Intensive Care Unit
Services We Offer
The Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital Intensive Care Unit (ICU) is a Level III Tertiary Intensive Unit. It is an 18 bed unit equipped to provide all critical care services for the hospital including the specialties of Cardiothoracics, Neurosurgery and Neurotrauma and to the State Liver Transplantation Service. There is a strong postgraduate and undergraduate teaching programme for medical and nursing professionals. The education programme provides training for junior and senior intensive care trainees and includes attachments for overseas doctors, making the unit a vibrant, multicultural environment.
Currently the unit admits approximately 1500 patients per annum, with an average bed stay of 3.4 days. The unit provides substantial support for the State Neurosurgical Service, which historically has provided a large percentage of the referrals to ICU. Intensivists provide a consultation service to all departments in the hospital and manage all Total Parenteral Nutrition (TPN) at SCGH.
The strength of the Unit is its friendly, yet professional, medical, nursing and allied health staff that pride themselves in their ability to meet the needs of patients, relatives and other hospital staff. Our practices are ‘evidence based’ and supported strongly by both medical and nursing research.
Referral Source
The referral base for ICU is statewide in areas of specialty with particular responsibility for the management of Neurotrauma, Neurosurgery and liver transplantation. Direct referral bases with a number of peripheral and regional hospitals for the admission of trauma cases are also in place.
Department Contact Details
Head of Department: Dr WPD Woods
Phone: 61 8 9346 1010
Fax: 61 8 9346 4431
Nurse Manager: Mr P McEwen
Phone: 61 8 9346 1360
Fax: 61 8 9346 3705
Clinical Nurse Consultant: Ms K Laurie
Phone: 61 8 9346 1010
Fax: 61 8 9346 4431
Research Coordinator: Ms B Roberts
Phone: 61 8 9346 1010
Fax: 61 8 9346 4431
Secretary: Mrs Gail Hopkins
Phone: 61 8 9346 1010
Fax: 61 8 9346 4431
Physical Location
4th Floor
G Block,
Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital
QE II Medical Centre, Hospital Avenue, Nedlands, Western Australia 6009
About Us
We have a robust complement of junior medical staff comprising 6 senior Registrars, 5.5 junior Registrars and 5 RMOs. Trainees may come from all specialties but principally come from Anaesthesia, Emergency Medicine and General Medicine. The number of junior staff now allows reasonable rosters to be worked without the excessive hours of former years and enables a much more comprehensive teaching programme to be made available for junior staff.
The Unit employs approximately 90 registered nurses (72.25 FTE) on both 8 and 12 hour shift patterns. We offer a comprehensive orientation programme and educational support network, that allows staff inexperienced in intensive care nursing to become proficient practitioners in the area. We achieve this by identifying existing skills and using these as a foundation to build upon. We offer flexible, request driven rostering, as well as a solid “in-house” educational programme facilitated by two full time staff educators.
Future Development
The redevelopment of the Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital will see a significant expansion of intensive care beds and facilities. As a first stage to address immediate requirements and bed pressures a five bed expansion on the current floor is expected to take place with a completion date of mid to late 2008. This will also be accompanied by an increase in medical, nursing and allied health staffing
Staff
Head of Department: Dr WPD Woods
Deputy Head of Department: Dr PV van Heerden
Director of Research:
Dr S Baker
Consultants: Dr M Pinder, Dr P Cameron, Dr J Blott, Dr M Lennon, Dr D Moxon, Dr B Power, Dr W Thompson
Nurse Manager: Mr P McEwen
Clinical Nurse Consultant: Ms K Laurie
Research Coordinator: Ms B Roberts
Secretary: Mrs G Hopkins
Education Activities
There is a strong emphasis on education in the department from the training of medical, allied health and nursing undergraduates to the training of intensive care, emergency medicine and anaesthesia postgraduates. Nursing and postgraduate education also takes place under the guidance of Karen Laurie, Clinical Nurse Consultant. More recently we have also been training paramedics.
A number of the senior medical staff serve in senior administrative capacities in the hospital and hold state and national positions on various committees and College bodies, including currently:
President, Australian & New Zealand College of Anaesthetists (Dr W Thompson)
Supervisor of Training (Dr M Pinder)
Vice Dean & Censor, Joint Faculty of Intensive Care Medicine (Dr PV van Heerden)
Medical Co-Director of Central Services (Dr WPD Woods)
Research
There is an emphasis on clinical research with both medical and nursing projects being undertaken. Much of the published work conducted in the department relates to the use of analgesia and pain scales, attitudes of relatives on the use of surrogate consent for research, ICU delirium and the role of ICU research coordinators. Some of the research currently being undertaken pertains to assessment of adrenocortical function in sepsis, the impact of PEEP at different IAPs on FRC and oxygen delivery in an animal model, a novel method for rapid assessment of blood for the presence of microorganisms and minimising blood loss during ICU testing. The unit participates in several of the studies and audits conducted under the auspice of the ANZICS Clinical Trials Group. The ICU also participates in various commercially sponsored pharmaceutical drug trials.
Nursing Research
The ICU has a dedicated nursing position responsible for conducting nursing research unique to the ICU environment. Some of the topics we are investigating include pain management, family needs and skin care. The research nurse is also involved in quality improvement and integrating evidence from research and advancing clinical practice.
In addition to the clinical trials conducted primarily by medical staff the department has recently appointed a Nursing Research Coordinator currently responsible for the following trials:
- Family satisfaction: Effect of a family liaison nurse for family members of patients in ICU
- Experience and management of stress in ICU amongst critical care nurses
Employment
Please direct all inquiries regarding employment to:
Medical employment:
Dr WPD Woods
Phone: 61 8 9346 1010
Fax: 61 8 9346 4431
Nursing employment:
Mr P McEwen
Phone: 61 8 9346 1360
Fax: 61 8 9346 3705
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