Connecting Gladstone to Grow its Future Workforce

​Health Workforce Queensland continues increasing its Health Workforce Connector numbers following a commitment from the Queensland Government to fund a Health Workforce Connector position in Gladstone for an initial 12 months.

The Connector role is one of a range of recommendations from the Gladstone Health Plan 2022-2032 currently being implemented by the Gladstone Health Workforce Collaborative to support the development of a health workforce pipeline in the region.

With the recruitment process now underway the future Gladstone Health Workforce Connector will focus on creating a structured pathway for students to commence employment in Gladstone as early career graduates. Initially this will begin by facilitating clinical placement and employment opportunities in Gladstone for university students by working directly with primary health care settings, universities and community organisations. Importantly, the Connector will also act as a community concierge, supporting the professional and personal needs of students, early career graduates, interns, registrars, and new-to the-area health professionals with the intention of facilitating their integration into the community, thereby contributing to the retention of the Gladstone health workforce.

As part of Health Workforce Queensland’s commitment to building health workforce capacity in regional, rural and remote Queensland at the grassroots level we have also established a local Connector on the Tablelands in North Queensland and are currently recruiting for a Connector to commence in South West Queensland. Both the NQ and SWQ Connector positions are linked to our flagship workforce solution program, GROW Rural which sees cohorts of multidisciplinary health students practice interprofessional collaboration while being immersed in specific rural communities to learn from local health professionals and become part of community life.

Recruiting locally allows each Connector to draw upon their local knowledge and expertise to navigate the social, economic and political characteristics of their communities while contributing to sustaining primary health care facilities and community health outcomes. Although HWQ’s Health Workforce Connectors work remotely they will also benefit from the collegiality and support of working with each other and the experienced teams within HWQ.

This unique role will open the door for Gladstone to actively participate in growing its future health workforce and position Gladstone as an innovative leader in resolving health workforce maldistribution.