INVESTMENT IN IMPROVEMENT AND INNOVATION HELPED NAVIGATE AROUND DISRUPTIONS IN COVID-19

D. Lee1, A. Barnett-Harris1
1Australian Physiotherapy Council, Melbourne, Australia

Background: The Australian Physiotherapy Council is the assessment authority for overseas qualified physiotherapists (OQP) seeking to have their qualifications recognised to work in Australia. OQPs complete an assessment process, consisting of a desktop assessment of credentials (“Eligibility Assessment”), a MCQ-based knowledge exam component (“Written Assessment”), and a practical assessment of clinical skills (“Clinical Assessment”).
The Council had in the years prior to COVID-19 invested heavily on improvements to the robustness and scalability of its assessment process and methodology. Some improvements had a direct impact in supporting the continued operation of the Council’s OQP assessment process through COVID-19. Notably, the Council had

  • built a modern candidate management system and an electronic application process
  • computerised the Written Assessment, and invested in development of a large bank of MCQ items
  • developed a risk-based, expedited assessment pathway for OQPs in countries with competencies comparable to that of Australian graduates (the “FLYR pathway”)
  • completed a large research project resulting in the transition from a hospital-based to a simulation-based Clinical Assessment that is robust, effective, and highly scalable.

Purpose: To ensure minimal disruption to the assessment process, the Council took immediate steps following introduction of pandemic-related restrictions in Victoria, Australia in March 2020.

Methods: The earlier work enabled the following measures to be implemented in response to disruptions:

  1. Phase out of all hard copies of submission of documents by OQPs.
  2. Pilot of remote delivery and invigilation (using ‘live’ invigilators proctoring the assessment through a secondary device) of the Written Assessment in July 2020.
  3. Suspension of Clinical Assessments for the majority of period between March 2020 and October 2021 – but plan for significantly increased throughput of assessments once restrictions lifted to clear the backlog of assessments.

Results:
  1. The Council saw consistent flow of OQP assessment applications throughout the pandemic.
  2. Pilot of remote-delivery and invigilation of the Written Assessment was successful in completing the assessments of 85 OQPs. Rasch analysis of item performance found no significant difference between remote and in-person venue assessment.
  3. Availability of FLYR pathway meant that a cohort of OQPs who did not need to undertake the Clinical Assessment could complete their entire assessment process remotely.
  4. The simulation-based assessment model was again highly effective in its ability to scale and efficiently reduce assessment backlog. The Clinical Assessment Waiting List would reach pre-COVID levels in December 2022, from having doubled assessment throughput from July 2022 (694 in 2019-20, 1400 scheduled to complete in 2022-23).

Conclusions: Regular review and improvement of processes, evaluation and mitigation of risks, and constantly pushing for innovation had meant that the Council was in the best position to leverage technology and other advances in assessment methodology to navigate around the disruption caused by COVID-19.
Further work is being done to explore the feasibility of a remote-model of Clinical Assessment that will be resilient to future disruption.

Implications: Other similar bodies or business leaders may consider the Council’s approach in continual improvement and innovation.

Funding acknowledgements: N/A

Keywords:
Innovation
Assessment
Disruption

Topics:
COVID-19
Professional issues: business skills, leadership, advocacy & change management
Education

Did this work require ethics approval? No
Reason: This is a narrative review of the Australian Physiotherapy Council's experience through COVID-19

All authors, affiliations and abstracts have been published as submitted.

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