Health Disciplines Practice and Education
Health disciplines clinicians represent a broad group of health care professionals who work with patients and their families in collaboration with physicians and nurses. Health disciplines clinicians have formal education, training and a variety of specialized skills in preventing, diagnosing and/or treating a range of conditions and illnesses.
Working mostly in interprofessional teams, health disciplines apply scientific principles and evidence-based practice in order to optimize patient/client outcomes. Some health disciplines clinicians are self-regulated health professionals whose practice is governed by the Regulated Health Professions Act (Ontario, 1991) and have licensing and regulatory mechanisms in place.
- Addictions Counselor
- Anaesthesia Assistant
- Audiologist
- Cardiac Device Technologist
- Clinical Cardiovascular Perfusionist
- Cardiovascular Technician
- Child and Youth Worker
- Chiropodist
- Chiropractor
- Clinical Ethicist
- Community Support Workers
- Dietitian
- Dietetic Assistant
- ECG Technician
- Genetic Counsellor
- Indigenous Wellness Specialist
- Lactation Consultant
- Medical Laboratory Technologist and Technician
- Medical Radiation Technologist
- Neurophysiology/EEG/EMG Technologist and Technician
- Occupational Therapist
- Ophthalmic Technician
- Orthopaedic Technologist and Technician
- Outreach Worker
- Pharmacist
- Pharmacy Technician
- Physician Assistant
- Physiotherapist
- Polysomnographic Technician
- Psychologist
- Recreation Therapist
- Rehabilitation Assistant
- Respiratory Therapist (includes Pulmonary Function Lab)
- rTMS Technician
- Social Worker
- Sonographer
- Speech-Language Pathologist
- Spiritual Care Practitioner
At Unity Health Toronto, there are an abundance of opportunities for growth. The following are encouraged opportunities for health disciplines professional development:
- Attend a lecture, journal club, team rounds, conference, college, association, special interest, patient based, education or research meeting.
- Present at team rounds, a lecture for your team or students, internally, externally or at affiliated academic institutions.
- Participate in practice councils, working groups, program and department meetings, professional organizations, practice based or quality related research, internal or external committee work.
- Engage with hospital, college or professional organizations’ initiatives. Pursue additional training by completing coursework, classes, upgrading skills and professional licensing.
- Challenge and change your practice based on new best practices, data collection and outcome measures.
- Discuss an interesting case, an article, learnings from a course or conference, integrating new best practices into your work, societal or political trends with your colleagues.
- Develop innovative strategies to alter practice, a mentorship relationship with a seasoned professional, a new protocol reflecting best practices.
- Shadow a colleague (internal or external) and integrate best practices into your work, a member of your team and look for synergies in practice.
- Follow and engage with professional organizations, regulatory bodies, academic institutions, and government regarding challenges in practice.
- Leverage social media platforms to stay abreast current trends and engage with experts; follow relevant Twitter hashtags, YouTube channels, and/or experts on Facebook.
- Teach colleagues, students, members of the public about your role, clinical practice and research.
The Health Disciplines Practice and Education team supports clinical and collaborative practice by engaging in work focused in the following four domains:
Best Practice and Trends
- Consulting on day-to-day practices including regulatory implications and scope of practice
- Identifying and supporting the embedding of evidence-based practices into clinical care
- Developing strong stakeholder relations with partners (internal and external) to continue to implement, improve and evaluate the impact of evidence-integrated at point-of-care
- Supporting and role modeling effective professional relationships (professional specific and interprofessional)
Education
Promoting a culture of continuous learning in collaboration with key internal and external stakeholders through targeted activities
- Providing oversight and leadership to the Health Disciplines Education Council and the Nurse Educator Network
- Overseeing the development, coordination and management of all affiliation agreements with Unity Health Toronto’s academic partners
- Developing quality improvement strategies and initiatives to improve the delivery of educational programming across the health disciplines and nursing
Performance
- Conducting Competency assessment and development •Supporting Conflict Resolution through coaching and mentorship
- Conducting practice reviews and making discipline specific recommendations
- Contributing to the development of tools and processes that guide specific competencies and skills that link day-to-day practice and performance reviews
- Supporting conflict resolution through coaching and mentorship
- Conducting practice reviews and making discipline specific recommendations
- Contributing to the development of tools and processes that guide specific competencies and skills that link day-to-day practice and performance reviews
Professional Standards
- Conducting regulatory and practice inquiries and maintaining an ongoing awareness of regulatory changes that impact the profession and practice
- Leading practice councils and relevant committees/work groups
- Developing strong stakeholder relations with partners (internal and external) to continue to support the implementation and evaluation of practice changes in relation to positive patient outcomes
Last updated February 05, 2024