The shifts tend to be filled by Certified ACPs or Paediatric trainee ACPs, of which we have three; Matt Bryant, Michelle Sullivan and Paula Weeden. They are all very experienced, and you will feel supported working with either of them.

Our team of Paediatric Emergency Nurses know the ins and outs of Paediatric presentations, and they will always be happy to assist you in anything they can; taking bloods and cannulations, working out dosages and so on. They are always happy to help, but they also have their responsibilities, so work with them, and they assist and support you but don’t expect to do everything for you.

The PED is open 24/7, and you will have to deal with sick children when there is not a Consultant around, so I would advise you to attend PED when you can have use of the support, so you don’t feel out of your depth when you be doing your night shifts or weekends. On the other hand, whichever speciality you pursue, you will likely be exposed to Paediatric pathology, one way or another, so don’t miss the chance to learn.

After clicking on the Emergency Department section, the SASH Intranet page has a section for ED Paediatric Guidelines (You need to use a Trust computer or get logged into the Intranet from outside to see the pages). There you will find another sub-section for Paediatric Guidelines, where your questions will be answered. Try to learn the most common conditions and those essential points like requesting blood tests for children with fevers for more than five days, or request a BM for all abdominal pains, or safeguarding guidelines for children under one year of age attending with HI. 

Finally, when you do your CDU shift, make sure you save some time at the end of the time to go PED and look into the Microbiology results folder. This folder is filled daily with the children's names that have had a urine or blood sample sent for culture, many of which are discharged anyway. With or without antibiotics.

The results are obtained 48-72 hours later, and we need to ensure those children with a positive culture are treated accordingly. So, you will have to read the child’s notes and find out if the patient was sent home with or without antibiotics, and also make sure that the antibiotic given was the right one. Therefore, it is essential that when you discharge a child, you specify in your discharge summary which antibiotic you sent the child with.

We hope to see you around very soon.

Dr Inigo Rubio Pinedo

Deputy Clinical Lead of Emergency Department - Paediatric Emergency Lead