“When we strengthen the roots of learning, we empower a generation to heal the world with knowledge and compassion.”
1. Would you mind telling our readers a little bit about yourself and your professional journey as a Course Coordinator at the School of Allied Health and Human Services, IHNA?
My name is Aleyamma Ninan, and I have been working with HCI Group since 2013. I am a nurse by profession, with a master’s degree in public administration. Before joining HCI Group, I had 12 years of clinical experience and 13 years of academic experience with various roles across different countries in healthcare and education.
Within the very first month of joining IHNA, I was enrolled in the TAE40110 course, which was later updated. By 2018, I had completed a Graduate Certificate in Nursing, CHC33015 and CHC43015 qualifications. To ensure Australian standards in healthcare education, I was sent to Melbourne for a professional experience placement. After acquiring the required qualifications and maintaining VET knowledge and industry currency, I began providing education to IHNA learners. Later, in response to updated training standards, I pursued CHC33021 through the Australian Community and Management College.
Currently, I serve as a Course Coordinator, as well as a Trainer and Assessor. My responsibilities included coordinating and conducting online lectures, simulation-based training and assessments, and evaluating professional experience placements, ensuring that learners develop both knowledge and practical competence. In line with organizational policy, I consistently maintain continuing professional development and industry currency, so that my learners receive the most updated and relevant education. My experience in different countries was an added advantage for me to explain to learners from different perspectives, especially clinical aspects.
Learners were supported with individualized learning assistance when required, and our well-established simulation lab helped them build confidence and clinical skills before entering professional experience placements.
We also ensured that clinical placement supervisors are aligned with Australian healthcare standards by conducting workshops, both face-to-face and virtual, led by Australian healthcare professionals. Our organization supported this further, by enrolling clinical staff in Australian short courses, like ALIS courses. Structured clinical visits by academic staff, along with regular communication with learners and clinical supervisors, and taking reflective feedback, promoted effective learning and skill development of our learners.
My effort was to strengthen the roots and stem of our learning trees, so that they may grow strong and be fruitful for the healthcare industry with a passion of caring.
2. What motivated you to become a healthcare educator, and what impact has your professional journey had on your approach to teaching and learning?
I desired to be a teacher since I was in the 10th standard. God supported me to fulfil my aim by giving me chances to teach nursing for diploma and degree nursing courses after BSc Nursing qualification and having adequate clinical practice. To improve my roles and responsibilities, I pursued master’s in public administration and a PG diploma in Hospital Administration. I worked as a nursing tutor and Vice Principal for diploma nursing and as a Nursing Lecturer in Nursing colleges in India and in a multicultural environment at a Malaysian University. After coming back to India, my nursing academic and clinical reflection were the strength to join as health care educator for HCI.
3. How have your experiences working with students and healthcare professionals in allied health and human services influenced your understanding of what it takes for healthcare professionals to thrive in the healthcare workforce?
Our allied health and human services learners are from different age groups and different qualifications and work experiences. Therefore, healthcare professionals should strive to support learners based on their level of understanding or working environment. My clinical experience with different kinds of clients with multiple disorders, including geriatric cases and critical conditions helped me to explain with confidence. The trainers need to realise that the attitude of students towards health care will vary in one class as the learners will be from plus 2 to post graduate and the age group may be from 18 to more than 55 years. The academic team should be skilled to respond accordingly. Therefore, it will be an academic team to participate in related workshops and practices.
HCI’s support for me to add required VET and TAE qualifications, continued professional development encouragement plus my previous academic experience in handling learners from different age groups with work experiences were the truth behind my working without student complaints.
4. How is healthcare delivery changing, and what impact is it having on the healthcare workforce?
With the ever-changing health care and digital advancement, health care education also should be aligned for digitally transformed clinical practices. The academic and clinical team is also required to be competent in providing digitally associated clinical knowledge and skills.
5. How can healthcare education programs better support students and healthcare professionals in working collaboratively as part of an interdisciplinary healthcare team?
The academic leadership aims to provide integrated training with collaboration of available health professionals of different courses and skill practices of learners from different courses together could add multidisciplinary skills in managing care needs.
6. With the increasing use of digital health technologies and healthcare delivery, what digital health competencies should healthcare students and professionals need to acquire to remain effective and competent healthcare professionals?
Digital literacy has become an essential competency for healthcare graduates, enabling them to function effectively in technology-driven healthcare environments. Training on digital communication, technology assisted training and practices such as metiman simulator could effectively support specific clinical practices required.
Therefore, the core capabilities required for future health care workers may include:
- Electronic health records (EHR) navigation.
- E-health and virtual care delivery.
- Data literacy and interpretation.
- Artificial intelligence–assisted clinical decisionmaking.
- Cybersecurity awareness and digital ethics.
7. From your perspective as a course coordinator, what is one of the best ways healthcare education programs can integrate digital health technologies, such as telehealth, data-driven decision-making, and electronic health records, into healthcare education programs?
Technology assisted health care delivery and management is a skill required in the workplace and sometimes AI-driven solutions may have to be added based on job roles. By embedding these competencies into curricula, institutions can equip future professionals to deliver client-centred, technologically advanced health care. The clinical posting places of learners to be digitally advanced, such as following -e-health records, digital communication, AI-assisted clinical decision and training on e-health training, may assist in providing high-quality care in the rapidly changing health care scenario.
8. How can healthcare educators and healthcare programs incorporate sustainable healthcare practices and environmentally responsible healthcare delivery into healthcare programs?
Healthcare systems contribute significantly to global carbon emissions. Future healthcare professionals must therefore understand sustainable healthcare practices such as resourceefficient care delivery, waste reduction, and climateresponsive health policies. The transformative training and practice will be required for academic teams.
The health care academic team needs to be equipped with competencies to lead transformative learning to enable future generations of health care work force to achieve sustainable health for all.
9. Can you give me any specific teaching and learning strategies where you have seen a significant impact of teaching and learning on student preparedness for healthcare delivery?
Based on the experience at HCI, I would like to suggest keeping a separate group for learners requiring more support and they could be provided with more attention. This can be identified from PTR and from one or two weeks of interaction by admin and/or academic staff. They should be assigned to a dedicated academic staff who can identify the learning difficulties and do adjustments and provide assistance, including empowerment, in an individualised way. It could reduce withdrawal and termination at the last and good morale of the organisation can also be maintained.
10. What are some of the key healthcare education and workforce training reforms and innovations you see as essential for healthcare students and professionals to become effective and competent healthcare professionals of the future?
Suggestions or Innovations Required
- Competency-based curriculum and AI integration are reshaping the curriculum and improving student outcomes.
- Current theory assessment (KBA) is to be a formative assessment.
- Simulation-based training should have more hrs.
- Summative theory assessment and chosen simulation-based assessment (SBA) should be after Professional Experience Placement (PEP) and it can be as an OSCE-type assessment.
- Collaborative training of different health care programs
- To bring interprofessional collaboration, digital competence, and sustainability into healthcare education
- Regular workshops and training for academic teams.
- The course coordinators /manager of each course should be responsible for quality resources and training and teaching staff should be having clinical and academic experience for the related course.
- Regular meetings with managers and updates should be shared with the team.
- The staff may be given training to provide training with passion to fulfil caring with passion.
- It will be good that the educators or trainers, especially international staff to complete a module as given in AceLMS
– OAC101-AUS before starting to teach:
- Introduction to Quality and Safety Standards
- Legislation, Policies, and Procedures
- National Safety and Quality Health Service Standards
- Code of Conduct & Restrictive Practices
- Duty of Care and Dignity of Risk
- Mandatory reporting
- Privacy and Confidentiality
- Quality standard hub etc.