Workforce development and professional support — Wellington, Hutt and Kapiti – Health New Zealand

Training

Allied professionals are required to be engaged in continued learning throughout their careers and at a level appropriate to their role. This is a shared responsibility between the staff member and the service.

Many opportunities are provided through:

self-directed learning
internal education
mentoring
supervision.

Further learning may involve:

external training
attendance at seminars, workshops, conferences
involvement in education, such as postgraduate study.

Individual allied professions, services or groups may have special funds that can be accessed for professional development or research. Allied professions staff also have access to a limited PSA fund to support further learning and development.

Education forum

This forum has been well-received at Hutt Hospital for several years. We have now grown it across the district. This replaces the previous Hutt in-service.

This is a shared learning opportunity where themes will be in line with the focus priorities from the New Zealand health reform.

There will be 4 forums across the year, which will be divided into 2 sections. For example, the first half will be focused more on bigger picture/strategic plan/health reform, while the second half will be demonstrating and discussing clinical application within an allied professions setting

Cultural training opportunities

Cultural safety refers to the need for health professionals to consider their cultural background and the impact of power, privilege and personal biases on healthcare systems and organisations and the relationships within them. Our staff have access to a range of learning opportunities and resources related to our priority populations.

Merit

There are many different merit progression processes applicable for allied health, scientific and technical professions.

Merit progression refers to the process that must be followed for individual employees to move into the salary steps beyond the automatic salary steps. When at the top of the automatic progression steps, engaging in a merit process is one way to progress your career development. Your employment agreement will confirm if a merit step and process is available for your role.

Career frameworks

Career frameworks support the growth and development of our allied professional workforces through the description of advanced clinical or leadership roles.

Increasingly, our career frameworks are being developed regionally so that a consistent approach to career progression is used.

The allied health career framework supports the growth and development of the allied health workforce through the development of advanced clinical and leadership roles.

Frameworks

Designated positions

Professional supervision

Professional supervision is defined as regular, protected time for critical, in-depth reflection on practice, which enables the supervisee to achieve, sustain and develop a high quality of practice.

Professional supervision aims to contribute to a safe and high-quality service delivery for individuals and their family and whānau by supporting the ongoing professional development and learning of staff.

Graduate programmes

Manaaki pia tauhou allied professions new graduate programme

This programme has been established for allied professions pia tauhou | new graduates, to support them to thrive in their roles at Health New Zealand | Te Whatu Ora.

The programme runs as 4 interprofessional sessions over 6 months, to support new graduates to confidently build on clinical and non-clinical knowledge and skills

This is so they can:

confidently perform and understand their roles, values and responsibilities
manage the transition from student to working professional
develop skills to allow them to thrive as an allied professional in a large and complex organisation
build on prior knowledge of interprofessional practice and education, and apply this in the workplace.

The programme runs twice a year, and is open to new graduates and trainee interns from any of the allied professions.

Kaiwhakangungu | preceptor

For some professions, the role of kaiwhakangungu | preceptor has been introduced to provide support, teaching and assessment to the pia touhou | new graduate in their first year.

There are opportunities for kaiwhakangungu | preceptors to grow their capability in this role through a half-day interprofessional workshop and ongoing support from their manager.

Other individual professions offer their support for their pia touhou | new graduates.

In our older adults, rehabilitation and allied health service (ORA), both physiotherapy and occupational therapy offer rotational programmes to provide new graduates with a solid foundation of clinical skills applied across a diverse range of key clinical settings, including hospital and home-based.

Both programmes provide competency frameworks to guide development, supported with access to teaching, training and supervision.

Vacancies are advertised when they become available.

All vacancies — Capital Health Careers (external link)

MHAIDS allied health new entry to specialist practice programme in mental health and addictions

The mental health, addictions and intellectual disability service (MHAIDS) allied health new entry to specialist practice programme was established in 2016 to equip and support new graduate occupational therapists and social workers to work in our specialised context.

The programme consists of:

academic study (Postgraduate Certificate in Health Science — Mental Health and Addictions at AUT)
clinical practice in 2 service contexts (usually one inpatient and one community)
service-specific training and supervision
preceptorship and support.

Each year we select 2 occupational therapists and 2 social workers within their first 2 postgraduate years for the programme. The graduates are employed on a fixed term 0.9 FTE contract for the duration (February to December). At the end of the programme, although there is no guarantee, most graduates go on to permanent employment within MHAIDS.

Clinical practice contexts include:

adult
youth
forensic
early intervention
intellectual disability
Māori mental health and addictions
Pasifika mental health and addictions
acute mental health and addictions.

Ideal candidates would:

have completed a Bachelor's degree in either social work or occupational therapy
be registered or provisionally registered (for social work, you would have submitted your documentation to the Social Workers Registration Board)
have a full driver's licence
be committed to both working and studying for the year
have a passion for the mental health and addictions field of practice.

Application process

Applications generally open in October each year and can be made through our careers website.