Purpose: The rollout of individualised disability funding in Australia resulted in an increased demand for services for people with a disability, particularly support for the high percentage of Australians with autism spectrum disorder. Continuing professional development is one way to grow and maintain a skilled workforce; however, face-to-face…

Training and support will be vital in developing and maintaining a skilled disability workforce in the roll-out of individualised disability funding across Australia. Technology has the potential to deliver training and support that is more accessible and cost-efficient in geographically isolated regions. The current qualitative study explored…

Background: People with disability living in rural areas are vulnerable to the loss of access to allied health services due to a critical shortage of allied health professionals (AHPs). This study aimed to investigate recruitment and retention issues of importance to AHPs providing services to people with disability in rural New South Wales,…

Therapy service delivery models to non-Indigenous and Indigenous people living in outer regional, remote, and very remote areas of Australia have typically involved irregular outreach from larger regional towns and capital cities. New South Wales (NSW) is the most populous Australian state with 7.23 million people of whom 4.58 million live in the…

Purpose: To investigate the approaches of experienced speech-language pathologists (SLPs) to ethical reasoning and the processes they use to resolve ethical dilemmas. Method: Ten experienced SLPs participated in in-depth interviews. A narrative approach was used to guide participants' descriptions of how they resolved ethical dilemmas. Individual…

Background: Speech pathologists are confronted by ethical issues when they need to make decisions about client care, address team conflict, and fulfil the range of duties and responsibilities required of health professionals. However, there has been little research into the specific nature of ethical dilemmas experienced by speech pathologists and…

Background: Workplace-based learning is a critical component of professional preparation in speech pathology. A validated assessment of this learning is seen to be "the gold standard", but it is difficult to develop because of design and validation issues. These issues include the role and nature of judgement in assessment, challenges in…