The Intensive Care Unit at the Royal North Shore Hospital has long been an international benchmark for clinical excellence and training. It has success rates unequalled in the world for treatment of many diseases and conditions. Every year over 2,500 patients are treated; the majority of whom are suffering life threatening illness or trauma. While it is located in Sydney and services the extensive “northern region” health zone, it is also a “statewide” and “national” treatment centre for some specific conditions and procedures. There is much collaborative work carried out here and many ICU personal from around Australia and the world were initially trained at RNSH.
The ICU medical staff have the highest levels of qualification and are renowned leaders in their respective fields. This congregation of talent makes the RNSH Unit an ideal place to conduct Intensive Therapy research and training and to develop new techniques and procedures. It’s role as a major training centre for Australian and overseas ICU personnel place it ideally to further promote ICU education. The unit is a center for postgraduate training in Critical Care and has trained doctors from Norway, Sweden, England, Scotland, Ireland, Wales, Germany, Denmark, Sweden, USA, Belgium, Western Samoa, Fiji, Papua and New Guinea, Vietnam, Canada, New Zealand, South Africa. This level of excellence places the RNSH ICU team among the best in the world. The challenge now is to match this clinical excellence with an excellence in research that will ensure the legacy continues. The Northcare Foundation is charged with securing the funding to build on this and to develop this research capability to it’s full potential.
The Research publication and Current Projects sections demonstrate the outstanding success that the Unit has achieved since Northcare has supported the unit. Northcare has seen its niche as providing seed money to take units and projects to a stage where major funding can be obtained from Grants Bodies and other areas. Perhaps the best example of this is that Northcare provided seed money for the SAFE study and supported the salary of epidemiologist Gordon Doig in the development of the study. This study which eventually had a budget of $4,000,000 dollars became the largest study performed in Intensive Care in the World, was described in an editorial in the prestigious New England Journal of Medicine as an example of how intensive care research should be performed. As a consequence of this study there are now 26 Intensive Care Units in Australasia with the necessary expertise and infrastructure to perform major research through the ANZICS Clinical Trials Group.
The shortage of nurses, particularly with postgraduate nursing qualifications in Intensive Care, is a major limiting factor in the provision of safe and excellent services in Intensive Care in Australia. Early after its formation the Northcare Foundation determined that postgraduate nurses in Intensive Care often leave after 3-5 years unless given opportunities to develop and expand their skills and knowledge. Although postgraduate courses existed nurses living on the North Shore of Sydney, particularly those paying back HECs fees, had financial difficulties in paying for postgraduate study. As a result of these findings the Northcare board agreed to pay the difference between any NSW Government support and the Course fees for all nurses from the Royal North Shore Hospital Intensive Care Unit who undertook Graduate Certificate, Graduate Diploma, or Masters studies in Nursing. This programme has funded over 50 scholarships for nurses and the majority are still working in Critical Care areas. The North Shore Private Hospital now provides three scholarships per year for nurses from both Hospitals.