Introduction of a liaison nurse role in a tertiary paediatric ICU

The Royal Children's Hospital in Melbourne is the only dedicated paediatric hospital in Victoria (population 5 million). The role of the PICU liaison nurse (LN) has been developed to bridge the gap between PICU and the wards within the hospital with the aim of reducing the number of readmissions to the PICU within 48h of discharge.

The year of the PICU LN trial (July 2004-June 2005), 1388 patients were discharged from PICU. Sixty-seven patients had unplanned readmission within 48h. This readmission rate (4.8%) is lower than the readmission rate (5.4%) during the year prior to the implementation of the PICU LN. Staff and parents were surveyed at the end of the 12-month trial to evaluate the introduction of the LN role. The response from the surveys was very positive, 98.5% of staff believed the PICU LN to be beneficial and to have made a valuable impact on PICU-ward transfers. Ninety-nine percent of surveyed parents agreed that the LN role is a good idea.

The PICU LN role at RCH has shown many positive outcomes including improved communication, ward education, improved patient outcomes and decreased readmission rates to ICU.