Aged care training site to be based at Port Lincoln aged care facility
FUTURE: Federal government, UniSA and Matthew Flinders Home representatives celebrate the training site announcement. Pictured are (back): Hannah Wright, Damian McQuillan, Rowan Ramsey, Lisa Porter, Paul Havelberg; (front): Kate Logan, Nikki Meredith and Tahlia Eichler. Photo: supplied
The future of aged care on the Eyre Peninsula has been given a boost thanks to federal funding to provide a training site at a Port Lincoln aged care facility.
Federal Member for Grey Rowan Ramsey announced on February 21 the government is providing nearly $3.7 million to the University of South Australia to create a training site, based at Matthew Flinders Home in Port Lincoln.
The training site will include a simulated resident's room, clinical skills training laboratory, video/telehealth conferencing facilities and areas for student mentoring, tutorials and office space.
Mr Ramsey said this announcement was a "win-win" for local health students and the increasing elderly population in the area.
He said as well as nursing the project would support students in areas including physiotherapy, speech pathology and podiatry, as well as the likely expansion into areas including dietetics, exercise physiology and social work.
"Each year, the demonstration project will give dozens of students in nursing and other health professions the opportunity to study under supervision in residential and community aged care in Port Lincoln," he said.
Matthew Flinders Home chief executive officer Nikki Meredith welcomed the announcement and said the purpose built facility would further help the development of nursing and allied health services in aged care for more positive health outcomes for care recipients and the ageing community.
"The expansion of the Rural Health Multidisciplinary program, to enable local development of a range of nursing and allied health placement opportunities, would allow the introduction of a program of structured student activity to teach best practice in aged care, funded on an ongoing basis," she said.
"It will improve the range and quality of workplace learning experiences available to both students and staff, therefore providing long term benefits to current and future health workforce, to our organisation and to the wider aging community in the region."
The project will start initially with 52 weeks of student placements in 2022 and will build to 288 weeks and 48 students from 2024 and beyond.
Port LIncoln Times February 25 2022
