Understanding workforce needs of allied health staff in regional cancer care centres: Informing recruitment and succession planning.

OBJECTIVE

To describe: (1) the type and frequency of interventions undertaken by regional cancer specialist Allied Health Professionals (AHPs); and (2) regional generalist AHPs' exposure and confidence in undertaking these interventions.

DESIGN

Multiphase, observational study including a prospective study and a cross-sectional survey.

SETTING

Two regional Queensland Hospitals.

PARTICIPANTS

Cancer specialist AHPs (n = 13 in a prospective study; n = 7 in a cross-sectional survey) and generalist AHPs (n = 36 in a cross-sectional survey), across six disciplines from two regional hospitals and cancer services.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Phase 1: Frequency of cancer care AHP occasions of service and interventions. Phase 2: Current practice in cancer care AHP interventions; confidence; access to training, professional development and mentorship; barriers to working in cancer care, among cancer care and generalist AHPs.

RESULTS

Over 10-months, cancer care AHPs collectively delivered 12 393 interventions across 8850 occasions of service. Only four cancer care interventions were exclusively or predominantly carried out by cancer care AHPs-laryngectomy pre-operative counselling, laryngectomy rehabilitation and tracheostomy management (speech pathology) and lymphoedema management (physiotherapy). Generalist AHPs reported slightly lower confidence across all tasks if asked to carry out known interventions in a cancer setting compared with familiar settings. The primary perceived barrier to working in cancer care was lack of skills/experience/training reported by most CC AHPs, generalist Physiotherapists and Speech Pathologists, but not other generalist AHPs.

CONCLUSION

There was a significant overlap in interventions undertaken in the cancer care and generalist setting for AHPs. Appropriate on-boarding to contextualise interventions to cancer care is recommended to overcome reported lower confidence.