Children’s Hospital visited by Sydney counterparts
Australian medical leaders spent the day at our Children's Hospital to find out more about our research and how we upskill the workforce to deliver outstanding care.
Dr Mary McCaskill, Director of Medical Services and Catherine Cruz, Director of Nursing, Midwifery and Education from the Sydney Children’s Hospital Network visited to tour around the Clinical Research Facility, the Paediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU) and the cardiac wards.
They also spent some time with our simulation team, to find out more about how they use simulation learning scenarios to train and refresh our staff’s skills.
Kerry Gaskin, Nurses, Midwives and Allied Healthcare Professionals Research Development Lead at the Trust and Professor of Congenital Cardiac Nursing at Birmingham City University (BCU) organised the visit after she spent time with the team in Sydney.
Dr McCaskill said: “We’ve had a very great welcome from the team and it’s always interesting to see the passion for paediatric care that you see everywhere. The challenges are very similar in that we are trying to make sure we’re delivering excellent care all the time and embedding research in what we do. We’re very keen to work closely.”
Catherine added: “From a nursing perspective, there are a lot of similarities that we’re both experiencing, so I think this about how we can learn from one another but also how we can do combined work to address the challenges we’re facing, not only from a research perspective but also a workforce perspective.”
Kerry commented: “We’re really pleased to have hosted Mary and Cath, and for them to see the work we do at the hospital. It has been really fascinating to talk to them and to discuss how we’ve embedded research into our work and teams.”
The tour of the Clinical Research Facility was led by Lucy Cooper, Advanced Clinical Practitioner. She said: "As an NIHR Senior Research Leader, I’m passionate about creating a strong research culture that enables NMAHPs to engage with, deliver and lead research. This visit has provided a fantastic opportunity to share learning, exchange ideas and build international connections that can strengthen NMAHP research for the future.”
Cath spent the following day at BCU, where alongside Kerry, they delivered a lecture to the Women’s Professor Group about research development plans in Birmingham and Sydney. They then visited the City South Campus to tour the Clinical Simulation Suite o get an insight into how they train student nurses before they sent out on placements.
This won’t be the last visit between the two hospitals as another team from Sydney will be coming in November.