01 April 2009

Nurses from across Australia and New Zealand to converge at SCH

While more than 400,000 children present to emergency departments in New South Wales every year, only a quarter receive care at one of the state’s three children’s hospitals.

With this in mind, Sydney Children’s Hospital (SCH) will be holding a two day conference, which aims to share highly specialised paediatric skills with nurses who provide care to children in mixed hospital environments.

Titled Hand in Hand, the conference is the only one of its kind in Australia, with 120 nurses from as far as Gympie, Shepparton, Hay, Tasmania and even New Zealand making their way to Sydney on Friday 3 April, to listen to some of the most experienced paediatric experts in the country.

Kylie Stark, Nurse Manager of the SCH Emergency Department and conference organiser, says the conference will allow staff at SCH to share their expert skills and knowledge, celebrate paediatric nursing, provide information on the latest research and more importantly, aims to empower nurses with the skills needed to continue providing quality care to some of our country’s youngest patients.

"While treating children is our daily business, nurses in mixed hospital environments are entrusted to provide care to newborns through to the elderly," said Ms Stark.

"With most paediatric care provided in non-tertiary referral paediatric centres, we feel it is part of our role to share our specialised knowledge with our colleagues.

"This conference is really about nurses being committed to caring for children, no matter what the environment. Whether a nurse is working in a major paediatric centre or a small clinic out in Broken Hill, we all need to feel empowered with the skills to continue doing our job effectively."

Speakers include registered nurses, clinical nurse consultants, research nurses, senior emergency department physicians and allied health staff.

Topics of discussion include the latest on managing fevers in children, triage skills, pain management innovations, adolescent mental health issues and oncology care.

Media enquiries: Jessica Jaramillo (02) 9382 3578 or 0404 001 722.