In 1995 QLD Health responded to the physical and cultural demands of the health worker field by investing in the development of an audiographic conferencing network to service Health Centres in remote location across the Cape and Torres Strait Islands.

Audiographic slides (click thumbnail to see larger size)

Computer specialists from QLD Health traveled to over 40 remote health centres over an 800 square kilometre region to install software and train staff. The North QLD Rural Health Training Unit developed a range of audiographic conferencing programs for health workers including the Health Worker Orientation, Diabetes and Women’s Health courses.

The purposes and social contexts of the program

As the development of health worker training programs began, it became evident that the literacy and numeracy needs of many health workers needed to be addressed if there was potential to achieve meaningful health training outcomes. A literacy program was needed to create a bridge for indigenous health workers between the medical and traditional indigenous worlds. In consultation with the North QLD Rural Health Training Unit, the Workplace Communication at the Tropical North QLD Institute of TAFE began to explore models and frameworks for a literacy and numeracy project that would support success in health worker training programs. The program needed to integrate to a number of key literacy and numeracy indicators in order to offer best practice in literacy training. As detailed in the NRS, competencies needed to be developed in reading, writing, oral, learning strategies and numeracy.

In 1995 Training Services QLD funded 7 audiographic conferencing literacy delivery programs to a range of remote locations in North QLD. Extensive consultation was undertaken with key stakeholders in the field. These stakeholders included:

• The North QLD Rural Health Training Unit

• The Aboriginal Health Workers Education Program

• Indigenous health and community representatives

The challenge for the Workplace Communication Unit was to develop and deliver a product that met the needs of a complex range of stakeholders in the sector that included federal and state government health employees, health workers and range of indigenous community representatives. As well as meeting the needs of these stakeholders, the WCU needed to develop a process and product that met the social and workplace contexts, had sound assessment principles, appropriately targeted literacy, language and numeracy strategies and conditions of performance. Level 2 of the NRS has been referenced as a tool for mapping these processes and the integration of the reading, writing, oral, numeracy and learning strategy performance indicators.