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Establishing a sustainable and effective Barwon South Western Clinical Placement Network

This project enhanced the effectiveness of the Barwon South Western CPN and improved clinical placement quality and capacity. This was achieved by conducting a suite of six projects that focused on students, practice providers, education providers and regional/rural communities.

Expanding and strengthening capacity within general practice

This project developed the organisational capacity of GP clinics to deliver clinical placements to students by supporting the development of organisational systems and professional networks. The objectives were to quantify current and potential capacity, better understand the barriers to expanding clinical placements in general practice setting, to increase the number of undergraduate medical student placement opportunities (capacity) and to maintain and enhance the quality of the learning experience of students placed in general practices.

Exploring supports for clinical placements in Gippsland rural and regional health services

A steering group representing local education providers and rural health services was established to oversee this project, identifying that quality and capacity were key priorities for the Gippsland CPN. This project profiled factors associated with building clinical placement quality and capacity in rural and regional facilities that have the potential to strengthen the clinical learning environments and the capacity for clinical placements.

Grampians integrated clinical learning project - Stage 3

This project engaged a project officer to introduce the Best Practice Clinical Learning Environments (BPCLE) Framework within expanded settings organisations in the Grampians Clinical Placement Network (CPN). The project included an initial mapping phase to determine current clinical placement activity levels and capacity in these organisations.

Grampians integrated clinical learning project - Stage 4

This project expanded the number of users of an existing Grampians-Loddon Mallee eLearning platform. A supervision training program was developed and delivered via blended learning options that incorporate online and face-to-face components. The project is one of four integrated projects in the Grampians CPN and includes the development of vicportal.net.au

Hospital to community - H2Co placements

The Hospital to Community (H2Co) project was a Western Metropolitan (Melbourne West) student placement initiative, focusing on promoting clinical placements across non-acute health settings to better align student training with the evolving requirements of healthcare service delivery. This project provided an avenue for agencies to foster better relationships, develop companion resources and learning cultures and also incorporated the Best Practice Clinical Learning Environments (BPCLE) Framework.

Hume CPN Mental Health Clinical Training Alliance

This project increased the capacity for mental health placements in the Hume CPN by engaging a range of new clinical placement sites outside of the acute mental health sector. Elements of the Best Practice Clinical Learning Environments (BPCLE) Framework were introduced at placement sites and online orientation materials were prepared to aid communication about organisational policies between placement sites and education providers and students.

Implementing a sustainable clinical supervision model

Supervisors were given an opportunity to attend Teaching on the Run (TOTR) Facilitator Training Programs and then deliver TOTR training to other clinicians in the Eastern Metropolitan CPN. Additionally, selected staff were also trained to deliver the Facilitator Training Program in future to ensure sustainability of outcomes. The project delivered targeted training to medical practitioners, the Aboriginal health sector and aged care sector to overcome previous underrepresentation of these groups in training programs in the CPN.

Implementing pertinent and sustainable clinical placement models for Gippsland CPN

This project gathered evidence around existing supervision models to determine Best Practice approaches in a range of settings - it also provided supervision skills training to local clinical supervisors.

Increasing capacity through student-led clinics

This project developed and piloted a student-led primary care clinic through which patient-centered care was delivered to aged patients in the Mornington Peninsula CPN (Melbourne South) by mixed-discipline student teams.

Increasing student exposure to the aged care service system

This project trialled a clinical placement pilot program in the Mornington Peninsula CPN (Melbourne South) that provided student exposure to care opportunities in community-based aged care environments. The project uncovered opportunities for increasing capacity through aged care services and agencies not regularly used by most disciplines and it delivered a package of effective and relevant aged care learning in a model that was valued by students.

Innovative allied health primary care chronic disease management, health promotion and private practice placements

This project expanded opportunities for allied health clinical placements via new partnerships across primary care, private practice, health promotion and aged care. The project had a particular focus on chronic disease management and inclduded interprofessional learning components.

Integrating in-situ simulation into clinical training in a regional community of practice

Communication in an interprofessional setting using standardised patients. The aim of this project was to develop the capacity and quality of simulated learning being undertaken in the Hume CPN, specifically for staff and students of Albury Wodonga Health, and other agencies Albury Wodonga Health supports in its professional development program in the region.

Interprofessional orientation for students in paediatrics within the Central Metropolitan CPN

This project developed an online student orientation program for use across all healthcare disciplines attending clinical placements at the Royal Children's Hospital. The project responded to an identified inefficiency within the organisation whereby orientation often repeated across medicine, nursing and allied health disciplines with content, such as organisation and paediatric-specific content, mirrored for each discipline. The project facilitated cross-discipline collaboration to develop and implement a website that has been in use since by students March 2012.

Introducing clinical placements for undergraduate students in Aboriginal general practice and community settings

This project established a centralised placement coordination model that involved ACCHOs, small rural health services (with integrated aged care and community health services), local pharmacies and a medicare local. Cultural safety materials and manuals were also produced to ensure safe interactions with aboriginal patients and students, including in mainstream health environments.

Moog Simodont dental simulators for training dental students

This project enhanced the capability of the University of Melbourne (Melbourne Dental School) and clinical training partners (Dental Health Services Victoria, Goulburn Valley Health and Latrobe Community Health) to provide state-of-the-art simulation training for dental and oral health students, prior to them providing irreversible dental procedures to patients as part of their clinical training.

Novel approaches to clinical supervision in the private sector

This project increased clinical placement capacity in the private health care setting and piloted an approach to clinical supervision that met the specific needs of the private health care sector. The project also included a data collection and literature review, along with the development of a toolkit for clinical supervisors.

Promoting a learning culture: Implementing a model to build confidence and skills of clinical supervisors

This project implemented a train-the-trainer approach to develop supervision capacity in the Eastern Metropolitan CPN (Melbourne East). 'Teaching on the Run' (TOTR) facilitator training was delivered to 148 clinicians across the network who will provide supervision training to current and future clinical supervisors from all disciplines and sectors into the future.

Promoting education as core business in the Gippsland CPN

This project examined the extent to which education is perceived, and operationalised, as core business in small rural public and private healthcare organisations. This project engaged these organisations in a reflection on the educational profile of their organisation the need for education to be seen as core business. Outcomes included increased awareness of the Best Practice Clinical Learning Environments (BPCLE) Framework and identification of 'education champions' within health services.

Provision of a low/medium-fidelity simulation environment for teaching and learning in healthcare

This project developed Barwon Health's capacity to deliver low and medium-fidelity simulation alongside existing high-fidelity education and training activities. Funds were used to create teaching spaces at both the Barwon Health acute site, sub-acute site and aged care site for entry-level nursing and allied health students, postgraduate students and existing workforce. Barwon Health worked with partnered education providers to review curriculum and integrate opportunities for simulated learning.