The importance of workplace policies and procedures in managing the new COVID-19 normal

As Australia attempts to live with COVID-19 rather than eradicate it, workplaces across the country are facing challenges unlike any they have faced before.

As many physiotherapists in private practice in rural and remote settings are sole operators, the need for mentoring and making professional connections is great.

Laura Gee APAM

Mother of two, Western Australia

Congratulations.

This is an exciting and formative time in your professional life and the decisions you make now about your career will affect you for many years to come.

Finding the right fit between employer and employee is not a one-way street.

The results can be costly.

Some of these costs can be for damages awarded to the individual(s) involved, but other expenses can quickly add up.

Ahpra and the National Boards—including the Physiotherapy Board of Australia—work in partnership to ensure that the community has access to a safe health workforce across all professions registered under the National Registration and Accreditation Scheme.

How they do this includes:

Physiotherapists, like all health professionals, use language to communicate what skills we possess and what we can offer potential patients.

We do this in different ways depending on who we are communicating with at any given time.

The new plan will be in place for the next three years and reflects our current priorities and future-focused initiatives.

Devising a strategic plan takes considerable time, effort and consultation, as it is imperative that we get it right.

It becomes a road map for our operational team and underpins our budgeting decisions.

Tell us a little about yourself as a physiotherapist and researcher.

I graduated from the University of Sydney and worked mainly in acute inpatient areas such as intensive care and spinal cord injuries in my early career.

How large was your survey and what was the response rate?

We invited clinical education managers from all 21 universities in Australia that had graduating entry-level physiotherapy students in 2017 to participate.