Cherie Wells, APAM

Project title: Enhancing the readiness of new graduate physiotherapists for private practice: Academic, employer, and graduate perspectives

Year awarded: 2015

PRF grant: Tagged Grant

Snapshot: Cherie and her colleagues undertook a nation-wide project involving three surveys and 12 focus groups. Participants reported that graduates bring enthusiasm and readiness to learn, and research-informed knowledge and skills to private practice. They could improve, however, in clinical, business, and transferable knowledge skills.

Benefits to the profession: To improve graduate work readiness, engagement of stakeholders throughout Australia is vital. This PRF grant enabled stakeholder communication and collaboration across the country. It opened the door for identification of challenges and solutions to enhance graduate work readiness and transition.

The next steps: Cherie’s research includes exploring strategies to increase private practice placement. It is critical that the significant barriers to sourcing such placements are overcome so that students can be orientated and prepared for future work roles. The other area of Cherie’s research focus is exploring new graduate mentorship models in private practice. Support in private practice is not consistently provided if at all for new graduates, which may significantly influence