Allied health career pathways grow in community care

Metro North’s specialist community-based healthcare services have expanded their clinical training offerings in 2024 with medical interns and now allied health graduates joining the service.

Community and Oral Health (COH) Allied Health Team Leader Renee Hammonds said following the introduction of medical interns for the first time this year, COH has also welcomed new allied health graduates to our ranks, three of whom are part of the Brighton Rehabilitation Unit.

“Brighton Rehabilitation Unit (BRU) has always promoted and supported student placements and we see the implementation of our newly established graduate positions within occupational therapy, speech pathology and physiotherapy as an extension of this talent, succession planning and sustainable healthcare delivery,” Renee said.

“It has been very successful and in future we plan to continue and expand on these roles – new graduates have brought fresh perspectives, contemporary knowledge and even more fun and diversity to our supportive and skilled workforce at the BRU.

“Our experienced clinicians are thriving and providing very positive feedback too, as they have more opportunities to optimise their leadership capacity through mentoring, supervising and supporting our new graduates.

“Succession planning is also very important for our community services so that we can attract and retain the best workforce for our patients and residents.”

As part of the program, allied health graduates will complete a one-year placement at a COH service like the Brighton Rehabilitation Unit, which supports older people to get home after being in a hospital due to a serious injury or condition.

Occupational therapist and graduate Sharron Cheung was very excited about the prospects of working in the rehabilitation unit after first studying psychology, before completing a Graduate Entry Masters.

“Occupational therapy is more holistic and functional in its application – it takes in every aspect of a person of which you can think off and how you can work around that to improve their quality of life,” Sharron said.

“I particularly wanted to join Queensland Health because of the training opportunities and this role at COH provides a lot of face-to-face interaction and handling of patients.

“The staff here at COH have a very attentive and gentle approach to helping people who are very vulnerable. Longer term, I would like to work with patients from linguistic and diverse backgrounds.”

While Sharron has taken some extra time to explore her chosen health career she said that no time is wasted.

“Along the way you will find, develop skills and experience to make you the clinician you want to be,” she said.

Each year, COH connects tens of thousands of people to community-based health care needed following their hospital stay. COH provides more than 250,000 patient appointments or visits in the home, at our oral health clinics, health facilities, mobile dental vans and bedded services, as well as to residents at our residential aged and disability care facilities.

The Brighton Rehabilitation Unit supports around 700 patients each year who require intensive therapy following illness or injury.