The Department of Paediatric Emergency Medicine is a unit of the Women's and Children's Health Services (Public and Private) and is the busiest paediatric emergency department in Queensland with over 32 000 presentations per year.

It serves the Brisbane South population from the neonatal period through to late adolescence providing a 24-hour service for acutely ill or injured children. The unit also transfers from peripheral urban hospitals as one of two tertiary paediatric emergency services in Queensland and as the Paediatric Trauma Centre for Brisbane South. The department is located on the fourth floor of Mater Children's Hospital. This department is purpose-built in accordance with Australasian College of Emergency medicine guidelines providing the latest in technology and workplace design and includes an eight bed short stay ward to extend the ability to monitor and observe paediatric patients.

The department has played a leading role in the development of patient management software used by hospitals in all Australian states, New Zealand, Canada and the United Kingdom. The department has a close working relationship with the QISU, the Queensland Trauma Registry and plays a leading role in Queensland Health injury prevention strategy development and delivery. They provide a supportive training environment and have an innovative and energetic training program for fellows and junior medical staff. The department has a strong commitment to research and a well established publishing record. We offer two fellowships in PEM—one combined with public health advocacy in QISU and one combined with vaccine research. Our staff are working with PEM physicians from the major children's hospitals in the USA developing educational tools and clinical decision and diagnosis support software.

Staffing

There are clinical registered and enrolled nurses, all with extensive experience in, and commitment to, the management of ill or injured children and their families. A part-time nurse educator is also part of the nursing complement.

Clinical Nurse Consultant

• Marie Hand DipAppSc B Admin FCNA
  Special Interests:
  • triage
  • pain management
  • holistic patient care.

Paediatric Emergency Physicians are available seven days per week to supervise the medical team between the hours of 9 am and 10 pm and provide remote cover at other times.

Department Director

• Dr Robert Pitt MBBS FRACP FACEM
  Director, Queensland Injury Surveillance Unit
  Director, Queensland Safe Communities Support Centre
  Special Interests:
  • patient management and PEM software development
  • injury prevention and Safe Communities
  • child health advocacy.

Staff Specialists

• Dr Robyn Brady MBBS MCRCPI FRACP FACEM (P/T)
  Director of Paediatric Emergency Training
  Special Interests:
  • emergency department quality assurance
  • interactive learning.
• Dr Susan Thornton MBBS FRACP (P/T)
  Special Interest: resident training
• Dr Ruth Barker MBBS FRACP (P/T)
  Special Interests:
  • injury prevention
  • Indigenous health.
• Dr Michael Anscombe MBChB Dip Paeds FRACP
  Special interest:
  • home safety
  • paediatric analgesia.
• Dr Grant Stone MBBS DCH FRACP
  Special Interests:
  • neonatal emergencies
  • general paediatric interface with ED.
• Dr Fiona Thomson MBChB FRACP FACEM
• Dr Fiona Reilly MBBS FACEM (P/T)

Fellows

• Queensland Injury Surveillance Unit PEM fellow
• GlaxoSmithKline PEM fellow.

Registrars

The department is accredited to train doctors in the specialty of paediatric emergency medicine and three emergency medicine trainees and three paediatric trainees make up the complement of six registrars. They supervise nine resident medical staff. Duties include departmental management, procedural supervision, daily results audit and supervision of junior medical staff. Night cover is provided by a separate relieving paediatric registrar pool. Active involvement in departmental policy development and research is encouraged. A detailed training program along ACEM PEM guidelines is offered along with the opportunity for sub-specialty unit exposure.

Teaching

There is a high level of commitment to ongoing teaching in PEM which includes:

• provision of on floor consultant supervision seven days a week
• fortnightly mock emergency scenario and debrief/skills training for whole department
• weekly protected registrar training afternoon (scenario/tutorial/unit meeting). Support for individual training needs
• registrar involvement in departmental audit, policy development and unit meetings
• support for attendance at Paediatric Life Support training programs.