Credentials for NSW Health staff are standardised across the state. While no further credentials are required to deliver virtual care, there are many options for health staff to improve their knowledge and capability to deliver care virtually.
Regardless of the way care is delivered, all health providers must be registered in Australia and medical providers must be credentialed. The Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency (AHPRA) is responsible for the implementation of the National Registration and Accreditation Scheme across Australia.
NSW Health employees maintain clinical registration as a condition of their employment and only provide healthcare within their clinical scope of practice. Additional credentialing is not required to provide virtual care.
NSW local health districts (LHDs) and specialty health networks (SHNs) must ensure all clinicians provide services within their scope of practice − education, training and skills − and within the capacity of the specific health facility.
Delivering care across boundaries and services
It is common for medical staff to work across health district boundaries. The credentialing process is standardised across NSW Health, which supports the provision of healthcare across organisations and facilities that may be provided via virtual care.
This is informed by the Credentialing and delineating clinical privileges for senior medical practitioners and senior dentists policy directive (PD 2019 _011).
When delivering care outside NSW Health boundaries, it is expected that a service level agreement (SLA) or a memorandum of understanding (MOU) is in place that outlines comprehensive details of the service. This would include, but not limited to, outlining the clinical governance processes; clinical documentation; corporate and clinical escalation pathways; reporting expectations; costs and technology interoperability expectations.
For more details on your local agreements, contact your virtual care manager or lead or other relevant contact, such as the general manager of your local facility.
Upskill to deliver care virtually
Virtual care training for healthcare providers involves more than the use of the technology. There are many guidelines, resources and training programs available. Contact your virtual care manager or lead as the first point of contact. They will be able to provide training and identify other specific training that may be required.
Healthcare providers and administrative staff should:
- have access to guidelines and experts to support building their knowledge and confidence to implement virtual care, safely and effectively
- be confident and understand when a consultation via virtual care is appropriate
- be able to adapt clinical workflows to support sustainable and effective healthcare services
- be supported to identify clinical requirements and be involved in determining clinically appropriate technology and tools
- access training to develop skills in virtual communication, e.g. engagement, recognising visual cues, interpreting consumer descriptions, having difficult conversations and demonstrating good etiquette
- demonstrate cultural competence and sensitivity to diverse backgrounds and perspectives in a virtual environment
- understand the importance of privacy and security when developing and providing services
- be able to communicate key messages and access resources to support communication with colleagues, consumers and their carers about the appropriateness, benefits and challenges of virtual care.
Upskill to enhance technical competence
Healthcare providers and administrative staff should:
- access training and be a confident user of the virtual care platforms used in service delivery
- access and use resources to support knowledge of platforms, e.g. user guides
- stay up to date with product upgrades or new platform features
- be able to set up and demonstrate basic technical equipment
- have a basic understanding of how to troubleshoot common technical issues
- know how to report technical issues
- be able to implement a secondary plan if technical issues arise before, or during, clinical consultations.
Learn more about the training and education options available.