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.
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?
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.
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.
National Child Protection Week is on September 1-7 and is an opportunity to turn our focus to the needs and rights of all children. It invites us to consider how we promote a safe and supported life for every child now and into the future with this year’s theme “Every child in every community needs a fair go”.
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.
In this Grand Round, Associate Professor Mark Mackay will present advances in acute stroke care, through implementation of standardised paediatric “Code Stroke” protocols, to facilitate rapid diagnosis and treatment of stroke, and how the Melbourne Children’s campus is leading the way in changing practice nationally and improving outcomes for the youngest stroke survivors.
In this Grand Rounds, Danya and Lynn will show you the different ways that adding qualitative research methods to your project can benefit your research. They will describe different qualitative and mixed method approaches, and guest appearances by RCH and MCRI researchers will provide concrete examples of studies that have been enhanced using these methods. They will also show you step by step how to design a well-rounded project that incorporates qualitative methods.
The STRONG kids, STRONG future team from the University of Melbourne’s Department of Paediatrics works in partnership with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander families, communities, and organisations to research, develop and implement culturally responsive tools that enhance developmental outcomes for young Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children. The STRONG kids, STRONG future team is excited to co-present with key partners from Aboriginal Community Controlled Organisations our approach to advancing children’s health. We will describe how we have co-developed culturally responsive developmental instruments for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children. We will hear from our partners who will share their experience of collaborating on research projects, the importance of culturally responsive tools, implementation of these instruments in their settings and what works in partnerships with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities.
The application of genomics has greatly increased the diagnosis of specific monogenic causes of intellectual
disability and improved our understanding of the neuronal processes that result in cognitive impairment.
Meanwhile, families are building rare disease communities and seeking disease-specific treatments to change
the trajectory of health and developmental outcomes for their children.
