Application

This unit describes the performance outcomes, skills and knowledge required to work under the direct supervision and instruction of medical or other health practitioners to assist with health assessments. It requires the ability to assist practitioners to collect client information, provide clients with information during and after assessments and to provide basic assistance with examinations and tests.
This unit is specific to Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander people working as health workers. They work as part of a multidisciplinary primary health care team to provide primary health care services to Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander clients.
This unit is particularly relevant to the role that these health workers have in assisting with cyclical general assessments of the health and wellbeing of Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander people. In this context, a general medical practitioner is responsible for the assessment and the health worker facilitates communications and cultural safety for the client. Circumstances may involve clients and medical practitioners who have different first languages, have different cultural backgrounds or may be of different genders.
The skills in this unit must be applied in accordance with Commonwealth and State or Territory legislation, Australian standards and industry codes of practice.
No regulatory requirement for certification, occupational or business licensing is linked to this unit at the time of publication.

What You'll Learn

Assessment Requirements

Performance Evidence

Evidence of the ability to complete tasks outlined in elements and performance criteria of this unit in the context of the job role, and:
• discuss and confirm the health assessment requirements of three different Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander clients with the attending health practitioner
• for each of the three clients:
• assist with culturally safe communications throughout all client interactions
• assist with the collection of information about their medical and social history and presenting problems
• assist with head to toe physical examinations
• assist with social and emotional wellbeing discussions and assessments
• discuss assessment outcomes with the practitioner
• assist with delivery of information about assessment outcomes and advice for medical treatments and other interventions
• across the three client assessments collectively, assist the practitioner to:
• set up and handle a total of four different types of health assessment equipment
• collect a total of two samples for tests
• explain one assessment tool designed to evaluate emotional wellbeing.

Knowledge Evidence

Demonstrated knowledge required to complete the tasks outlined in elements and performance criteria of this unit:
• organisational policies and procedures for:
• maintaining client confidentiality
• obtaining informed consent for health assessments, examinations and tests
• organisational responsibilities and role boundaries of those involved in health assessments:
• Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander health workers and practitioners
• medical practitioners, registered nurses and other members of the multidisciplinary care team
• techniques used to assist parties to communicate:
• discussing issues in a logical sequence with an opening and concluding discussion
• recognising factors that affect communications including cultural differences, age, gender and level of language ability
• using appropriate plain language, technical terminology and sentence structure to ask questions and convey information suited to needs including rephrasing statements and questions
• asking for clarification
• using verbal and non-verbal responses
• key information collected and recorded in medical histories
• key elements of physical examinations and tests completed during cyclical general health assessments and:
• types of equipment used, sufficient to recognise and assist to set up and handle
• different types of infection control precautions and when these would be used for different types of physical examinations and tests
• key features of assessment tools used to evaluate emotional wellbeing and how these contribute to an overall assessment
• structure and overall functions of the major body systems:
• circulatory system
• digestive system
• endocrine system
• immune system
• integumentary system
• musculoskeletal system
• nervous system
• reproductive system for females and males
• respiratory system
• urinary system
• basic health terminology, abbreviations and plain language usage that relates to:
• common pathology tests and medical scans
• common short term and uncomplicated infections (those that would generally respond to a course of treatment or ongoing self-care)
• chronic and communicable diseases of high incidence in Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander populations:
• cardiovascular disease
• chronic respiratory disease, including asthma and obstructive lung disease
• chronic kidney disease
• chronic liver disease
• cancer
• diabetes
• musculoskeletal conditions, including arthritis
• eye, ear and oral disease
• sexually transmitted infections (STIs)
• blood borne viruses including HIV, hepatitis A, hepatitis B and hepatitis C
• communicable diseases of current significance in the local state, territory or local community
• overview of health care plans sufficient to explain to clients:
• why a plan is required; including need to manage ongoing health conditions and need to make lifestyle changes
• how plans are developed in consultation with clients to suit their circumstances and needs
• components of plans including clinical treatment, self-care strategies and management of lifestyle risk factors.

Assessment Conditions

Skills must be demonstrated in a health service workplace within a multidisciplinary primary health care team.
Evidence of performance must be gathered:
• during on-the-job assessments in the workplace under live conditions while interacting with Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander people, or
• during off-the-job assessments in the workplace, not under live conditions, using simulated activities while interacting with Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander people.
Evidence of workplace performance can be gathered and reported through third party report processes. (Refer to the Companion Volume Implementation Guide for information on third party reporting.)
Evidence can be supplemented by assessments in a simulated workplace environment using simulated activities, scenarios or case studies only when:
• the full range of situations covered by the unit cannot be provided in the individual’s workplace, or
• situations covered by the unit occur only rarely in the individual’s workplace.
Assessment must ensure the use of:
• personal protective equipment for infection control
• medical equipment and consumables used for health assessments
• clinical waste and sharps disposal bins
• assessment tools used to evaluate emotional wellbeing
• template forms or reports for documenting client histories, assessment details and results
• organisational policies and procedures for:
• maintaining client confidentiality
• obtaining informed consent for health assessments, examinations and tests.
Assessors must satisfy the Standards for Registered Training Organisations requirements for assessors, and:
• be an Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander person who has applied the skills and knowledge covered in this unit of competency through experience working as an Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander health worker or practitioner, or
• be a registered health practitioner with experience relevant to this unit of competency and be accompanied by, or have assessments validated by, an Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander person.

Foundation Skills

• {'skill': 'Reading skills to:', 'description': 'interpret detailed and sometimes unfamiliar client records, involving medical terminology and abbreviations.'}
• {'skill': 'Numeracy skills to:', 'description': 'interpret and explain to clients numerical values of assessment outcomes, involving weights, lengths, rates, degrees and percentages.'}
• {'skill': 'Problem-solving skills to:', 'description': 'recognise miscommunications and take steps to resolve.'}
• {'skill': 'Technology skills to:', 'description': 'recognise and assist with setting up and handling medical equipment used for physical examinations and tests.'}

Related Units

• HLTENN067 — Apply, implement and monitor nursing care in a contemporary paediatric setting
  Same training package
• HLTPOP012 — Contribute to testing of results of community water supply
  Same training package
• HLTOTH003 — Remove casts
  Same training package
• HLTDET012 — Construct orthodontic appliances
  Same training package
• HLTOTH001 — Apply casts
  Same training package
• HLTDEN022 — Prepare to expose a prescribed dental radiographic image
  Same training package