Paediatric nursing at CHW

We are a 340-bed speciality children's hospital with approximately 26,000 admissions per year. Additionally, we are a tertiary referral hospital with admissions from the state of NSW and islands off the coast of Australia, including Noumea and New Caledonia.

The Hospital is easily accessible by many modes of transport. It is close to Parramatta shopping centre, one of the largest shopping centres in the state, and a short walk from Parramatta Park which has walking tracks and is home to Old Government House. The Hospital is half an hour from the city by car or train and 1 hour to the Blue Mountains.

For more information on Nursing opportunities with the Sydney Children’s Hospitals Network, please visit our Career Portal for vacant positions.

What are the benefits of nursing at CHW?

A variety of specialty areas are available for you to develop your skills and build clinical experience. These areas include:

Paediatric ICU - Helen McMillan Ward
Neonatal ICU - Grace Neonatal Nurseries
Burns / Plastics - Clubbe Ward
Transplant - Kidney and Liver - Clancy Ward
Cardiac - Edgar Stephens Ward
Oncology - Camperdown Ward
Sleep Unit
Adolescent - Wade Ward
Mental Health - Hall Ward
Palliative Care - Bear Cottage
Neurology - Commercial Travellers Ward
Babies and Toddlers - Hunter Baillie Ward
Outreach Service - Community Acute/Post Acute Care (CAPAC)
Day Surgery - Middleton Ward
Operating Theatres
Recovery Suite
Outpatient Department
Surgical Unit
Day Stay and Care By Parent - Turner Ward
General Medical and Isolation - Variety Ward

Career paths and employment opportunities for nurses at all levels

There are fantastic opportunities for nurses to start or further develop their careers in paediatrics with CHW. To begin your career we offer opportunities for:

Undergraduate Casual Pool Nurses
New Graduates
Enrolled and Registered Nurses
Student Placements - both national and international

For nurses seeking promotion, advancement and specialisation in their nursing careers, CHW has some exciting choices for career paths. Positions include:

Enrolled and Registered Nurses
Clinical Nurse Educator
Nurse Educator
Clinical Nurse Consultant
Nurse Practitioner
Nursing Unit Manager / Nurse Manager
Project positions
Nursing Achievements

Nursing Education:

CHW prides itself on the support and education extended to nursing staff. We offer an extensive Orientation which includes mandatory programs such as Child Protection Training, CPR and Fire. Additionally there are programs tailored for you, which include preceptors and ward-based specialist skills programs.

Nursing Education forms part of the Education Centre (with conference, lecturing and library facilities), where nurse educators plan and provide paediatric specific education. This is further supported by all wards having Clinical Nurse Educators available. New graduates completing their first year program at CHW have the option to continue in a 2nd year program, affording two 6-month rotations with study days. Other education and career development opportunities exist by way of secondments, project positions and Skills Fairs. There is opportunity to attend some external developmental courses such as at the College of Nursing, many of which are supported by the NSW Department of Health.

Flexible work patterns

There are a variety of work patterns and rostering arrangements available at CHW to best suit your needs. There are opportunities for full-time, part-time and casual hours. Hours of shifts vary from 6 to 12 hours and starting times are staggered depending on the ward and the need. Most wards offer self-rostering practices. We also offer short term contracts, particularly over the Winter period.

Child care centre and vacation care facilities

CHW has an on-site child care centre for staff, which accommodates 40 children from the age of 4 months to 5 years. The centre is open from 6.30am to 6.30pm, Monday to Friday, 51 weeks of the year.

Vacation Care offers on-site care for children aged 5 to 12 years during school holidays. Hours of operation are from 7.15am to 6.30pm.

Overseas nurses

CHW welcomes applications from overseas nurses for both temporary and permanent positions. We are able to provide support and assistance for sponsorship and visa processing through established links with the Department of Immigration & Multicultural & Indigenous Affairs (DIMIA).

Leadership and Nursing Support

Through the Nursing Support Unit, RN Council and the Open Nurse Forum the nursing division provides a platform of support and leadership for all Nurses.

The following list is a brief summary of some of the many success achieved at The Children's Hospital, these achievements highlight the dedication and commitment of our nurses:

• Commenced a Severe Eczema Clinic, combining the skills of paediatric dermatology and immunology, and providing a better service for children with this very distressing and hard-to-treat condition.
• The Surgical Unit initiated Nurse Discharge Summaries for short- stay emergency surgical patients. This program has led to a decrease in complaints from families in relation to delays in bed allocation.
  Set up a project position to review the Hospital Policies and Clinical Guidelines.
  First Paediatric Endocrine Skills Workshop for rural and urban health professionals held in May 2003.
  Cleft Palate Clinic moved from Outpatients area to the Children's Assessment Centre. The REAT project, initiated with DOH funding, proved the most successful intervention in recent years, teaming a dedicated senior doctor and nurse to improve category three waiting times. Not only did the waiting times improve in relation to benchmarks, but also those involved found their work more rewarding.
  Nephrology Department commenced a quality assurance project to identify the risk factors for failure to respond to the bed wetting alarm, which is the most successful form of therapy for many children with bed wetting. Also reorganised the Enuresis Clinic to provide medical input and input from a nurse continence adviser to improve management of children with bed wetting.
• Extended pain nurse cover for pain rounds on Saturdays.
• Further developed the Nurse Practitioners role. Three Nurse Practitioners have been appointed, one in Emergency, one in Pain Management, and one in the Renal Treatment Centre. Three Advanced Practice nurses have been appointed, two in Intensive Care and, one in Diabetes Management.
• A new initiative of clinical supervision for Clinical Nurse Consultants commenced this year. It is being provided by four Clinical Nurse Consultants on a regular basis.
  A project position was set up to review the Hospital policies and clinical guidelines. Collaboration has included working with teams and departments to move towards multidisciplinary documents, which will be known as practice guidelines.
• Negotiated Care is the philosophy of the Hospital and is being rolled out in several wards. The Negotiate Care Model is about care that embraces the child, family and the health care team in the care of the patient.
  Education and career development.