Mandatory Training

Reviewed January 2024

Position Statement

Summary

Ausmed Education has been a provider of continuing professional development for health professionals for over 35 years. Our core principle is that education is the means to continuously improve the health of the community and contributes to person-centred quality care and service.

The purpose of this position statement is to communicate Ausmed’s beliefs on mandatory training and, in so doing, support organisations to implement effective and engaging mandatory training plans.

Background

Mandatory training offers the means to minimise risk to an organisation’s workforce and supports organisations to provide person-centred quality care and services.

In its simplest form, mandatory training in the health, aged care, community and disability sectors refers to online or in-person compulsory training that an organisation requires its workforce to undertake. Employees are required to complete this as part of their employment to enable them to undertake their role safely and efficiently.

An organisation typically requires mandatory training to be:

• Assigned according to the particular function or work duties and policies and procedures relevant to staff in different groups, teams, job roles or facilities
• Completed within a certain timeframe
• Attached to a learning record so organisations can:
  • Monitor staff compliance with mandatory training
  • Generate a report quickly to demonstrate they meet their regulatory or policy obligations or industry standard(s)

Mandatory Training v Continuing Professional Development (CPD)

Mandatory training is different to continuing professional development (CPD) requirements for registered health professionals that fall under the Health Practitioner Regulation National Law that is in force in each State and Territory. The National Board for each health profession is responsible for developing standards, codes and guidelines for practitioners in accordance with the National Law requirements.

The CPD standard for registration sets out the prescribed minimum amount of CPD that a practitioner must complete per registration period in order to meet the standard for registration and remain registered.

Mandatory workplace training may also be counted as CPD in some cases where a practitioner can provide evidence that this training meets an identified learning need and contains new learning.

Ausmed Education’s position on Mandatory Training

Assigning mandatory training

1. Mandatory training should focus on the provision of quality care and risk avoidance and align with:
   1. Specific laws and compliance, i.e. relevant Health Acts, Aged Care Act, Mental Health Act, Work Health and Safety legislation
   2. National Standards relevant to the Organisation, i.e. NSQHS Standards, Aged Care Quality Standards, NDIS Practice Standards
   3. An organisation's clinical governance framework
   4. An organisation's internal policies and procedures
   5. Industry expectations
2. The integrity, design and development of mandatory training activities should be assessed prior to learning being assigned in order to maximise engagement with the content, promote staff compliance and contribute towards the desired learning outcomes.
3. Individual registered health practitioners may choose to reflect and document completed mandatory training activities as part of their ongoing CPD requirements if the activity meets a relevant, identified learning need and contains new learning.

Frequency of mandatory training

1. Ausmed understands workplaces have differing needs around the frequency of mandatory training, and our products and services seek to offer flexibility to meet these needs. For example, there will be instances where one or more of the following types of workplace training will be required:
   • Just in time - for example, in response to an incident to rapidly address workplace safety and/or the wellbeing of staff and consumers.
   • Planned and one-off - for example, induction or orientation training required before or within a certain period of an employee commencing employment.
   • Recurring training - for example, ongoing manual handling or workplace health and safety training required to be completed annually.
2. Because mandatory training occurs in response to the needs of an organisation, the frequency of training will be determined by various factors. For example:
   1. Changes to Legislation
   2. New compliance requirements set by regulatory bodies
   3. Audits, onsite assessments and review audits
   4. Performance against relevant Standards
   5. Internal adverse events, incidents and near-misses
   6. The implementation of new products and equipment
3. Whilst mandatory training plans should be regularly reviewed to determine if they still meet the organisation’s needs, organisations choose to set their own timeframes in relation to frequency. This can vary from biannually or annually to intervals of two or three years.
4. In certain circumstances, such as a high-risk clinical incident, urgent mandatory training may be required, and ongoing training plans will need to be rapidly adjusted to meet new and pressing learning needs.

In support of its position, Ausmed Education:

• Has and continues to develop a large range of online modules that can be used for mandatory and other educational training purposes.
• Regularly reviews mandatory training modules to ensure relevance and alignment with required Standards and regulatory requirements.
• Has developed software to aid organisations in automatically assigning mandatory training to meet the needs of staff in particular groups, teams, job roles or facilities.
• Has developed documenting capabilities for learners to record the completion of mandatory training.
• Has developed reporting capabilities for organisations to monitor staff compliance with mandatory training.
• Provides a comprehensive onboarding experience to create, plan, review and monitor compliance with mandatory training plans.
• Conducts tailored sessions to review training plans (free of charge) to ensure training plans are set up for optimum learner engagement, compliance and learning effectiveness.

References:

Safer Care Victoria 2017, Delivering High Quality Healthcare - Victorian Clinical Governance Framework, Victoria State Government, https://www2.health.vic.gov.au/about/publications/policiesandguidelines/Delivering-high-quality-healthcare-Victorian-clinical-governance-policy

Queensland Health 2019, Human Resources Policy: Orientation, Induction and Mandatory Training, Queensland Government, https://www.health.qld.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0034/395845/qh-pol-183.pdf

Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency 2023, What We Do, Australian Government, https://www.ahpra.gov.au/About-Ahpra/What-We-Do.aspx

Paramedicine Board of Australia 2018, Registration Standard: Continuing Professional Development, Australian Government, https://www.paramedicineboard.gov.au/Professional-standards/Registration-standards.aspx

Creative Healthcare Management 2018, Resources for Healthcare Professionals, Creative Healthcare Management, https://shop.chcm.com

Ausmed Education Pty Ltd 2024