ADD-ONS ONLY NATURAL
Complementing skills is improving job prospects and helping employers, writes Lauren Ahwan
ALLIED and natural health practitioners are gaining skills in complementary areas to grow their client base and add diversity to their work.
Natural health workers are leading the charge, combining skills such as personal training with related qualifications in areas such as remedial massage.
While the move to multiskilling is driven largely by clients wanting practitioners to offer a variety of services and treatments, it is also playing a significant part in improving worker satisfaction and retention, Endeavour College remedial massage national program manager Anthony Turri says.
“Upskilling enables a practitioner to provide a more complete package of treatment and preventative health services,’’ Turri says.
“On top of this, it allows a practitioner some variety in the type of clients they attract, which can prevent them feeling stale or bored from doing the same thing every day.”
He says employers appreciate having a multiskilled practitioner for their ability to offer new services and attract new clients.
In areas where the practitioner’s initial skillset requires a high degree of fitness and mobility, such as personal trainers, training in an area that requires less physical activity can also act as insurance in case of an injury.
“Physical burnout is real and can affect any health practitioner,’’ Turri says.
“Financial burnout is also more common among natural health practitioners. Most natural health practitioners do not see anywhere near the volume of clients that a medical or allied health practitioner sees.
“When compared to allied health practitioners – where referrals from GPs are higher, industry bodies are stronger and treatments more common – a natural health practitioner needs to find better ways of attracting and retaining clients … therefore upskilling is even more important.’’ Australian Catholic University allied health head Professor Suzanne Kuys says while allied health workers are expected to become “lifelong learners’’ to keep skills up to date, the high demand for their services means they often do not have time, or the need, to add complementary skillsets to their existing qualifications.
Despite this, it is not uncommon for physiotherapists, in particular, to train in a related area, such as remedial massage or pilates, she says.
“But usually it’s the other way around – people who have trained in (natural health) areas … see value in enhancing their skillset and seek qualifications (within allied health) in order to do that,’’ Kuys says. Robert Lahood, 28, is a qualified personal trainer, remedial massage therapist and dry needling specialist, and director of The Body Therapist. He is also studying the ancient form of cupping, where cups are placed on the skin to create suction, in the belief it will facilitate healing with blood flow. “(The qualifications) work really well together … and it sets you apart (from single-skilled health workers),’’ Lahood says.
“I work (as a remedial massage therapist) at a physiotherapy clinic, where it’s fairly quiet and calm and then I go across the road to (lead training at) the gym where it’s loud and fast – it’s really nice to have both and to swap between the two.’’