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NQPHN's current workforce development programs and initiatives are outlined below.
eConsultant is a free program that provides general practitioners (GPs) and their patients with access to specialist input without a face-to-face consultation.
GPs can access specialist advice for adult patients (older than 16 years) via their practice software, with a response from an experienced specialist within three business days via secure messaging.
To use Mater eConsultant, practices must have access to the Medical-Objects send and receive function. NQPHN are funding the first-year annual subscription for those general practices that are not currently using Medical-Objects.
The Going North program offers non-medical students, with the exception of the medical students participating in the GROW Rural NQ program, a rural placement bursary to assist with travel and accommodation expenses during placement within primary health care settings across the NQPHN region.
Nursing, midwifery, allied health, and dentistry students interested in exploring career pathways into rural and remote health can access financial support for clinical placements, although support is limited. Supporting these students to undertake remote and rural placements is underpinned by the commitment Health Workforce Queensland (HWQ) and NQPHN jointly share in generating a quality rural and remote workforce through interprofessional collaboration.
NQPHN expanded the reach and capacity of the GROW Rural North Queensland (NQ) program by closely collaborating with practices, health services, and targeted communities across our region.
Over the course of the program, GROW Rural NQ students were supported to develop their career pathways and directed into identified employment opportunities within the NQPHN region. To ensure a multi-disciplinary team reflective of the selected North Queensland community’s health needs, across the three-year GROW Rural program, a maximum of 25 students completed their final weekend by participating in meaningful experiences including various workshops, acquiring local knowledge, and the exposure of recent weather events, discovering how small communities band together like no other.
The next round of the GROW Rural NQ program will be offered to first-year university health students. The communities identified to host these students include:
- Atherton
- Herberton
- Mareeba
- Ravenshoe.
The program has expanded to further include a community link who sources placement opportunities and creates links to the community for each student for employment, housing, training, and recreational activities and further encourage the community to embrace newcomers and boost primary care services in these areas.
The Maternal and Child Health Uplift Program (MCHUP) provides financial support to improve access to education and training for Northern Queensland’s primary care providers, to address the comprehensive health needs of children during their first 1,000 days of life. Professionals working in primary health care in Northern Queensland can apply for funding to upskill in maternal and child health individually or as an organisation.
Health Workforce Queensland in partnership with Northern Queensland Primary Health Network (NQPHN) has co-designed an extensive and comprehensive whole-of-NQPHN region Maternal and Child Health workforce skills and development uplift program. This program is in alignment with the Better Health North Queensland Alliance First 1000 Days Framework.
In partnership with James Cook University (JCU), this program delivers a series of regionally based education groups, run by GPs for GPs. Groups have been established in Cairns, Townsville, and Mackay, facilitated in collaboration with NQPHN and JCU.
This program is designed to assist GPs in achieving their necessary continuing professional development (CPD) requirements whilst also facilitating local networking and providing a comprehensive understanding of the local landscape, with the rural locations in each area being actively included.
Northern Queensland Primary Health Network (NQPHN) in partnership with Health Workforce Queensland (HWQ) are working to build a sustainable primary care workforce through the recruitment and retention of general practitioners, nurses, and allied health professionals.
This multifaceted campaign focuses on the recruitment and orientation of incoming health professionals, to boost and grow the current workforce whilst enhancing capability and improving capacity in priority NQPHN locations.
With the success of the program in previous years, and now with the additional opportunity to support social work students in Cairns, NQPHN have expanded to incorporate both the Townsville and Cairns regions in this program. A total of six practices have been onboarded and have commenced or are recruiting social workers in their practice. Notably, two Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisations (ACCHOs) within the NQPHN region have also signed on to participate; one in Townsville and the other in Cairns.
The VIP program is designed to support the GP workforce and build practice sustainability in MMM4-7 locations, urgently.
An urban/regional GP (the VIP GP) joins your practice remotely one to two-days per week for a minimum of 12-months, supporting your practice by providing telehealth appointments to your existing patients via secure, remote access. It is preferable that your patients attend their telehealth appointment at your practice. To enable comprehensive, quality primary care, the VIP GP is provided with secure, remote access to the practice software/medical records. Additionally, the VIP GP works onsite for three to five days every six months.
