Rosie Armstrong decided on Tasmania for her first career steps, mostly due to the new Allied Health Graduate Program that is now offered through Hospitals South.

“The allied health graduate program was something that wasn’t happening at other hospitals and I was like ‘that is really cool!’

The Allied Health Graduate Program is structured across the first two years of a graduate’s career, and is focused on professional growth, collaborative working across disciplines, and building a strong understanding of the organisational structure and priorities. 

Currently, 12 graduates are taking part with seven more expected to join in the second half of this year. Graduates come from a range of disciplines, with leadership of the program coming from across Allied Health Services. 

Rosie’s love of helping people is what made her choose Occupational Therapy as her career of choice. 

“I decided to become an Occupational Therapist because there’s practical problem solving which I like doing, I really like working with people and it’s really great to help people with everyday solutions.”

Reflecting on the graduate program, Rosie recognised the collaboration and networking within the graduate Allied Health group as helpful to her day-to-day clinical work. 

“When you’re in allied health, it is really important to know what everyone else does and especially for Occupational Therapists, not everyone knows what we do and so having that opportunity to be in a group and know people so that when you turn up to a ward, you know someone’s face,” she said. 

Aidan Kelly also moved to Tasmania from Melbourne to begin is career in prosthetics and orthotics – labelling the graduate program initiative as a ‘confidence building program.’ 

“I feel quite familiar with the people in the sessions already which is a really good aspect of it – that makes me feel a lot more comfortable to ask questions or figure things out face-to-face.”

“The orthotics side of what I do is any kind of device that is external and helps a person regain their mobility or function prosthetics is more replacing a missing limb that has been amputated or if they were born without a limb,” he said. 

Clare Ramsden, Executive Director of Allied Health Services, said that the program really helps those new to the state and the Department of Health build relationships and networks, gain a good understanding of the health system and share the joys of living in beautiful Tasmania. 

“We know that Allied Health graduates are highly trained and have excellent clinical skills to begin their career. We also know that your first clinical job can be very challenging as you step from the supported student environment to a more independent early career clinician role. 

“We wanted to provide greater support for that transition, with stronger connections between allied health disciplines as well as with our nursing and medical colleagues, and to grow a robust, skilled allied health workforce for Tasmania.

“Allied Health represent a large and essential part of the health workforce. Almost every admission to hospital involves Allied Health professionals, from management of medication, imaging and medical laboratory tests to the assessment and diagnosis of a condition, providing treatment and rehabilitation and then planning and preparing for discharge and ongoing outpatient appointments,” she said.