Speech Pathology Australia - Allied Health Assistant Feature

in focus

"...having an AHA is about releasing the

such as setting up the food and fluids that I may need for a trial for someone on the ward for example. “It’s also been good having someone on the team who’s come from a different work background and life experience. AHAs are not always necessarily university trained like us (speech pathologists). Sometimes we get used to being around health professionals and having the AHA reminds us that not everyone has that same experience. It has helped us to step out of ‘our little world’. “Our AHA works on some of the repetition or practice sessions. For example, I may see a client for a couple of sessions and get the program set up and then our AHA will do the next few. “He has also been a great support on the end of telehealth sessions. I have an outreach site which is 2 1/2 hours away. It’s an overnight trip and being in a small town there isn’t a large case load to warrant me going there very often. “But that doesn’t mean that the people there don’t necessarily need the frequent care. Our solution was for our AHA and I to do the trip on alternating fortnights. The AHA on his trip might sit on the end of telehealth with the client to support my session. Or he might run a practice session and then the following fortnite I’d meet with the client in person. “He also does a lot of things like meal audits of the different modified textures that we have in speech pathology, such as working with the hospital’s food service and the kitchen around assessing that they’re up to standard and helping us to give education and training. “He will also do meal-time reviews. We may have a client in aged care or on the ward that we’ve prescribed a modified diet, and the AHA will follow up - sit with the client, have lunch with them and double check that everything is going ok. “There’s also some admin work such as screening phone calls. He might also develop a screening case history where he will call the client and get the information for us before we go into the assessment, which is very helpful." Tell us about the procedures you put in place to work with your AHA “We did develop comprehensive procedures around delegation and scope of practice and how to introduce

new clinical tasks. It’s an overarching procedure and we do task competency analysis for the lower risk clinical tasks that don’t need a huge procedure to go with them. “We’ve also created workplace instructions that are just for non-clinical tasks that just need a little bit of instruction on how to do things. I’ve just recently also created what we call a workplace guide for a AHAs which is designed to be for any AHA that might join us in the western cluster." What are some things other clinicians need to consider before taking on an AHA? “You do need to be mindful if you have an AHA who hasn’t done a speech pathology course, you will need to teach those skills. Taking on an AHA does need a lot of education work from the speech pathology team. It takes a lot of work to begin with, but it’s worth it in the long run. You need to be willing to put in that extra to train and teach an AHA. “There needs to be contingencies put in place before they start and you need to assess that they’re competent in tasks before they do them independently. You need to have these in place and keep in mind the level of experience or education that the AHA brings to the role. Distinguish them in your mind that they are not speech pathology students or a new speech pathology graduate. Since employing the AHA Sam says that the team has greater flexibility and opportunities to provide different services, particularly in a rural setting when there are large distances between clients. “There is a quote that I think about all the time that I heard in a meeting or training, that having an AHA ‘is about releasing the capacity of the clinician to work to the extent of their scope.” capacity of the clinician to work to the extent of their scope.”

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Speak Out | June 2021