Allied Health Professions Accreditation Standards for Work Integrated Learning: A Document Analysis

Allied Health Professions Accreditation Standards for Work Integrated Learning: A Document Analysis

A key role of allied health (AH) professional regulatory and professional bodies is to ensure that AH education programs provide work-integrated learning (WIL) opportunities for students. The requirements are outlined via the respective profession's educational accreditation standards. Although...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:International journal of environmental research and public health Vol. 20; no. 15; p. 6478
Main Authors: Penman, Merrolee, Raymond, Jacqueline, Kumar, Annora, Liang, Renae Y R, Sundar, Karen, Thomas, Yvonne
Format: Journal Article
Language:English
Published: Switzerland MDPI AG 31-07-2023
MDPI
Subjects:
Accreditation
Core curriculum
Education
Exercise physiology
Learning
Occupational therapy
Physical therapy
Professional standards
Professionals
Professions
Reflexivity
Speech therapy
Students
Australia
work integrated learning
accreditation standards
clinical placements
allied health
health professions education
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Summary:A key role of allied health (AH) professional regulatory and professional bodies is to ensure that AH education programs provide work-integrated learning (WIL) opportunities for students. The requirements are outlined via the respective profession's educational accreditation standards. Although a significant component of the AH professional degrees, researchers have not explored how standards specific to WIL are developed, nor how WIL might be conceptualised through the standards. This study explored how WIL is conceptualised through comparing the WIL education standards across Australian AH professions. Using a non-experimental explanatory mixed-methods research design, a document analysis of Australian education program accreditation standards (and associated documents) for 15 AH professions was undertaken. Data analysis included inductive textual and thematic analyses to compare AH professionals' conceptualisation of WIL. This study found a high degree of variation in how AH professions describe WIL. While there was a common requirement for students to demonstrate competency in WIL, requirements for WIL quantity, assessment and supervision varied. Four key themes were identified regarding the contribution of WIL to curriculum and student learning: (1) the relationship between WIL and the program curriculum; (2) WIL as a learning process; (3) learning from diverse WIL contexts; and (4) developing competence through WIL. Overall, the diversity in the standards reflected differing understandings of what WIL is. Thus, in the absence of frameworks for designing accreditation standards, the risk is that some AH professions will continue to perpetuate the myth that the primary purpose of WIL is to provide a bridge between theory and practice.
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ISSN:1660-4601
1661-7827
1660-4601
DOI:10.3390/ijerph20156478