2025 Workshops

Allied health encompasses a diverse group of health professionals with evolving career pathways. Advanced clinical practice is at the top of a clinical career pathway. The definition of advanced practice varies between states and there are differences between allied health professions. This interactive workshop will explore common principles and effective models of allied health advanced clinical practice to facilitate discussion around what this means in the Australian healthcare context. Known achievements from effective advanced practice models will demonstrate why advanced practice is a critical component in contemporary healthcare and workforce models and discuss how the value and impact of roles can be effectively measured.

This workshop will be facilitated by leading experts in co-design in health, Professor Ian Gwilt and Dr Aaron Davis. The workshop will use a series of thought-provoking hands-on activities to build knowledge and understanding of co-design methods and philosophies and their application in allied health in Australia. The workshop will be conducted in two parts. We will begin with a master class session that will explore co-design theories and models, and their application in case studies. We will then engage in a hands-on activity using the ‘Lego serious play’ method to demonstrate how the practices and principles covered in the masterclass can be translated into practice. This workshop is recommended for those with an interest in co-design and consumer engagement, and in service and systems design and innovation.

The Commission on Excellence and Innovation in Health (CEIH) currently run the PRMs Program across SA Health. This program seeks to empower patients to tell healthcare professionals about the impact of their health condition on their life, quality of life and their experience of the health system.

The PRMs Program provides a standardised approach across the state for the systematic collection, analysis and timely reporting of PROMs and PREMs.

• PROMs: Patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs) capture the patient’s perspectives about how illness or care impacts on their health and wellbeing
• PREMs: Patient-reported experience measures (PREMs) capture the patient’s experience of the health services they receive, such as accessibility, the physical environment, and aspects of their interactions with clinicians

PROMs collection should enable clinicians and admin staff to gather meaningful data efficiently, reducing redundancy and saving time. It should provide actionable insights that help improve clinical service delivery, ensuring we enhance patient care while also measuring the impact of care effectively.

The CEIH will present a snapshot of the PRM Implementation in SA and provide a PRM workshop focussing on allied health including selecting appropriate PROM tools and how they can be embedded in clinical workflows to benefit both staff and patients.

With a fast-growing Allied Health Assistant (AHA) workforce emerging in Australia, there is an increasing appetite for healthcare organisations to incorporate AHAs into their workforce. Rural and remote organisations will benefit from this developing workforce but find it challenging to resource the planning, clinical design and transition management needed to implement workplace changes successfully.

SARRAH will deliver an interactive workshop utilising its ‘Allied Health Assistant Workforce Design & Implementation Guide’. The practical design and implementation of an AHA workforce will be presented, including the establishment of a clinical governance framework, consulting stakeholders, and writing clinical task competencies. All workshop participants will receive a hard copy of the guide for ongoing reference. The workshop will cover key aspects of the guide, including how to establish a robust clinical governance structure, effectively consult with stakeholders across disciplines, and develop detailed clinical task instruction competencies that ensure AHAs work top of scope while maintaining high safety and quality standards.

Participants will gain practical skills in workforce planning, role design, competency design and assessment, and change management – equipping them with the tools to successfully integrate AHAs. Real-world case examples will illustrate promising practices and potential pitfalls to avoid. This workshop will be invaluable for any healthcare organisation, whether implementing a new AHA workforce model or reviewing and optimising an existing assistant workforce. It promises to empower organisations to capitalise on the growing AHA workforce to enhance patient care access and allied health team efficiency.

The digital ecosystem of Allied Health Primary and Tertiary Health care

Hospital and outpatient health data can enhance the service delivery of primary allied health practitioners by ensuring they have holistic information about consumers available at the point of care.

This workshop will give an overview of the current status of the allied health sectors integration to the digital ecosystem, identify the challenges and barriers which exist and the work being done to remove these so that information can flow between the primary allied health sector and the tertiary health system.

The workshop will focus on developing an understanding of the essential nature of utilising consistent terminology data standards to share information digitally and in real time. Participants will be given an opportunity to identify and detail the use cases within their clinical workload where the use of consistent terminology data standards would solve challenges and enhance the quality-of-care delivery and outcomes for consumers. Subsequently, this workshop will both assist participants learning within the digital space and enable the opportunity to influence the development of the national consistent terminology data standards, potentially including the development of e-forms and other solutions.

Take the opportunity to learn and contribute to solving clinical problems at a holistic level to shape the healthcare system we all work within and empower the lives of your consumers.

For further information, CLICK HERE to download the brochure. 

This interactive workshop unpacks practical strategies from cutting-edge doctoral research that challenges how we think about allied health recruitment and retention. While the research originated in rural and remote settings, the findings reveal universal principles that can strengthen workforce stability across all healthcare environments—from metropolitan centres to remote and underserved communities. In this interactive workshop, attendees will have an opportunity to:

• Apply a Health Workforce Equity assessment tool to identify and address systemic barriers
• Utilise communication strategies to enhance how professions are perceived
• Explore the value of DEI tools to increase the recognition of Allied Health workforce groups
• Explore evidence-based approaches that transcend geographical boundaries, sectors and professional silos
• Connect with colleagues facing similar challenges across the Asia-Pacific region

Ideal for health system leaders, workforce planners, policy makers, educators and professional associations seeking innovative solutions to persistent workforce issues—particularly in contexts where data collection remains challenging.

For more information, CLICK HERE to download the brochure.

The workshop will consider the impact of complex healthcare environments, in which practitioners often confront human suffering, limitation and mortality, leading to empathic distress and potential burnout. This interactive workshop will support practitioners to better understand empathic distress and will equip them with practical strategies to transform challenges into compassion for sustainable wellbeing.

The workshop will:

• Distinguish empathic distress from compassion fatigue and will explore the impact on personal and professional wellbeing.
• Identify evidence-based techniques to foster compassion for self and others to mitigate empathic distress.
• Promote sustainable practices for wellbeing – the six ‘M’s’ model – including exploring how the practitioner can develop a plan to apply these personally.

The workshop will blend engaging story-focused evidence-based learning with interactive and practical learning.

In addition to some helpful science, the workshop will have moments of conversation, reflection, sharing stories, engaging with the written word and the arts, and accessible mindfulness practice.

Cultural learning experiences through virtual reality

The VR cultural experience has been created to enhance how health educators deliver cultural learning experiences towards developing culturally safe health professionals in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander healthcare.

Professor James Charles has created an evidence-based 15-minute immersive interactive learning and healing experience. Participants will be transported back 20000 years to explore the ancestral lands of the Kaurna people. This immersive journey aims to enhance cultural awareness, foster empathy, and celebrate the rich heritage and achievements of the Indigenous peoples of Kaurna Yerta.

This session will also include two additional lectures. A clinical lecture focusing on cultural competence, aboriginal yarning and building rapport with practical considerations for use in clinical practice. A secondary discussion will focus on the evidence-based creation of the VR training, highlighting aboriginal culture and values, ancient aboriginal inhabitancy, oral and cultural law, dreaming stories and clinical health management. An opportunity to reflect and consider history and the impacts on health.

For more information, CLICK HERE to download the brochure.

Allied health professionals (AHPs) are essential to healthcare, contributing to patient outcomes, system efficiency, and innovation. Yet, their contributions may not always be readily recognized. This workshop will explore how health services research (HSR) can be used to measure, articulate, and advocate for the value and impact of allied health. The workshop will include both didactic and interactive sessions, covering fundamental methodologies for evaluating allied health, such as clinical audits, case studies, and outcome measurement. It will also showcase case studies where HSR has been used to demonstrate the value and impact of allied health. Real-world examples of successful allied health research influencing healthcare systems will be discussed. This workshop is designed for allied health stakeholders who want to strengthen the evidence base for allied health and enhance its impact on patient care and healthcare systems.