Associate Professor Fenella Gill presenting the Gavin Leslie Best Nursing Paper’ 2023 at The Australian and New Zealand Annual Scientific Meeting on Intensive Care in Adelaide March 2023.

June 2023 update

The next steps involve assessing how the ESCALATION system has been used in different healthcare settings and if any changes were made to make it work better for specific needs.
 
The research team is working on the "Safer care for children in hospital - Strengthening and  sustaining the paediatric ESCALATION system (SPECS) research program." They are collaborating with doctors, nurses, and families to improve the use of the ESCALATION system. The goal is to help healthcare workers and families quickly recognize and manage worsening health conditions, including sepsis, in children receiving medical care in Western Australia.
 
The project will be conducted at Perth Children’s Hospital and a number of West Australian regional hospitals.

Safer care for children in hospital: Consumer & Community Advisory Group:
Our consumer and community advisory group consists of parents who have first-hand experience with their child being in the hospital. We have already held two meetings this year. During these meetings, there were extensive discussions about family experiences in the hospital and how to escalate care when concerned about a child's deteriorating health. The group has played a crucial role in developing the "Family survey" data collection tool for the Safer Care for Children in Hospital project. They have also provided valuable advice to shape the family interviews conducted as part of the project.

State-wide uniform paediatric ESCALATION system:
Starting from mid-2023, not only will all WA health hospitals, health centers, and several private hospitals utilize the ESCALATION system, but St John Ambulance WA will also implement the paediatric ESCALATION System in their prehospital emergency response service.

Conference and presentations: 
The Gavin Leslie Best Nursing Paper
The ESCALATION System publication Development of an evidence-based ESCALATION system for recognition and response to paediatric clinical deterioration - Australian Critical Care was awarded the Best Nursing Paper published in the journal Australian Critical Care 2023
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The Gavin Leslie Best Nursing Paper recognises excellence in research by a member of the Australian College of Critical Care Nurses (the College). The award is sponsored by the journal publisher Elsevier to promote and reward high quality nursing research and scholarship of College members.
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​Royal Children’s Hospital Nursing Research and Clinical Innovations Symposium 2023
On May 12th, A/Professor Fenella Gill gave a keynote speech at the Royal Children's Hospital Research Symposium. She talked about the creation and application of the paediatric ESCALATION System and discussed future research plans. Symposium participants were highly interested in using co-design research and systematic approaches to overcome obstacles in implementing new interventions.

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L-R: Dr Emma Jamieson, Dr Annie De Leo, Dr Eileen Boyle, Dr Timothy Inglis, Melisa Vernon

Science on the Swan 2013- Partnering for Success
Dr. Eileen Boyle joined a panel discussion about healthcare in rural and regional areas. The panel included other researchers: Dr. Annie De Leo from Edith Cowan University, Dr. Timothy Inglis from the University of Western Australia (UWA), and Dr Emma Jamieson from The Rural Clinical School, UWA. The discussion, led by Melissa Vernon Chief Operating Officer-Strategy and Reform for the WA Country Health Service, focused on projects, involving the community, and improving research in rural and remote parts of Western Australia. The sessions were helpful for sharing ideas and finding better ways to engage with the community and enhance research in those specific areas.

​Aboriginal families' involvement:
We have begun conducting interviews with Aboriginal families at Perth Children's Hospital. Through these conversations, we gain insights into how families can contribute to recognizing and responding to early signs of a child's serious illness during their hospital stay. This knowledge will assist us in finding the most effective ways to engage and include Aboriginal families in the process.

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February 2023 update

​Welcome to three new team members:​

Dr Esther Adama
Dr Esther Adama is working with team to Optimise family involvement in the ESCALATION system at Perth Children’s Hospital.

​Esther is a Senior Lecturer and Course Coordinator of the Graduate Certificate of Children and Young People’s Nursing at Edith Cowan University (ECU), School of Nursing and Midwifery.
 
Esther’s research focuses on family support needs within the neonatal intensive care unit and community settings, with particular interest on needs of fathers. Esther is also a PhD and Master by research supervisor for research on infant, young people and child health issues. 

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​Dr Jo Zhou RN, PhD, MCN (Paediatric), BScN
Dr Jo Zhou is working on the research program focusing on measuring the predictive ability of the paediatric early warning score in-hospital and pre-hospital emergency response contexts.

Jo is a lecturer in Curtin School of Nursing dominantly teaching research project
units of Master by Coursework program.  She has over 30 years of paediatric inpatient care experience and currently work as a Clinical Nurse of long term complex surgical ward in
Perth Children’s Hospital.

Jo is an early-career researcher, and her research area is healthcare service safety and quality with a particular interest in developing and validating predictive models for unplanned hospital readmissions.

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Chelsea Kelly
Chelsea has commenced her PhD studies “Exploring factors influencing the detection of clinical deterioration in hospitalised children with darker coloured skin in Western Australia”. Chelsea will be the recipient of a grant funded PhD scholarship.

​Chelsea is a Registered Nurse who has worked primarily in paediatric critical care and has also spent time working regionally in Albany and Broome. She holds a Bachelor of Biomedical Science (Microbiology and Immunology Major) and Bachelor of Nursing. 

Consumer and Community Reference Group:
Our first Consumer and Community Reference Group meeting was held on Tuesday the 28th of February at Perth Children’s Hospital. At the meeting we discussed our Safer care for children in hospital research program.
If you are interested in knowing more about the program and/or would like to be a member of the group, please contact Eileen Boyle at Eileen.boyle@curtin.edu.au
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