5. The future specialist palliative care workforce
The future specialist palliative care workforce
Specialist palliative care workforce planning
Collaboration and partnership are required to enable Queensland's specialist palliative care workforce to be skilled and responsive to consumer needs and preferences, sensitive to the role of emerging technologies and changing models of care, and delivered efficiently with the best use of resources.
Planning for our specialist palliative care workforce includes the following:
Understand the Business
* What is the current state of services?
* What is the future population need?
* What are the palliative care principles and goals?
Analyse the Workforce
* What does our workforce look like?
* What do the national and state planning guidelines recommend?
* What does the future workforce model recommend based on set parameters?
* Can we sustainably implement this in Queensland Health and within the funding envelope?
* What are the identified workforce gaps?
Plan for the Future
* What are the workforce priorities?
* What strategies can we implement to deliver on the agreed palliative care principles and goals?
* What are the measures of success?
Developing a system perspective
For the purposes of developing a Queensland Health system perspective of the future requirements of the specialist palliative care workforce, a workforce modelling framework was developed including a tailored specialist palliative care workforce planning methodology and guiding parameters. This framework was informed by consultation with Hospital and Health Service specialist palliative care clinicians and by national and state planning guidelines and benchmarks, including:
* Palliative Care Australia: Palliative Care Service Development Guidelines 2018
* Queensland Health Clinical Services Capability Framework for public and licensed private health facilities v3.2 - Palliative Care Services module
* Queensland Health Palliative Care Services Planning Guideline 2021
Additional guiding parameters were developed to also inform the desirable workforce profile and modelling of the future specialist palliative care workforce. The guiding parameters include:
* A three-step planning approach should identify the workforce profiles required to achieve a baseline core workforce, a sustainable workforce for service stabilisation, and the future workforce for service growth for each Hospital and Health Service.
* A minimum Hospital and Health Service population of 100,000 is required to support a palliative medicine physician-led specialist palliative care service. If there are fewer than 100,000 in the population, services should be nurse-led supported by larger Hospital and Health Services, and specific services, including SPaRTa, the Paediatric Palliative Care Service and PallConsult.
* For Hospital and Health Services under a 100,000 population, a baseline core workforce profile should comprise nursing, allied health, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health workforce and administrative support.
* Each Hospital and Health Service over 100,000 population should have workforce to deliver consultation and community palliative care services.
* The delivery of inpatient services is determined by each Hospital and Health Service. Planning for additional palliative care inpatient services is not included within the Workforce Plan.
* Individual Hospital and Health Service workforce requirements will be influenced by a range of additional factors including variations in geography and population distribution, access to services delivered by non-government organisations, First Nations population representation and staff recruitment and retention issues. These factors need to be considered in finalising any negotiations relating to workforce growth.
Stage 1: Baseline Core Workforce establish and/or enhance
Stage 2: Sustainable Workforce optimise capacity and capability
Stage 3: Future Growth Workforce to meet future needs
Based on local workforce and current and future population characteristics, Hospital and Health Services were grouped into three clusters during the planning process:
* Rural and remote Hospital and Health Services - fewer than 100,000 population and including South West, Central West, North West and Torres and Cape Hospital and Health Services.
* Regional Hospital and Health Services – more than 100,000 but less than 300,000 population and including Cairns and Hinterland, Mackay, Central Queensland, Wide Bay, Darling Downs, and West Moreton Hospital and Health Services.
* Major Hospital and Health Services - more than 300,000 population and including Metro South, Metro North, Gold Coast, Sunshine Coast and Townsville Hospital and Health Services as well as Children's Health Queensland (CHQ) as a statewide service.