Check workforce skills and support
Consider how genomic care will impact your workforce’s needs, capabilities and scope of practice.
As the use of genomics increases across multiple specialties, health services will need to ensure that clinicians can practise it safely and within their scope of experience, knowledge and skills.
This webpage can assist your hospital to develop an approach to workforce support and credentialling. This will help minimise unwarranted variation and enable safe and effective care.
Workforce support is one of the key actions in the Genomics and Your Hospital toolkit, which supports hospitals to plan and implement genomic care.
- Why is credentialling important for genomic care?
- Who should be involved in assessing workforce needs?
- Tool: Principles and suggested activities for effective workforce credentialling and support
- What genomic education opportunities are available?
- How was this tool developed?
Why is credentialling important for genomic care?
Genomics is a multidisciplinary, multispecialty field that is evolving rapidly. Its unique and uncommon features can sometimes lead to risks or unwarranted variations in care – for example, when ordering complex tests, using genomic results to inform care, returning complex results to patients, or communicating the familial implications of a genetic result.
While genomics offers many clinical benefits, it is important that your hospital’s workforce is appropriately skilled and supported to use it in patient care. This includes credentialling and scope of practice for all relevant practitioners.
What is credentialling?
Credentialling is a process to verify the competence of the practitioner i.e. assessing their skills, qualifications and experience to determine their ability to provide the required safe, high quality health care.
In the context of emerging practice, it involves determining whether competencies gained through previous qualifications and experience are sufficient for autonomous practice in a new or emerging area. The gaining of the specific competency in a new or emerging area (for either the practitioner or the health service) may involve additional training and/or experience.
What is a Scope of Practice?
A practitioner’s scope of clinical practice is defined by their health service organisation. It is dependent on the practitioner operating within the bounds of their qualifications, education, training, current experience and competence, and within the capability of the facility or service in which they are working.
Who should be involved in assessing workforce needs?
This may be an ideal role for your hospital’s genomics leadership group, if one exists. Because this group brings together executives, clinicians and other experts with diverse perspectives, it may be well placed to consider the different contexts in which genomics is used, clarify scope of practice, and assess workforce and organisational needs.
If a genomics leadership group has not yet been established, you could consider your organisation’s credentialling committee(s) and executive directors with professional governance of relevant practitioners (who are typically medical practitioners and genetic counsellors).
Tool: Principles and suggested activities for effective workforce credentialling and support
This document can help guide health services establish appropriate supports to and credentialling of clinicians in genomic medicine. Different health services will have different needs, these principles should be seen as a starting point for discussion. It also includes a list of suggested activities to undertake for workforce support and planning.
What genomic education opportunities are available?
There are a number of education and training resources available to support clinicians build their genomics capability. Appropriate resources will vary depending on role and existing capability. Please note that resources are constantly evolving. Suggested sources of information include relevant learned colleges, Australian Genomics and your community of practice.
Melbourne Genomics has resources to help clinicians understand when and how to use genomics within their specialty area. The learn-genomics.org.au website also provides free educational resources on genetic and genomic testing for health professionals.
How was this tool developed?
These tools were developed as part of the Genomics and Your Hospital toolkit by the Melbourne Genomics Health Alliance, with ongoing input from Victorian healthcare leaders.
Checking workforce skills and support was identified as a key action for health services to undertake when planning for genomic care. Using an iterative, codesign approach, these tools were drafted and reviewed with members from the Melbourne Genomics Professional Governance Working Group. The tools were tested to assess usefulness and utility and were refined over time.
The toolkit remains a living resource that will evolve as genomics becomes more widely integrated into routine care.
© MGHA 2024. These materials were prepared by the Melbourne Genomics Health Alliance (MGHA) and are protected by copyright. We would like to acknowledge the expertise and knowledge of those who have contributed to the development of these materials. Reproduction or distribution of these materials without this notice is prohibited.