The nursing staff of the Spinal Unit are here to assist you and your family during your time with us. There are approximately 80 of us spread across 3 shifts of the 24 hours. The Nurse Practice Coordinator (Charge Nurse) is Alison New. Together with the Clinical Nurses (we have 9 of them), they make up the SIU Nursing Management Team. The remainder of the nursing staff are Registered Nurses and Enrolled Nurses.
Together with other members of your health team, the nurses help you do the things that you might have done independently in the past. We have two main roles. To best assist you, we are organised into Nurse Rehabilitation Coordinator (NRC) groups. Within these we have assigned to you one or two special nurses that are your Nurse Rehabilitation Coordinators.
We also have an “everyday” role where we help with things such as hygiene cares, positioning in bed, and urology cares. The nursing staff work across the whole day with an early shift (7am-3.30pm), a late shift (2.30pm-11pm) and night duty (10.45pm-7.15am).
We use a model of Team Nursing Care in SIU. “Teams” of two or three nurses are assigned to provide the care for a group of clients on every shift. In this way they can be available to help each other with your care when required. You can assist the nurses and yourself by letting them know when your Physiotherapy and Occupational Therapy appointments are each day. We can then ensure that you are available to attend them.
Click here for the printer-friendly version of this information
This page last updated: January 2009
Review date: January 2010
Other languages