Innovative solutions to skill shortages in health (Staff)

Project commencement date:

Project completion date:

Details

This project was funded by the National Centre for Vocational Education Research.

Summary of project

This project focused on skill shortages amongst health workers (ie. those workers who hold or are working towards vocational education and training (VET) qualifications). Of the 16 professions on the National Skill Shortage List 2004, 11 are in health. Skill shortages for VET-trained health workers now and in the future are attributable to several factors: predicted growth in demand as the population ages; an ageing health workforce; task shifting caused by a shortage of health professionals, especially in regional areas; long training times and casualisation of the workforce.

The purpose of this research was to locate, analyse and make accessible innovative models of health training and service delivery that have been developed in response to a shortage of skill, and to establish the extent to which the models could be applied or adapted to other contexts. There were three research questions:

1. When and where have innovative and effective training and/or service delivery models been developed in response to skill shortages in health?
   1. What are the features and indicators that are perceived to signal a skill shortage in models reported in the literature?
   2. What are the characteristics of the models reported in the literature developed in response?
2. What do readily available statistics and related literature tell us about the current and likely future structure of the national health workforce in terms of likely future health skill shortages? Are there issues in relation to:
   1. location (state and rurality);
   2. demographics of the workforce, e.g. age; gender;
   3. job vacancies;
   4. numbers of trained people likely to enter the health workforce, with an emphasis on VET qualifications, but considering the spill over effects of shortages of higher education qualified professionals on VET qualified health workers?
3. Where and how could the identified innovative models be applied to address current and predicted skill shortages in health?

Project methodology included establishment of a project reference group comprising key stakeholders, review of statistics on health skill shortages and literature on solutions to health skill shortages among VET-trained health workers, and identification and write up of approximately 50 mini case studies and six in-depth case studies featuring innovative Australian and international models.

Papers:
Kilpatrick, S., Johns, S., Le, Q., Millar, P., & Routley, G. (2007). Skill shortages in health: Innovative solutions using vocational education and training. Rural and Remote Health, 7, 1, 623.
Kilpatrick S., Le Q., Johns S., Millar P., Routley G. (2007). Responding to health skills shortages: Innovative directions from vocational education and training. NCVER

 Innovative Solutions to Health Skill Shortages PowerPoint Presentation