Author Archives: pamela

Allied Health: Building capacity and changing lives

Allied Health Professions Day is recognised internationally on the 14th October. To celebrate, this Grand Round will showcase the great work of our RCH Allied health teams. The Executive Director of Ambulatory Services and Chief Allied Health Officer Doug McCaskie will commence proceedings, followed by a panel of Allied health clinicians who will showcase how their current work builds capacity and changes the lives of our patients, their families and the community.

.

The Victorian Paediatric Clinical Network – A Phoenix Rises

The Victorian Paediatric Clinical Network (VPCN) was formed in 2009 and has been through several iterations, before being closed by Safer Care Victoria at the end of 2022. In 2023 it was reformed by the paediatric sector in recognition of the significant role a clinical network has in improving the care of children across the State.

.

Vernon Collins Oration: “The power of paediatrics to address child health inequity within a generation: reality or fantasy?”

There has never been a better time for children in the Australian policy world, with portfolios like health, social services, education, disability and treasury all sounding the importance of children for the nation’s wellbeing and growth. At the same time, almost every child health and developmental metric shows stable or growing inequities –preventable inequalities due to social, geographic or economic circumstances. What would it take to change the trajectory of Australia’s children and is it even possible?

.

Towards National Paediatric Clinical Practice Guidelines

Clinical practice guidelines (CPGs) are intended to improve the quality of clinical care by promoting evidence- based care, reducing inappropriate variation, and producing optimal outcomes for patients. CPGs have been developed at RCH since 1996. These CPGs were focussed on practice at RCH until 2011, when many were adapted for use across Victoria.

.

Early Births in Australia: Potential Implications for Child Health

The gestational age at birth in Australia has slowly but steadily declined over the past 30 years, mainly due to increase in planned births (caesarian sections, inductions of labor). The effects of this decline in gestational age to child health are evident at many levels – intensive care, paediatric care, community, and school.

.

Disentangling Perspectives: Moral Distress and Moral Compromise

Moral distress is a pervasive phenomenon in healthcare and contributes to healthcare worker burnout, turnover, and withdrawal from patient care. Moral distress can arise due to morally troubling everyday ethics issues or clinical cases we carry with us.

.

Type 1 diabetes, Aristotle and the Jesuits – functional outcomes in childhood predicting adult sequelae

Arguably, the most important developmental outcome of childhood and adolescence is to grow a good brain. A stable supply of glucose is sine qua non for optimal brain development. Type 1 diabetes (T1D) is the exemplar chronic condition of childhood that disrupts blood and tissue glucose delivery. Thus, the assessment of cognitive, psychological, functional and morphological brain outcomes in T1D is apposite.

.

Centre for Health Analytics Data Champions: “Ask not what you can do for the EMR, but what can the EMR do for the care we deliver”

Join us for a dynamic presentation showcasing the transformative journey of the Clinical Data Champion program at the Centre for Health Analytics (CHA). Led by Professor Jim Buttery and including Data Champions Katherine Frayman and Ann Le, and CHA Director Ross McKenzie, we’ll explore the program’s inception, evolution, and sustainability efforts.

.

Reshaping Mental Health Resources: A Collaborative Approach

Join us for a panel discussion to explore how integrating the voices of children and their parents can transform the work we do in mental health. We will share our projects and insights, emphasising the impact of lived experience on the supports and resources we create. We will discuss practical insights for supporting lived experience in research, knowledge translation and clinical practice and challenge current assumptions to reshape mental health resources and how they are created.

.