Andy Richardson, AHANA Chair, chatted with Kylie Saccotelli, Allied Health Assistant (AHA) Workforce Advisor in the Workforce, Innovation, Strategy, Education and Research (WISER) Unit at Monash Health. Andy and Kylie discuss what the AHA Workforce Advisor position entails, her career pathway into the role, and her perspective on the importance and future of the AHA workforce. Subsequent to the interview, Kylie was appointed to AHANA's Standards, Education and Professional Development Committee, and is warmly welcomed by the rest of the Committee, and the Board.
I'm an AHA, completing my Certificate IV in Allied Health Assistance in 2012, as I wanted a change of career and saw this as a good way of entering the health care space to see what it would be like. Soon after graduating I started work at Monash Health as a Grade 2 Physiotherapy based AHA in subacute rehabilitation, and spent the first few years learning and consolidating my clinical skills.
I then moved into a Grade 3 role in community rehabilitation, and I was looking for further opportunities that the Grade 3 role offered in non-clinical work such as quality and leadership.
I was always interested in finding new ways to grow and learn about my role and the organisation by joining different committees and working parties. I was lucky enough to complete the Certificate IV in Training and Assessment supported by Monash Health and I started thinking about the AHA role and potential for leadership in this space.
I was always encouraged by my supervisors and managers to advocate for AHAs in my team and more broadly.
Having an AHA Workforce Advisor at Monash Health, as head of profession for many years, set up a great structure of professional governance, advocating for and leadership of AHAs.
The AHA Workforce Advisor sits in the WISER unit for Allied Health, (Workforce, Innovation Strategy, Education and Research), led by the AHA Workforce Advisor. Historically this role was always filled by an Allied Health Professional, and supported by the AHA Student Coordinator and AHA Workforce Officer (Allied Health Assistants). I joined the WISER team as AHA Workforce Officer in 2022, and became the first AHA appointed to the role of AHA Workforce Advisor earlier this year, in a parental leave backfill position.
My responsibilities are varied! I oversee the professional governance of the AHA workforce, such as training, competencies and credentialing, AHA education, recruitment, on-boarding, supervision, and managing the AHA locum bank, to name a few.
The role is one that provides advice and support to the operational managers, leaders, supervisors and AHAs internally. There is also a responsibility to advocate to and support external stakeholders including promoting the work of the Victorian Workforce Project, the 3+ year project between Monash Health and the Victorian Department of Health. The Victorian Workforce Project's recommendations were published last year, and are a great resource and source of information.
Some of my key tasks have included:
We have a full time equivalent (FTE) of 67 spread across 115 AHAs, working in clinical roles.
In the WISER team (non-clinical) we have the 0.8FTE AHA Workforce Advisor, 0.4FTE AHA Student Coordinator, and 0.8FTE AHA Workforce Officer (shared between 3 people).
A huge success was to have the opportunity to apply and be successful for the role of AHA Workforce Advisor at Monash Health, the first AHA in this role! I think it’s added to the advocacy and exposure of the AHA workforce having an AHA as the head of profession.
A challenge has been finding experienced AHAs to fill Grade 3 positions, but on a positive note, we had a planning meeting at the start of the year and asked for a show of hands how many AHAs had been former students and it was well over 30% so I think we can be encouraged that we are making a positive influence in the future AHAs and we are participating in 'growing our own' experienced AHAs.
Helping AHAs balance a high clinical load along with other priorities such as AHA students is always a challenge. Our student coordinator (Tony) has developed many resources and we run workshops (student debrief, tutorials, workshops and prepare for the workforce tutorial) to assist with our student's learning as well as give the supervisors time to complete non clinical and other tasks that might not be as relevant for the students to participate in.
I think over time it will be 'the norm' for AHAs to hold leadership positions where they can represent their profession, whether that is in the role of Workforce Advisor, student coordinator or workforce officer. I’m hoping to grow other opportunities such as having AHAs join an AHA portfolio group, or lead a team of AHAs in a clinical setting. With support and leadership training this is a very exciting future!
AHAs have the capacity and training to assist teams to deliver excellent and timely care to all our consumers, whether that is through increased intensity or assisting AHPs by completing aspects of client care so they can focus on more complex components of the client's care.
We provide good value, sustainable clinical care for our consumers, offering capable, well delivered care within teams and programs.
We allow AHPs to work at top of scope when they can delegate appropriate tasks to AHAs within their teams.
I would love to see programs and departments strive to have a target of AHAs (as per the Victorian Workforce Project recommendation) and using everyone in their team to the highest capacity, including AHAs, and defining what that looks like.
To promote, and in doing that unify, the workforce which works under so many different umbrellas, due to the varied qualifications we hold, range of disciplines we support, different contexts we work in and enterprise agreements and awards we work under, different organisational policies and the like.
To support and retain career AHAs, and having things like standardised competencies, training, and professional development will assist with that,as well.