As workforce shortages continue to plague the Australian health care system, an innovative program utilising final year medical students as Clinical Assistants could help hospitals struggling to fill rosters.
A Perspective article, published in the Medical Journal of Australia, proposes that the Clinical Assistant program designed by Western Health in Victoria during the COVID-19 pandemic could be adapted to plug critical gaps as hospitals across Australia struggle with unprecedented workforce shortages.
The program involved recruiting final year medical students to work as Level 4 Casual Support Service employees, who could perform paid shifts to assist with administrative and low risk clinical tasks, in addition to their medical school placements.
Dr Paul Eleftheriou and his colleagues from the University of Melbourne, who wrote the Perspective, believe the Clinical Assistant program could continue to benefit the health care workforce beyond the pandemic.
“The Clinical Assistant program continues to run in Victoria despite a decline in COVID-19 cases, but it has shifted from supporting an acutely pressured workforce during a pandemic to supplementing a chronically strained workforce,” Dr Eleftheriou and colleagues wrote.
“As we emerge from the pandemic, medical students could be one sustainable solution to chronic staffing shortages and to provide the health care workforce contingencies.”
However, there would need to be clear guidelines for their role expectations across different jurisdictions and disciplines.
“[Clinical Assistants] often work within departments that host medical student placements,” Dr Eleftheriou and colleagues wrote.
“This creates the potential for role confusion, as has been found with nursing students who concurrently work as health care assistants.”
- Annika Howells