Publications

Support workers constitute the largest group of staff involved in delivering health and social care in the UK, yet their roles vary widely and are shaped by various contextual factors. This study aimed to clarify the contributions and context of support workers’ roles in health and social care settings. The study involved a thematic review […]

This research investigated how support workers’ utilization in community rehabilitation teams for older people relates to patient and team characteristics. Conducted from January to September 2009, the study involved 462 staff and 1913 patients, collecting data on patient dependency, health status (using tools like Therapy Outcome Measures, EQ-5D, and Levels of Care), and staff activity.

This study aimed to assess patient preferences for various models of community-based care for older people, focusing on the location of care, frequency, and type of principal carer. Conducted through face-to-face interviews with 77 patients recently discharged from hospital and receiving short-term care at home, we used a discrete choice experiment to evaluate preferences for

Health workforce training is still largely rooted in outdated 20th-century paradigms that prioritize professionalization over patient-focused care. This is evident in the paradox of longer training times coinciding with workforce shortages, limited career paths for paraprofessionals, and inefficient training models that reduce service capacity. The proposed model for 21st-century health workforce training includes: Clinical Setting-Based

This study examines the large-scale workforce redesign program implemented by Queensland Health across 13 healthcare disciplines over five years. The aim was to identify mechanisms that contribute to successful workforce redesign and to codify these findings to guide future projects. The research used Inductive Logic Reasoning (ILR) to develop and test theories of change. Initial

The objective of this research was to identify mechanisms that lead to the successful implementation of support strategies for healthcare practitioners in rural and remote areas. This study conducted an integrative review and thematic synthesis of 43 empirical studies that evaluated support interventions in these contexts. The majority of the interventions reviewed were training and

This research explores the factors that contribute to the successful employment of allied health and social care assistants in community-based rehabilitation services (CBRS) in England. The study involved thematic analysis of interviews and focus groups with 153 staff members, both professionally qualified and assistants, from 11 interdisciplinary teams focused on older people’s rehabilitation. Assistants were

This study examines the success of a public-private partnership (PPP) model aimed at improving physiotherapy service delivery in rural Australia, where longstanding service gaps exist.  A rural health organization partnered with a private physiotherapy business to provide services to hospital inpatients, aged care residents, and outpatients in four regional towns, using treatment rooms provided by

This study explores the effectiveness of rural clinical placements for allied health students, which are crucial for improving health outcomes in rural and remote areas. Despite significant efforts to prepare these practitioners for rural work, measuring the success of these placements remains challenging. We conducted a scoping review and thematic synthesis of literature from 1995

In this scoping review, we examine the governance of therapy support workers, particularly in rural and remote areas of Australia under the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS).  The use of Therapy Assistants has expanded to address workforce shortages in disability services, but governance for this emerging workforce has been underexplored. Analyzing 26 mostly qualitative Australian