care is maximised is a juggling act for all.
Ensuring your new allied health assistant systems (and your allied health assistant roles) are working towards resolving your workforce capacity problems and achieving the success indicators you have established is vital to the ongoing effectiveness and sustainability of this model of care.
Conclusion
We have seen over many years that allied health assistant models of care can be extremely helpful in allowing services to provide more and better care to their clients. However these models can be extremely resource intensive.
To optimise allied health assistant impact, a great deal of startup and ongoing input is required. This article helps you to understand and plan out the important steps you will need to take to successfully implement an allied health assistant role into your service!
As we have explained elsewhere, there may be a number of smaller, less resource intensive solutions you can implement before you are ready to implement an AHA role. Connect with us to let us know about your workforce problems or to learn more about what you can do to improve your allied health workforce capacity.
More information and resources about the introduction of allied health assistants are available on the Allied Health Assistant National Association website.
