PHOTO: The Western Australian Department of Health
School of Physiotherapy Lecturer at the University of Notre Dame’s Fremantle campus Jennifer Persaud has made a significant contribution towards a process which has resulted in the delivery of greater professional rewards and workplace entitlements for Advanced Practitioner Physiotherapists (APP).
Ms Persaud, also an Advanced Practitioner Physiotherapist, said this was a monumental outcome for professional and pre-service physiotherapists who aspire to develop their clinical career in the WA public health service.
“The outcome has introduced a positive change to the career pathway possibilities for physiotherapists employed in WA health. This will have a knock-on effect for physiotherapy students as they are the future of the physiotherapy profession,” Ms Persaud said.
“I am pleased to know that as the students graduate and enter the workforce, they now have a new potential career option and rewards available to them as they progress through their career.”
An extensive work assessment process was completed in early 2014 which formally evaluated the worth of the APP roles.
Ms Persaud, along with her fellow APP colleagues and other key stakeholders, were engaged to provide evidence to support their recommendation for a new and higher clinical grade to be created within the WA health pay award to fairly reflect the work of the APPs.
On April 29, as a result of the evaluation process, an official decision was made to classify the APP posts at a higher level than had previously existed in the pay award structure.
“APP roles were originally implemented as an alternate model of care to assist health care organisations to meet with the growing global trend for increased demands upon health services,” Ms Persaud said.
“APPs work in collaboration with medical practitioners to carry out high level and complex duties that have traditionally been performed by doctors. “
The reported benefits of these roles include: cost effectiveness, high patient satisfaction, improved patient flow and reduced wait lists.
Ms Persaud and her fellow APPs said they were delighted with the outcome and have thanked those who assisted in seeing the proposed changes actually being realised.