PMAANZ leads charge to upskill practice managers and protect careers

The Practice Managers and Administrators Association of New Zealand will introduce formal qualifications from early next year to shore up the career prospects of practice managers.

Three-year diplomas will be on offer when several professional development courses become available, PMAANZ education portfolio manager and chair Michelle Te Kira says.

The move comes as practice managers, especially ones with years of experience but no managerial tertiary qualifications, face being structured out when their practice gets absorbed by another practice or a corporate, Ms Te Kira says.

She says PMAANZ is basing its education and training approach on the experience and activities of its much larger and established counterpart, the Australian Association of Practice Management.

PMAANZ is in final talks with Australian vocational training organisation UNE Partnerships to design and provide extramural qualifications in New Zealand.

At one end, a three-year diploma in practice management aimed at experienced but unqualified practice managers will be offered.

Whereas, at the other end, new practice managers will be able to take foundation courses inducting them into the health sector, Ms Te Kira says.

At last month’s PMAANZ 2019 conference in Hamilton attended by about 400 delegates and exhibitors, Ms Te Kira was "amazed" by the number of administrators present who were new to the health sector.

The mostly younger new recruits were full of questions about aspects of general practice they had yet to have any training in, she says.

Continuing professional development modules sitting between the diploma and foundation course will cater for administration staff who are at different stages of their career development.

Courses for healthcare assistants are also being developed.

PMAANZ is asking UNE to "Kiwify" its Australian educational templates; it is requiring tino rangatiratanga principles and Māori cultural competency to be part of the syllabus.

Course costings are still being determined. Once UNE’s courses are running, PMAANZ is aiming for them to get NZQA accreditation to boost their credibility and make student loans available.

Although some practices pay for their administrators to upskill, UNE will also offer scholarships helping often cash-strapped practice-management staff to access training and qualifications, Ms Te Kira says.

PMAANZ’s move also fills a gap left by tertiary provider NorthTec’s discontinuation of its NZQA Level 5 NZIM Diploma in Practice Management (Health) in July, she says.

PMAANZ, which has been heavily involved with the RNZCGP’s Cornerstone practice quality improvement and accreditation programme, wants PMAANZ-endorsed practice management qualifications incorporated into Cornerstone.

Administrators are an integral part of delivering excellence in healthcare, and making administrative training a requirement of Cornerstone certification will only boost a practice’s professional and client standing, Ms Te Kira says.

Guiding PMAANZ further into professional development has been a "labour of love" for volunteer Ms Te Kira, but changing realities mean it’s inevitable the association will "professionalise" itself.

PMAANZ will require paid, full-time staff to manage the growing workload and costs, which will likely filter down to membership fees, Ms Te Kira says.