An analysis of managerial skills for the current and future health care environment.

A survey questioned 503 experienced practitioners about managerial tasks and responsibilities of senior professionals in four allied health fields: physiotherapy, speech-language pathology, occupational therapy, and medical radiation science. Participants worked in a range of settings, including the private and public sectors, small and large departments/units, and community and hospital-based work sites. Factor analysis identified eight managerial areas of functioning: department running, staff relations management, legislative knowledge, career path management, implementation and change, quality assurance, management of future planning, and prioritizing work. The professional field of the practitioner influenced the importances attached to these areas, while work setting and gender of practitioner had minimal impact. Level of involvement in managerial tasks had no bearing on the importance attached to competency areas. Open-ended comments added depth to the results of the factor analysis. The findings are discussed with respect to the changing requirements being placed upon health service personnel.

Peer learning in clinical education.

The purpose of this paper is to raise awareness of peer learning as a process that is potentially beneficial to clinical education. Peer learning is a well documented learning strategy in paediatric educational literature. Many allied health clinical education programs purport to utilize it as a learning technique. Do we really know what peer learning is, how to promote it and why it is beneficial to facilitate it? This paper addresses these questions by considering terminology and definitions of peer learning and briefly outlining theoretical justification for its use in clinical education. Literature regarding the application of peer learning in clinical education is reviewed and the reported and purported benefits of peer learning are discussed.