The road to registration: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health practitioner training in north Queensland.

The road to registration: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health practitioner training in north Queensland. Rural Remote Health. 2018 Jan;18(1):3899 Authors: Hill K, Harvey N, Felton-Busch C, Hoskins J, Rasalam R, Malouf P, Knight S Abstract CONTEXT: In 2012, the new profession of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health practitioner (ATSIHP) was registered under the Health Practitioner Regulation National Law Act 2009. The project in this present study evolved out of the Australian Government\'s recognition of the need for the existing Indigenous health worker (IHW) workforce to meet the minimum qualification requirements for registration as ATSIHPs through recognition of prior learning and/or further education. A total of 53 IHWs participated in the upskilling project between June 2014 and June 2015, with approximately 200 IHWs from Queensland expressing an interest in undertaking the training. This demonstrated a clear need for further training programs such as this one. The project was coordinated by the Indigenous Health Unit at James Cook University (JCU) with training being delivered by TAFE Cairns in collaboration with the College of Medicine and Dentistry, JCU. Students travelled from as far north as the Torres Strait and as far west as Mount Isa. ISSUES: The key issues for discussion were associated with the ATSIHP role being relatively new including the limited preparedness of training providers to delive...
Source: Rural and Remote Health - Category: Rural Health Tags: Rural Remote Health Source Type: research