Authors (including presenting author) :
Yu JWK (1), Chung BPH (1), Lau TFO (1)
Affiliation :
Physiotherapy Department, Tai Po Hospital
Introduction :
Supporting staff in Tai Po Hospital (TPH) mainly assisted physiotherapists in clinical and non-clinical work so as to provide a better quality of service. They are supervised by physiotherapist I (PTI) and have regular lectures for revision. Limited training is provided currently and new supporting staff lack confidence when handling patients. In addition, PTI are occupied by clinical and non-clinical duties and might not be able to provide immediate supervision and recommendations to supporting staff during work.
Objectives :
1.To provide a structured and holistic new supporting staff training program.
2.To facilitate understanding of scope of work and improve confidence among newly recruited supporting staff.
3.To provide timely and continuous supervision and monitoring to supporting staff.
Methodology :
Supporting staff, who are new recruited or rotated between teams, in TPH are included. The program consisted of four components: (1) Lectures; (2) Self-readings; (3) Buddy sharing; and (4) Job coaching.
(1)Lectures will be held once per month by PTI.
(2)Self-readings materials included generic, orthopedic, medical and psychiatric information and was studied within 6 months after reporting duty and record in a checklist.
(3)Buddy sharing: Experienced supporting staff with more than 1-year experience could act as buddy to assist PTI in supervising new recruited or rotated supporting staff.
(4)Job coaching: Experienced Physiotherapist II could assist PTI in supervising new recruited or rotated supporting staff.
Outcome measures included multiple choice test for new recruited staff on the first day and 6 months after reporting duty, questionnaires about the training and compliance audit on the self-reading checklist after 6 months.
Result & Outcome :
2 new supporting staff were recruited and 4 supporting staff were rotated in TPH in 6 months. All new recruited supporting staff obtained a higher score in the multiple choice test after the training with average score improved from 52% to 80%. For the questionnaire about the training, all of them agreed that the program could facilitate their understanding of the scope of work. And majority (67%) of them totally agreed the program could improve their confidence in work. The compliance audit on the self-reading checklist attained 100%.
