MEETING THE PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT NEEDS OF ADVANCED PRACTITIONERS

Background: The Aged Care Assessment Program (ACAP) manages delivery of quality services to older people receiving assessment and Commonwealth funded programs in South Australia and training for multidisciplinary assessors,... [ view full abstract ]

Background:
The Aged Care Assessment Program (ACAP) manages delivery of quality services to older people receiving assessment and Commonwealth funded programs in South Australia and training for multidisciplinary assessors, who work in teams. The ACAP invited occupational therapy educators to design a targeted professional development (PD) workshop.
Educational approaches:
A community development contributions approach (Talbot & Verrinder 2014) was used to facilitate a focus group, where 12 representative staff built consensus of PD needs. From 16 topics, ranking indicated clinical reasoning (CR) was valued most. Drawing on CR research situated in contextualised phenomenon models (Higgs & Jones 2008), a 3-hour workshop was developed. Materials included 2 pre-readings; 30-minute didactic presentation; case study using text, video and simulated standardised assessment results, and worksheets. Participants discussed the case while simultaneously identifying CR used to determine recommendations. Facilitators used timeouts to highlight CR in action and stimulate deeper discussion, prior to group sharing.
Evaluation:
Anonymous survey (n 30) showed 90% agreement the workshop extended knowledge; 83% agreement of authentic case study and 96% agreement participant could apply theory to practice. Text responses suggested links to “enhanced awareness of different analytical approaches”. Senior practitioners may have found it “basic for experienced clinicians already using the skills” indicating a preference for CR and “complex ethical dilemmas”.
Application:
A brief multidisciplinary PD session can support expert practitioners to refocus on their reasoning and decision making practices enabling “examination how I reach conclusions” and “reflection on my practice more often’ with ‘the language to better do so”.