Number of Health Practitioners in Specialist Palliative Care Workforce, per 100,000 Population
Identifying Attributes
Care Settings
Country
Publishing Organisation
Type of Quality Indicator
IOM Quality Dimension
Domain
Defining Attributes
Definition
This measure aims to assess the rate of practitioners in the specialist palliative care workforce as a proxy measure for equitable and accessible specialist palliative care. The desired outcome is an increase in the number of specialist palliative care practitioners per 100,000 population. The computation is: (Numerator ÷ Denominator) x 100,000.
Limitations: this is a proxy measure, as it does not directly measure if more people in need of palliative care are receiving it. Instead, it measures the output that aims to improve the desired outcome of equitable palliative care. Ensuring a sufficient palliative care workforce is necessary to ensuring that the needs of those requiring specialist palliative care are met. A further limitation is that this measure only considers the specialist palliative care workforce. It will not measure changes in the non-specialist palliative care workforce that play a crucial and significant role in palliative care delivery in Australia.
Numerator
Number of full-time equivalent (FTE) employed palliative medicine physicians and palliative care nurses in the reference year.
Denominator
Number of people in the Australian Estimated Resident Population in the reference year.
Exclusions
Nurse practitioners whose principal job area is palliative care cannot be identified from the National Health Workforce Dataset and so are not included in this measure.
Use of Risk Adjustment
Risk Adjustments
Stratifications
Yes. Disaggregation by: Practitioner (physician, nurse), State/territory, Remoteness area, Work setting.
Data Attributes
Type of Data Collection
Data Collection Methods
National Health Workforce Dataset. Data from the Australian Health Practitioner Agency (APHRA) together with data from a workforce survey that is voluntarily completed at the time of registration, forms the National Health Workforce Dataset (NHWDS). Data in the NHWDS is used to provide nationally consistent workforce estimates. It provides information on demographic and employment information for registered health professionals in the following professions: Nurse, Midwife, Chiropractor, Dental practitioner, Medical practitioner, Osteopath, Pharmacist, Physiotherapist, Podiatrist, Occupational therapist, Medical radiation practitioner, Chinese medicine practitioner and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health practitioner. However, only physicians and nurses specialising in palliative care can currently be identified as palliative care providers using the Department of Health and Aged Care's Health Workforce Data Tool (HWDT).
Frequency of Data Collection
Frequency of Data Collection in Days
Reporting Methods
Public reporting.
Reporting Frequency
Reporting Frequency in Days
Indicator Has Recommended Targets
Source and Reference Attributes
Evidence Source
Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW). Development of the National Palliative Care Measures. Canberra (AU): AIHW; 2024. Available from: www.aihw.gov.au/getmedia/0ecbb5b1-4f83-4706-85ef-b0852318b7df/aihw-hse254-development-of-the-national-palliative-care-measures.pdf. Accessed 04 September 2024.