Agency for Clinical Innovation

Rehabilitation Network Goal Training

The Rehabilitation Goal Training Workshops are an activity of the Rehabilitation Network. The ACI Rehabilitation Network recognises the need for clinicians to have a greater understanding of the role and use of goals in rehabilitation, and that goal training can facilitate communication between clinical services by providing a common approach to communicating goals.

Although goal setting is an essential part of rehabilitation, it is often overlooked in undergraduate training, and variations in practice may exist in different professions.  This training aims to provide clinicians with increased knowledge and skills to enable them to develop and use high quality rehabilitation goals in practice.  Consistent high quality goal setting will reduce the likelihood that inadequacies in goal setting will compromise patient care – such as limiting patient motivation, impeding treatment planning and compromising communication with all stakeholders.  The training aims to increase the consistency of goal setting practice and reduce the risk that poor quality goals result in compromised patient outcomes.

The Rehabilitation Network acknowledges the previous work of the ACI Brain Injury Rehabilitation Directorate (BIRD) in developing the resources and training materials that form the basis of these Workshops.  The content has been further guided by the ACI Rehabilitation Executive Committee. It reflects the principles outlined in NSW Health’s Rehabilitation Model of Care. The content is consistent with best practice in goal setting as identified in the literature.

Training Objectives

The Rehabilitation Goal Training Workbook addresses the following participant training objectives:

1. To improve understanding of the purposes of goal setting to engage patients in rehabilitation, support patient-centred clinical practice and team coordination, and for communicating with key stakeholders
2. To improve clinician understanding of the factors that affect the development and use of goals in rehabilitation
3. To increase clinician skills in working collaboratively with patients to develop patient centred goals and rehabilitation plans
4. To improve clinician ability to write, review and use patient centred SMART rehabilitation goals that support rehabilitation practice using the SMARTAAR Goal Process
5. To increase knowledge of how to incorporate patient centred goals in rehabilitation plans.

The following resources are available to support the Rehabilitation Goal Training initiative:

• Rehabilitation Goal Training Participant Workbook (PDF file 1.4Mb)
• Rehabilitation Goal Training Handouts (PDF file 300Kb)

Additional resources specific to traumatic brain injury can be found on the TBI Staff training website.

For further information, please contact Claire O’Connor (Claire.oconnor@health.nsw.gov.au).