Understanding the training need priorities of the Australian Allied Health workforce: a national survey

Background Allied health professionals (AHPs) are pivotal to delivering safe, effective, and collaborative healthcare. Yet, there is limited empirical insight into their current training 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 map 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. Methods A national cross-sectional survey of AHPs was conducted using the WHO-endorsed 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. Results From 2,436 valid responses, a clear and consistent pattern emerged: AHPs rated all tasks as more important than their current performance, highlighting significant 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 regionality were observed across domains, effect sizes were uniformly small, suggesting limited practical significance. Conclusion This study provides the first national snapshot of AHP needs and provides compelling 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 are particularly implicated to address shared training needs in leadership, digital transformation, and system improvement, particularly for early-career professionals and those in remote roles. These findings offer a practical and timely roadmap for aligning training with the evolving demands of healthcare delivery.