Published: 9th October 2024. Last modified: 9th October 2024.
Written by Craig Shepherd, Jesica Martinez Perez
In Australia's health and social care industry, Clinical Facilitators are responsible for training, mentoring and educating the next generation of professionals. In hospitals, aged care, mental health and other medical facilities, they host nursing students for training placements, guiding them and providing feedback to universities and educational institutions. Basically, they help to bridge the gap between classroom learning and real-world nursing experience.
We spoke with Jesica Martinez Perez, Recruitment Manager for Health & Social Care Australia at Prospero Health and Social Care, to gain expert insights into this crucial role, and importantly, how new training requirements have changed the pathway to becoming a Clinical Facilitator.
What is a Clinical Facilitator?
So, what exactly does a Clinical Facilitator do?
In short, Clinical Facilitators are experienced Registered Nurses who mentor and support nursing students during their clinical placements. They work with both Bachelor's and Diploma students, guiding them through hands-on experiences in a variety of healthcare settings.
Key Responsibilities:
- Mentoring and support: Clinical Facilitators guide and assist students in applying theoretical knowledge from their training in practical scenarios.
- Feedback and endorsements: It’s a Clinical Facilitator’s role to evaluate student performance and provide feedback to learning institutions.
- Liaising between institutions: It’s a complex task, but Clinical Facilitators may also act as a liaison between healthcare facilities and educational institutions.
What qualities make a successful Clinical Facilitator?
Much like many specialised roles in the healthcare industry, being a Clinical Facilitator isn’t for everybody. Jesica places Clinical Facilitators in roles throughout Australia and gives us some insight into what she believes makes a person stand out.
Essential Qualities:
- Passion for sharing knowledge: Jesica told us that a passion for teaching the next generation of nurses is absolutely crucial for this role.
- Extensive nursing experience: Confidence in teaching comes from years of hands-on experience. We’ll touch on this later, but many universities require Clinical Facilitators to have 5 years of experience.
- People skills: It’s crucial to be approachable, good at communication and able to deal with conflicts and issues.
- Commitment to diversity: Clinical Facilitators work with students from all backgrounds, and must have an awareness of cultural and other sensitivities to promote a diverse workforce.
- Dedication to excellence: Most of all, Facilitators need a strong commitment to delivering excellent training experiences to guide the next generation.
Ultimately, being a Clinical Facilitator isn’t just about sharing knowledge and experience with students, but also creating a safe and engaging learning environment.
The requirements to become a Clinical Facilitator in Australia
We’ll dive a bit deeper into the specific training requirements soon, but there are additional requirements that you’ll need to meet to become a successful Clinical Facilitator in Australia’s healthcare sector.
Mandatory Requirements:
- Registered Nurse status: You must be a Registered Nurse (RN) with a valid license to practice in Australia.
- Recent experience: Universities often require at least five years of recent clinical experience.
- Active industry engagement: It’s essential for Clinical Facilitators to stay up to date with industry standards, regulations and training needs.
As Jesica from Prospero explained, Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency (AHPRA) standards constantly evolve, as do many other healthcare and general workplace regulations. From nursing techniques to care standards, recent hands-on experience ensures Clinical Facilitators are passing on the most up-to-date and relevant knowledge to students.
Essential training courses and qualifications
If you’re considering becoming a Clinical Facilitator, there is some essential training you’ll need to complete.
Bachelor of Nursing
To become a Clinical Facilitator, you must first be a Registered Nurse. For that, you’ll need to complete a Bachelor of Nursing. This nationally recognised training takes three (3) years to complete.
Clinical Facilitation Essential Skills and Principles Course
This new course has recently become a mandatory requirement for all Clinical Facilitator roles. Essentially, it provides Registered Nurses with detailed training on the expectations and standards of clinical education. It also includes information on how to complete student logbooks and provide the best learning environment.
This training takes one (1) day to complete.
You’ll find all the information you need about the Clinical Facilitation Essential Skills and Principles Course here.
Recommended additional qualifications
Many people working in Clinical Facilitator roles can benefit from completing a Certificate IV in Training and Assessment. This not only enhances a person’s skills in all aspects of mentoring and guiding students, but can also open up further educational job opportunities, either inside or outside of the healthcare industry.
How to get started as a Clinical Facilitator
Transitioning into a Clinical Facilitator role is not as difficult as you may think, especially for Registered Nurses who already have recent and relevant industry experience. A Registered Nurse already working in healthcare and with the right experience essentially only needs to complete the Clinical Facilitation Essential Skills and Principles Course.
Of course, there are questions that nurses should ask themselves before applying for such roles. A Clinical Facilitator experiences extremely busy periods throughout the year, for example, guiding large groups of nursing students for weeks at a time.
In addition, nurses need to assess whether they have a genuine passion for teaching and mentoring. A Clinical Facilitator’s role is so crucial to shaping the next generation of nurses, that it requires a passion for both healthcare and mentoring.
The recent Government requirement for the Clinical Facilitation Course
Whenever there is a change to the requirements of a role, it’s not uncommon for people to wonder why. As Jesica from Prospero Health and Social explained, the new course is designed to prepare people more thoroughly for Clinical Facilitator roles.
Traditionally, it was up to educational institutions and healthcare facilities to ensure Clinical Facilitators had the skills necessary to do the job. In recognition that there was a quality assurance aspect missing with this approach, the Government introduced a mandatory requirement for facilitators to complete this one-day course.
Overall, the purpose of the training is to ensure Australia has a high standard of nursing education.
How the new training requirement affects the job market
We discussed the new Clinical Facilitator training requirements with Jesica from Prospero to understand whether it has had any impact on the job market. She had only seen positive effects in the early stages of the rollout.
It’s important to note that this training is only a one-day course with online delivery available. While there is a cost involved, it is minimal compared to the amount that a Registered Nurse would have already spent on university training. So, while some facilitators might be deterred by the new requirement, those who are passionate about the role won’t have an issue.
Are there many jobs available for Clinical Facilitators?
It may be an understatement to say that yes, there are plenty of jobs available for Clinical Facilitators. Jesica from Prospero explained that some individual universities can have as many as 700 nursing students all requiring clinical placements at the same time of year. As you can imagine, this means there is a huge amount of demand for qualified, passionate educators.
While this does mean that the role is not often permanent, Clinical Facilitators typically work as Registered Nurses when there are no students requiring placements. However, during those peak periods, demand obviously soars.
The other point Jesica made was that Bachelor of Nursing students and Diploma of Nursing students have placements at different times of the year. For Clinical Facilitators, that means there is usually plenty of work all year round.
How about career advancement as a Clinical Facilitator?
Becoming a Clinical Facilitator can also open some doors to other educational roles. For example, some facilitators who also have educational training may perform other teaching roles. Jesica told us that some even transition into University lecturer roles.
Of course, as Registered Nurses, Clinical Facilitators can also explore a range of other healthcare administration roles, such as Nursing Directors or Care Managers.
Summing up
Clinical Facilitators are a crucial part of the healthcare industry, as they’re responsible for shaping the future generation of nurses. So, if you’re already a Registered Nurse looking for a new challenge and the opportunity to guide the next wave of healthcare professionals, becoming a Clinical Facilitator is an extremely rewarding career move.