The binding constraint in the health and education workforce pipeline is here, and it is not a process.

Demand for clinical placements exceeded supply well before 2019, and the pandemic worsened it through burnout and attrition among the professionals who supervise. Scaling placements is difficult where a specific supervisor-to-student ratio is required — traditionally as low as 1:1 — and where the supervisor must maintain healthcare delivery alongside their supervisory commitments. Many registered nurses have no formal preparation for supporting student learning, and support from health service management may be limited or absent.

So the supervisor is doing two jobs, one of which is unfunded and untrained for, in an organisation already short of them.

Each host also adds its own gate. Beyond the national and state screening requirements, host organisations impose their own orientation modules, mandatory training, and in some cases their own health requirements — Queensland Health requires a tuberculosis risk assessment before placement, and annual respirator fit-testing applies where a particulate filter respirator may be needed. A student on placements at two organisations does much of it twice.