Trainee

Westmead Hospital is a key facility of one of Australia’s largest major health and medical research precincts and is the principal referral hospital for Western Sydney Local Health District providing district level health services to Parramatta, Holroyd and The Hills Shire LGAs including tertiary and quaternary services to greater Western Sydney, greater metropolitan Sydney, rural NSW and other states. The Westmead Health Precinct currently under development is envisaged to be the largest hospital building project undertaken in Western Sydney and will transform the iconic but ageing Westmead Hospital into an innovative, contemporary, and integrated centre that will continue to deliver high quality healthcare and expand the education, health, and research capability of the area.

Westmead Hospital is a leading centre of research, training and specialisation in all fields of Medicine and Dentistry, providing services in Cardiology, Cardiothoracic Surgery, Neurology, Neurosurgery, Kidney and Pancreas transplantation, Cancer Care, Obstetrics and Gynaecology including Maternal-Fetal Medicine, Neonatal Intensive Care, Trauma, Bone Marrow Transplantation, Critical Care, Aged Care and Rehabilitation, Adult Acute Psychiatry (networked with the co-located Cumberland Hospital) as well as other specialised medical and surgical services.

Westmead Hospital is also the principal referral centre for other metropolitan hospitals within the district including Auburn Hospital, Blacktown and Mount Druitt Hospital.

The Westmead Hospital Neonatal Intensive Care Unit is the largest in NSW with 24 intensive care cots and 20 special care cots. The department admits over 1,500 newborns per year of which approximately 450 require airway support and 150 are born at less than 32 weeks gestation. The NICU has a strong relationship with the Maternal-Fetal Medicine team and the University of Sydney. Westmead Hospital delivers newborns who have complex surgical and cardiac conditions who are transferred to the co-located Children’s Hospital at Westmead for subspecialist treatment after initial stabilisation. Westmead Hospital Neonatal Intensive Care Unit also receives ex-utero neonatal transfers from across NSW and within the district. The department is very active in teaching, clinical practice improvement and research. Westmead NICU offers comprehensive supervised training in clinician performed neonatal ultrasound to interested candidates. The department provides neurodevelopmental follow-up to high risk NICU graduates in a multidisciplinary clinic, up to the age of 5 years.

What You’ll be Doing

• Attending ward rounds and making daily entries in the electronic medical notes in the Neonatal Intensive Care or Special Care Unit.
• Working on a day and night shift roster providing clinical care to newborns managed at Westmead Hospital, ranging from well newborns on Maternity Ward to critically ill newborns in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, including admission, physical examination, clinical procedures, formulation of investigation and management plan, review of progress, and completion of discharge summaries.
• Performing clinical procedures including basic and advanced neonatal resuscitation, intravenous cannulation, insertion of peripheral arterial catheters, lumbar puncture, suprapubic aspiration of urine, endotracheal intubation, and insertion of chest drains.
• Developing competency in exchange transfusion, insertion of umbilical vessel catheters, and peripherally inserted central catheters.
• Attending high risk deliveries in the Birth Unit and Operating Theatres.
• Performing routine newborn physical examinations, communicating with families, and providing initial consultation for neonatal problems in the Maternity Wards.
•  Participating in the department’s education and teaching program
• Full time applicants, as well as part time at 0.5 FTE, and job share arrangements will be considered.