The days of a strong divide between doctors and nurses in hospitals is coming to an end as new medical, nursing and allied health staff at Ballarat Health Services come together for an orientation week.
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Next week, 83 new graduates will take up roles in the hospital but this week they came together to learn about the hospital and polish their clinical and communication skills.
“It’s extremely important they learn how to communicate, learn about each other’s roles, what nurses do, what doctors do. I don’t think at uni they get a good understanding of what those roles are,” said BHS clinical training director Dr Heather Crook.
“The idea of the combined training is to learn how to work collaboratively together right from word go.”
It is the second year that BHS has inducted new graduates from medicine, nursing and allied health together.
The new nurses and doctors have been working as teams on a simulated patient journey.
“Communication between nurses, doctors and allied health is required to promote a culture of safety for all patients and provision of an environment of supportive teamwork. Through the incorporation of this innovative framework, new practitioners who are commencing their careers at BHS will be supported to develop respectful professional relationships in a safe learning space,” the hospital stated.
Kat Zibell, who next week starts as an intern in the emergency department, said she was nervous and excited to start work.
“Sometimes there’s a bit of a divide between doctors and nurses. BHS has done a great job of minimising that divide. We are all people and all just as nervous as each other.”
- BHS medical intern Kat Zibell
“It’s fantastic to start alongside the nursing graduates. It’s been great in the sense that they understand that we are beginners just like they are, we have the same concerns and fears about starting work,” she said.
Fellow intern Jeremy Abetz said spending time with new colleagues, and the hospital’s clinical educators, would ensure they were comfortable to start seeing patients next week.
“We’ve been doing a lot of tasks around communication, especially over handover from one team to another and between medical staff and nursing staff to ensure we work well together one on one,” he said.
The simulated patient journey sees the new doctors and nurses take a patient through hospital, gaining experience in areas including emergency care, communication skills, basic life support, medication management, oxygen therapy and inhalers, inserting cannulas and taking blood, patient centered care, cultural sensitivity, and hand hygiene.
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