How allied health professionals excel in lifesaving care

On Allied Health Professionals' (AHPs) Day, experts outline the impact they have in critical care
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Critical care requires a host of different professions to help a patient through their hardest time.
Now Allied Health Professionals (AHPs), such as physiotherapists and dietitians, are sharing their critical care careers – with one physio from the University of Plymouth instrumental in creating a framework for AHPs to ensure their progression continues.
The news comes on AHPs’ Day, which takes place each year on 14 October to celebrate the impact that AHPs have on delivery of care.

Find out more about AHPs Day – including the roles it celebrates

Mrs Sian Goddard is a physiotherapist with over 20 years of expertise in critical care. Working as part of a multi-professional team, she has treated patients at every stage of life, from tiny babies requiring life-saving support, to centenarians recovering from critical illness who eventually continue rehabilitation at home.
Recognising the impact of AHPs in critical care, she is part of a national team that has developed the Intensive Care Society’s first AHP Critical Care Capability Framework.
The framework not only highlights a health professional’s competencies and capabilities at each stage of their intensive care career, but helps them to recognise how they can progress. Sharing the framework on AHPs Day, Sian explains why it’s important.
Specialist approaches to patient management in critical care (Image courtesy of Pixabay)

People might think being a physiotherapist is about supporting a sports injury or aches and pains. But the truth is you might be the one helping a patient if their surgery doesn’t go to plan, or supporting a baby to breathe on their own.

Critical care requires a multi-skilled team to deal with whatever comes through the door, and that needs to involve AHPs.
Where the framework comes in is ensuring that every AHP in critical care can recognise their capabilities, but also track their development. It’s saying that ‘at this level, you should be able to do xyz, and at the next career band up, you will need to be able to do xyz’ and so on. 

The framework applies to dietitians, occupational therapists, operating department practitioners, physiotherapists and speech and language therapists.

It helps to standardise everything across critical care delivery, which is helpful when you might have people deployed at short notice – such as in a crisis like COVID-19. The framework is a great way to mark and celebrate the value of AHPs, which we’re proud to do on AHPs Day. 

Sian GoddardMrs Sian Goddard
Lecturer in Physiotherapy

See the AHP Critical Care Capability Framework

Jason Beyers is a Specialist Paediatric Dietitian who works in the Paediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU) at Bristol Royal Hospital for Children.
He has worked in the PICU for over 15 years, and outlines his paediatric critical care career. He said:
“I went into adult critical care six years after I qualified, and since then have gone on to treat people of all ages ranging from neonates to paediatric to adults.
“Being responsible for someone’s dietary intake when they can’t feed themselves is a big undertaking, and ultimately helps to keep someone alive. It’s a vital role, and working as part of a multidisciplinary team to help a patient is so important.”
Jason Beyers critical care dietitian
Jason Beyers critical care dietitian 

Nowadays, over half of the children I treat are aged under one – often with life threatening illnesses like cardiac disease needing urgent surgery – so it’s a careful balance ensuring they get the nutrition support they need.

As a critical care health professional, you can also get involved in research, education and you are the lead for nutrition on the unit – this supports your practice and keeps you at the forefront of the profession.
The new framework is a great new way of highlighting the value of AHPs within multi-disciplinary teams, and I hope more people are inspired to come and join our professions to help make a difference.

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