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Objective: Along with other Australian health professionals, occupational therapy students need to understand Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander culture and health issues to develop their capacity to work effectively with this community and meet accreditation standards. The study aimed to explore the learning experiences of occupational therapy students during a module focused on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples' health issues and approaches. Methods: A qualitative descriptive method was used. Individual interviews were audiotaped, transcribed and analysed thematically following the module. Participants were asked about their prior experience with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, feelings about undertaking the module, difficulties and highlights of the module, and how the module contributed to their learning. Results: In all, 18 students participated in interviews. Interview themes were (1) student context of learning about Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples' heath and culture, (2) experiencing the module with others and (3) student learning gains following the module. Conclusion: Students developed in their self-awareness and understanding of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples' issues of relevance to occupational therapy. Further research is needed to evaluate educational activities with occupational therapy and other health professional students across Australia, and ongoing culturally responsiveness training for health professionals (post-registration). What is known about the topic? Health professional students need to develop their knowledge and skills in working with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples to be culturally responsive and meet their health needs effectively. What does this paper add? This study is the first to describe the responses of occupational therapy students to a module on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health and wellbeing. Students were challenged about any biases that could affect their capacity to be culturally responsive. What are the implications for practitioners? Both practitioners and students need to be culturally responsive to provide culturally safe services to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: Accreditation to standards developed by the Royal Australian College of General Practice provides assurance to the community of the quality and safety of general practices in Australia. The objective of this study was to conduct an empirical evaluation of the 5th edition standards. Minimal empirically driven evaluation of the standards has been conducted since their publication in 2020. Methods: Data encompass consecutive Australian general practice accreditation assessments between December 2020 and July 2022 recorded from a single accrediting agency. Met and not met compliance (binary) scores for 124 indicators evaluated at the site visit were recorded. A subset of indicators derived from a selection of existing and consistently non-conformant indicators within each criterion was generated. Concordance between the indicator subset and the criterion was assessed to determine the predictive ability of the indicator subset in distinguishing practices who are conformant to the entire criterion. Results: A total of 757 general practices were included in the analysis. On average, 113.69 (s.d. = 8.16) of 124 indicators were evaluated as conformant at the site visit. In total, 52 (42%) indicators were required to obtain a true positive conformity rate above 95% for all criterions of the standards. For criterion 1 (General Practice 1) conformity to the entire criterion (nine indicators; >95% true positive rate) could be obtained by including 2/9 indicators (C1-1a and C1-2a). Conclusion: Our results identified that indicator non-conformity was driven by a small proportion of indicators and identifying a subset of these consistently non-conformant indicators predicted a true positive rate above 95% at the criterion level. What is known about the topic? Minimal empirical evaluation of the 5th edition standards for accreditation have occurred since their implementation. What does this paper add? Our findings suggest that more than half of the indicators currently do not adequately distinguish practices at the site assessment. What are the implications for practitioners? These findings may suggest that a review of individual indicators and the standards structure is required. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the past two decades, there have been important changes to interprofessional education in Australia and New Zealand. Interprofessional education has slowly shifted from peripheral, small-scale education activities attended by volunteer students to become an expectation of many health professional courses to meet accreditation requirements and community expectations of a collaborative healthcare system. In Australia, interprofessional education curricula have been facilitated by increased accreditation expectations and a series of national large-scale funded projects. However, despite declarations of intent and direction, strategic implementation of nationwide recommendations has not been achieved. In New Zealand, large-scale funding has not been available to facilitate the implementation of interprofessional education in the professional courses. Instead, interprofessional education initiatives have been driven by a small group of champions. Furthermore, efforts to achieve the World Health Organization's (2010) vision of interprofessional education across the education spectrum--to ensure the future and current health workforce have the competencies for interprofessional collaboration--have been hampered in our region by the focus on interprofessional education within tertiary education. This paper outlines the transnational status of interprofessional education and the role of the Australian and New Zealand Association for Health Professional Educators (ANZAHPE) and the Australasian Interprofessional Practice and Education Network (AIPPEN) in progress to date. We conclude with several suggestions for future interprofessional education across our two countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: To adequately prepare graduates for the dynamic demands of paramedic practice, adopting a contemporary educational approach is essential. This involves collaborating to identify crucial competencies through input from industry stakeholders, experienced practitioners, and discipline-specific experts. Accreditation assumes a central role within this framework, serving as a cornerstone to ensure that paramedicine curricula align with paramedics' diverse and evolving professional roles. Methods: A narrative review of the literature and a directed search of grey literature were performed to identify specific developments in paramedicine competencies and scope of practice and mapped to the professional capabilities published by the Paramedicine Board of Australia. In determining a competency map and accreditation's role in a competency framework specific to current and evolving paramedic practice, key documents were analysed using a qualitative approach based on content analysis to identify common traits among documents, countries and other professions. Results: The review process identified 278 themes that were further allocated to 22 major analytical groupings. These groupings could further be mapped to previously reported cognitive, technical, integrative, context, relationship, affective/moral competencies and habits of mind. At the same time, the highest-rated groupings were key competencies of intellectual skills, safety, accountability, clinical decision-making, professionalism, communications, team-based approach and situational awareness. Two groups were represented in the literature but not in the professional capabilities, namely Health and Social continuum and self-directed practice. Conclusions: This review highlights the importance of measuring and validating the professional capabilities of Paramedicine Practitioners. The study explores various metrics and competency frameworks used to assess competency, comparing them against national accreditation schemes' professional capability standards. The findings suggest that accreditation frameworks play a crucial role in improving the quality of paramedicine practice, encompassing intellectual skills, safety, accountability, clinical decision-making, professionalism, communication, teamwork, and situational awareness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Narrative: Chiropractors world-wide were shocked and dismayed with the shameful announcement from RMIT University that there would be no Chiropractic student intake in 2024 and the program, which will have lasted 50 years or so by the time it ends, will be taught out over the next 4 years. While there has been little concern for staff as some will remain and happily teach students in the replacement program of physiotherapy and others will spend more time in their own practices, grave concern was expressed for those many potential students planning to submit their application to commence their studies with RMIT in 2024, and for the 4-years of students remaining. The profession has acted, knowing that these dear people are the future of Chiropractic. The Australian Chiropractic College, based in Adelaide, announced a giant growth step to introduce an enlightened form of study from 2024 where students can commence where-ever they live, completing first year while they consolidate and then move to Adelaide to finish and graduate. It may be that further options emerge during 2024 and this is a sign of strong, positive growth rooted in adversity which can only be good for the discipline of Chiropractic. The philosophical vacuum that long existed at RMIT has also been addressed and educational sessions have been delivered which were greatly appreciated by the student body. These will be ongoing and supplemented with further offerings. We also note the new WHO Benchmarks for Anthroposophic Medicine, which I see as a layer of whole-body thinking to sit across established healing disciplines. These Benchmarks provide a challenging backdrop for the WFC as it develops a belated set of Benchmarks for the training of Chiropractors. If implemented properly, the WFC Benchmarks will sideline the destructive negativity of the UK's GCC which refuses to accredit any chiropractic program that teaches what they consider 'unorthodox' ideas such as we see embraced as the focus of Anthroposophic Medicine. We think the GCC is in for an awakening until it differentiates and identifies Chiropractic as a distinct profession in its own right. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]