POCUS empowers clinicians to conduct ultrasounds at a patient’s bedside, rather than a medical imaging specialist or sonographer. POCUS will be used to answer specific clinical questions to assist clinicians in decision-making as they gather information on the patient including their medical history and physical examinations.
Research increasingly shows that POCUS programs can hasten clinical diagnosis, inform the clinician about ordering subsequent medical imaging, make invasive procedures less painful, improve procedural success, improve patient flow, and increase patient satisfaction.
To support the new POCUS program, new ultrasound machines have been acquired for use around the hospital. These ultrasound machines will enable direct integration with hospital technology and will ensure each department has the equipment they need to implement POCUS.
Once successfully implemented, POCUS will decrease the demand for Medical Imaging appointments and improve the care clinicians can provide to their patients.
Posted June 2018
Image: RCH Melbourne – Creative Service Photography
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Allied Health and Nursing Education
The vital element of great care is finding and fostering exceptional people. Thanks to a $3.26 million donation through the Good Friday Appeal, RCH staff are advancing their clinical skills through ongoing education and development.
These funds directly benefit Allied Health Professionals (AHPs) and nurses, who make up over half of The Royal Children’s Hospital staff and collectively care for children, adolescents and their families across all areas of the hospital.
This investment in The Royal Children’s Hospital team ensures the hospital attracts and retains the best and brightest minds, and remains a centre of excellence in paediatric healthcare.
“This opportunity for RCH Allied Health and Nursing staff is unique and enables us to support our staff to ensure the best, evidence based care for RCH patients. Through this generous funding, we can support our staff to learn, develop and deliver excellent care.”
– Bernadette O’Connor, Director of Royal Children’s Hospital Allied Health
Advancing Allied Health Through Good Friday Appeal support, 180 AHPs have pursued professional development through local and national training courses, seminars and conferences. A number of these AHPs have presented papers on great care and innovation in their work on behalf of the hospital. The learning acquired at these events is also benefitting other staff members. Attendees are sharing their insights through their departmental continuing education programs and staff education committees.
Nurturing nursing education It’s paramount for nurses to grow their knowledge and skills to improve clinical practice outcomes for RCH children. Thanks to Victorian support for the Good Friday Appeal, 63 nurses have received the funding necessary to complete their post graduate qualification in the past year. Many of these nurses have gone on to make significant contributions that have advanced the quality and safety of care provided at the hospital. This has occurred through investigating and leading practice change, bringing increased expertise to teams and taking on leadership positions.
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Enhancing quality and safety in health through simulation based education
Thanks to support from the Good Friday Appeal, The Royal Children’s Hospital (RCH) will continue to provide staff education through training by simulation.
Using state of the art medical technology, the RCH Simulation Team creates rare, high risk and critical patient events, as well as common clinical situations, to practise teamwork, communication, and technical skills. The Simulation Program gives staff the opportunity to receive feedback on their communication skills through simulated scenarios using trained actors.
The program aims to enhance clinical skills, decision making, communication and teamwork among staff, ultimately leading to better patient care in all situations staff may be faced with, including critical and everyday situations.
It doesn’t just benefit RCH staff and patients – healthcare professionals from across Victoria, Australia and even internationally are able to access training through the program. Over 18,000 participants have participated in training through the program since 2015.
By exposing teams to acute, but rare patient events in a safe environment, the program is improving clinical decision making, enhancing communication skills, and furthering great patient and family care in the most critical situations.
With staff from multiple departments working closely to deliver great care, it’s important that everyone is clear on how teams work together to deliver the best patient outcomes. Replicating critical patient care scenarios gives staff the opportunity to gauge how they react in difficult situations and understand the strengths and weaknesses of each team.
“The strength of our Simulation Program is our ability to recreate rare events, to bring them to life and let people fully experience them,” says Associate Professor Meredith Allen, Director of Medical Education. “Staff become immersed in the process, and are able to enhance their skills and reinforce their clinical response.”
To ensure the simulation experience is realistic, the Good Friday Appeal has supported the purchase of high-tech mannequins that imitate human responses.
Able to breathe, cry, talk, seize and bleed, these mannequins also mimic heart and lung sounds. Each mannequin is controlled by a Simulation Technologist, who ensures that they react appropriately to each simulation, reinforcing critical skills and making each simulation as authentic as possible.
“It’s difficult to comprehend just how isolated you might feel in critical situations until you experience them firsthand,” says Jenni Sokol, Clinical Lead for Simulation. “Education helps, by training teams to work together efficiently and mitigating human error.”
RCH Medical staff train on childlike simulators that mimic emergency situations on the wards like a cardiac arrest. Nursing staff Matthew Stockton and Ella Scott ‘resuscitate’ a patient.
The simulation program also offers staff the opportunity to get feedback on their communication skills through the use of highly trained actors. Scenarios challenging our staff to deliver the most difficult news have been created from real events and are offered back as training opportunities. The actors are highly trained to provide feedback that helps participants navigate through some of the most challenging parts of being a health professional.
Though challenging, the realism of simulations is what makes them an effective way to train staff. Participants experience the same emotions and responses they would in a genuine high-pressure situation, and this makes a lasting impression. There is evidence that staff retain more knowledge and behavioural skills through simulation-based education than through book learning and lectures.
“To work together efficiently as teams and deliver the best patient care, we need to break down the silos we’ve traditionally trained in and focus on enhancing our skills collaboratively,” says Jenni. “The aim for the program has always been to turn groups of experts into expert teams and we’re making great progress in achieving that.”
