Scope of Practice Review - Issues Paper 1 Public Submissions

Overview

This Issues Paper has been developed as part of the Unleashing the Potential of our Health Workforce – Scope of Practice Review (‘the Review’). This independent Review focuses on health professionals who currently provide or have the potential to provide primary care, and explores the available evidence of the benefits, risks, barriers and enablers associated with health practitioners working to their full scope of practice. Full scope of practice means the professional activities that a practitioner is educated (skill/knowledge), competent and authorised to perform, and for which they are accountable.

A process of literature review and stakeholder consultation and analysis has been undertaken to date to collect evidence to support the Review. The purpose of this Issues Paper is to provide an overview of the evidence collected to date, outline the emerging themes from this evidence, and describe the direction and next steps for this Review.

This is the first Issues Paper of two to be developed through this Review. This Issues Paper will directly inform upcoming consultation during Phase 2 of the Review and into the Final Report.

Five key themes emerged from a synthesis of evidence to date and are explored within this Issues Paper.

Why your views matter

Gaining the views of as many people as possible, representing the broadest span of professions and public perspectives, is essential to the success of this review. This will ensure the review:

• is evidence based
• has a well-informed understanding of issues
• reflects perspectives from a broad range of positions within the health system.

Workforce, regulators, insurers, and consumers – the review wants to hear from you.

What happens next

Our Research Partners will analyse all data submitted as part of this consultation.

Our partners will produce a report on consultation responses for the Independent Review Lead. Individual responses will remain anonymous, although quotes may be used in this report to illustrate key consultation feedback. The consultation feedback will be used with other evidence to inform Issues Paper 2.