Emergency Department
The Emergency Department (ED) is an exciting and dynamic unit that offers clinical staff a challenge. We have a very close knit multi-disciplinary team that work together to provide a very high standard of care. ED treats on average 120 children a day, or approximately 40,000 children a year. The children present with a wide variety of conditions ranging from a sniffle to major trauma injuries. The ED has an ambulatory care section with 10 consultation rooms. We have 8 observation beds, 3 isolation beds and a 4 bed trauma/resuscitation bay.
Rostering practice
The ED has a flexible self-rostering system with the option of placing 'Red' requests which will mostly be honoured. The ED has a variety of different shift times and as such offers a degree of flexibility to the staff of starting and finishing times.
Education assistance
Education is a focus of ED and a full time Nurse Educator and Clinical Nurse Educator are available to all staff. We also have the first Paediatric Emergency Nurse Practitioner in Australia, a Clinical Nurse Consultant in Mental Health and three Clinical Co-ordinators. Our department also has a large number of Clinical Nurse Specialists.
All new staff are given a preceptor and are guided through an orientation package with the support of the Educators. As staff develop within the unit they are encouraged to choose an experienced member of staff to be their mentor to encourage and guide them with their continuing professional development.
Professional Development
Our Unit has developed a professional career ladder offering three different career paths within the unit. The first is the educational stream, the second is the clinical stream offering the ability to progress from RN, CNS, CNC and Nurse Practitioner and the last stream is management. The development of Clinical Co-ordinators (NUM level 1) provides the opportunity to relieve in a management position and to gain valuable experience.
For information about employment in the Emergency Department, please contact Leonnie Dawson, Nurse Manager through switch on (02) 9845 0000.