Understanding the training need priorities of the Australian allied health workforce: a national survey.

backgroundAllied health professionals (AHPs) are pivotal to delivering safe, effective, and collaborative healthcare. Yet, there is limited empirical insight into their current training need priorities across core domains of professional practice. In an increasingly digital, team-based health system, identifying profession-specific and shared training needs is essential for designing development strategies that retain and grow a future-ready workforce. This study aimed to identify training needs across the Australian AHP workforce and explore whether demographic factors predict perceived gaps between the importance and performance of key professional tasks, both within and across professional groups.

methodsA national cross-sectional survey of AHPs was conducted using the Hennessy Hicks Training Needs Analysis Questionnaire. Participants self-rated 30 core and 10 emerging tasks by perceived importance and current performance. Gap scores (importance minus performance) were analysed and visualised using an importance-performance matrix to highlight priority areas. Descriptive statistics, multiple regression models and multivariate analysis explored whether variation existed between profession and other demographic variables across seven domains of practice.

resultsFrom 2,436 valid responses a consistent pattern emerged: AHPs rated the importance of all tasks higher than their self-reported performance, highlighting statistically meaningful perceived capability gaps. The most pronounced needs were found in leadership/continuous improvement, and digital health domains. Emerging tasks such as managing work-life balance, achieving efficient results and identifying opportunities for quality improvement also ranked highly, reflecting the current landscape of AHP practice. While significant demographic differences including level of experience, highest qualification, profession and rurality were observed across domains, effect sizes were uniformly small, suggesting limited practical significance.

conclusionThis study provides the first national snapshot of AHP training needs and provides evidence that the future of allied health workforce development lies in shifting from siloed, discipline-specific training to capability-building that supports interdisciplinary, digitally enabled healthcare. Interprofessional education models provide an opportunity to address shared training needs in leadership, digital transformation, and system improvement, particularly for early-career professionals and those in remote roles. These findings highlight potential directions for aligning training with the evolving demands of healthcare delivery.