Speaker The producers of this podcast recognise the traditional owners of the land on which it is recorded, and pay their respects to Aboriginal Elders past, present and emerging. You’re listening to Allied Health Podcast, talking all things Allied Health with your hosts, Danielle Weedon, physiotherapist, and Clare Jones, occupational therapist.

Clare Jones Hello and welcome to the very first series of Allied Health Podcast. I’m Clare Jones and I’m here with Danielle Weedon. Hi, Dan.

Danielle Weedon Hi, everyone.

Clare Jones And we’re so excited to launch this podcast series, Allied Health Podcast. So Danielle, do you want to give everyone an overview of what Allied Health Podcast is all about?

Danielle Weedon Yep, absolutely. So Allied Health Podcast will explore all things Allied Health, but to start with, our first series is dedicated to new graduate and early career therapists who are entering the professional workforce for the very first time and who are looking to navigate a career pathway in health. So this series will explore the entire process of securing your very first role as a professional, from things like pinpointing which roles are right for you, presenting yourself in interview, CV and cover letter tips and things like dissecting a contract. And we’ve also interviewed and we’ll hear from some recent graduates who share their stories of getting that first job transition to practice and some of the challenges as a graduate that they’ve experienced and where they’re at now. So before we kick off, Clare, would you like to share a little bit more about who we are?

Clare Jones Yeah. So Danielle and I are co-directors of MediRecruit. MediRecruit’s a specialist allied health recruitment service that explores opportunities throughout Australia and New Zealand and the UK. But I’d like to emphasise that MediRecruit provides so much more than just a recruitment service. Danielle and I are allied health professionals ourselves, and we’re passionate about guiding and supporting health professionals throughout their entire career. So I am an OT by background. I graduated from the University of Queensland in the late 90s and spent my grad year and an additional year working in an adult acute rotational role at Royal Brisbane Hospital. I then headed overseas for a stint working locum jobs in Dublin and London, which was an absolute blast. Returning home, I decided to move into paediatrics part time so that we could work on an idea to create a specialist allied health recruitment company and thus MediRecruit was born. So Dan, what’s your story?

Danielle Weedon Yeah, so my story follows a similar pathway, really, from health to health care recruitment. I am a physiotherapist by background, and I graduated from the University of Melbourne in 1999. I completed a grade year working at the Royal Melbourne Hospital, and I pretty quickly then headed to the UK to work as a locum physio. I’d planned to head there and work for about six months, but I ended up staying for six years. So while working in the UK allowed me obviously lots of fun and travel opportunities, I also was lucky to gain some clinical experience in a variety of settings, and I worked across community therapy and neurological rehab. So moving into allied health recruitment in the UK was a bit of a leap of faith for me, but it was fun and it was a challenge. And I spent the next four years helping Aussie and New Zealand therapists to find locum positions throughout the UK and Northern Ireland. Clare and I worked in Allied Health recruitment for over 20 years now and we have never seen demand for health professionals as high as it is at the moment, and no sign of it settling anytime soon. Would you agree with that, Clare?

Clare Jones Yeah, for sure. The demand, the demand is so high and it’s largely a result of the introduction of the NDIS in combination with our ageing population, and I agree I can’t see that demand settling anytime soon.

Danielle Weedon No, and really in the past, the demand for graduate roles traditionally sat in clinical settings such as hospitals and private practice, but there is now a hugely diverse range of career options for grads out there in sectors such as, as I’ve mentioned, NDIS and aged care. But there’s opportunities in injury management and occupational rehab, health care device sales and in areas such as equipment provision and assistive technology. And of course, while it’s been a little quiet of late for obvious reasons, there’s still a huge demand for Australian and New Zealand trained health professionals to work in locum and permanent roles throughout the UK. So it’s been really great to introduce ourselves and Clare. Do you want to run through what to be expected in episode two?

Clare Jones Sure! So coming up next in episode two, we’re going to explore how to determine which roles are right for you. And we’re going to give you the top 10 tips, or our top 10 tips, to consider in a grad and early career role. So, you know, as you said, there’s a huge variety of job opportunities now on offer. So it’s really important that the first step in the recruitment process is you taking the time to determine which roles are right for you. And this is not just about area of practice.

Danielle Weedon No, not at all. Area of clinical practice is definitely very important, but of equal importance are the things to consider; things like the level of supervision that’s on offer in a role, are you required to work to billable hours, professional development on offer and factors like – will you be working autonomously or will you be onsite at a hospital or in private practice with the team? So these are also really important features of a new great experience that can really make or break your first year in professional practice.

Clare Jones There’s just so much to weigh up with that, especially for that very first role. And if you haven’t already done so, please subscribe to the series. Thank you.

Speaker We hope you enjoyed listening to the Allied Health podcast. In the show’s notes, you’ll find links to our free recruitment resources, job opportunities and health care marketplace insights. To listen to new episodes, please subscribe via Apple, Google or wherever you find your favourite podcasts, and if you’ve enjoyed the show, please give it a five star rating and review. And be sure to tell your therapy colleagues and friends to tune in.