Capacity Building Grant – third year: The Prince Charles Hospital

This grant provides a 'third-year' extension of funding as part of a 2011 EMF Capacity Building grant awarded to The Prince Charles Hospital Emergency Department. With the Capacity Building grant, the Department has engaged in more than 20 research projects. The majority involve significant input from the Hospital's emergency clinicians, who are working in collaboration with other Queensland and interstate emergency department and/or academic institutions such as CSIRO.

Capacity Building Grant – third year: Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital

The Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital (RBWH) Emergency and Trauma Centre (E&TC) is committed to research as a way to improve both patient outcomes and the delivery of emergency care services. With the support of competitive grants from funding bodies, the E&TC has rapidly established a reputation for high quality, medically-oriented clinical and health services research. Our capacity and support for such work has resulted in international collaborations, publications in leading journals and translation of findings into clinical practice with tangible benefits to both patients and health services. Despite these successes, several years ago we recognised that there were still barriers to participation in research by emergency nursing and allied health clinicians.

It was evident that dedicated senior research support was required, which prompted our Capacity Building application to EMF in 2015. The resulting conjoint senior nurse research role was first occupied in 2017 and, in less than 18 months, has energized nursing and allied health clinicians to define key research questions, collaborate across disciplines and institutions, apply for funding, design and conduct research studies, publish manuscripts, present at professional meetings, and enrol in research higher degrees.

In applying to extend the funding for the conjoint senior nurse research fellow to a third year we acknowledge the essential contribution this position makes to our research capacity and to the development of individual nursing and allied health staff into effective clinician-researchers. Together with the commitments already received from RBWH and Queensland University of Technology, a third year of EMF funding will enable the full expectations of this conjoint position to be realized, thereby maximising the likelihood of attracting future recurrent funding.

Research capacity building: Redcliffe Hospital

Redcliffe Hospital Emergency Department (ED) has a growing research track record and an increasing number of clinical staff engaging in research-related activities. To capitalise on this burgeoning interest, we will funding a dedicated Clinical Research Coordinator to provide active support, coordination and promotion of both current and future research activities. The aim of our endeavour is to establish research as a core element of ED activity, together with education & training, provision of clinical care and maintenance of standards in healthcare. We intend to conduct our future research under the auspices of leaders and champions representing four thematic headings: 1. Clinical Care, 2. National Standards, 3. Systems and Process Design, 4. Education and Training.

Capacity Building Grant: Cairns Base Hospital

Cairns Base Hospital Emergency Department is committed to attracting the best emergency physicians and trainees. Our research commitment over the years, particularly the ability to provide 4.10.70 direction and opportunities, has been recognised by our peers as significant, particularly in an environment of heavy clinical \workloads and limited funding opportunities. In the past two years the CBH executive has worked to balance this by increasing staff numbers and allowing more academic opportunities for Emergency Physician and trainees alike.

This Capacity building grant allows the Hospital to appoint, for three years, Associate Professor Jamie Seymour from the James Cook University, School of Medicine and Tropical Biology, as a Research Fellow. A/Prof Seymour has a history of involvement in research with the Hospital's ED -- primarily, but not restricted to, toxinology and advice in study design and analysis. This grant enabled the Hospital to considerably expand and formalise the collaboration.

In his role as Senior Research Fellow, A/Prof Seymour will provide the experience and expertise need to help the Department apply for successful grant applications and help attract and immerse Emergency Medicine trainees in a fertile research environment that actively encourages them with their 4:10:70 as well as research in thelr ongoing career. The department believes that this approach will also increase its attractiveness to emergency physicians in relation to job placement and has unanimous support from the consultants in the department.

The department envisages that the Research Fellow would conduct research training on a weekly basis as part of the present teaching protocol where research ideas and published studies are discussed and examined, where experimental design and statistical analysis of proposed research projects can be developed.

Capacity Building Grant: The Townsville Hospital

The Townsville Hospital Emergency Department (ED) aimed to increase research capacity in the ED . The vision was to create a sustainable research culture within the ED, with a positive research profile and a clear point of contact making Townsville attractive for collaborative research and to establish a track record of research success and outputs ensuring the long-term future of ED research.

Capacity Building Grant: Gold Coast University Hospital

Capacity Building Grant: The Prince Charles Hospital

With an EMF Capacity Building grant, The Prince Charles Hospital Emergency Department has engaged in more than 20 research projects. The majority involve significant input from the Hospital's emergency clinicians, who are working in collaboration with other Queensland and interstate emergency department and/or academic institutions such as as CSIRO.

Projects include:
> DORM
> QAS Clinical Decision Making study
> ARISTOS, sepsis study
> REFRESH, sepsis study
> Paediatric ED evaluation
> Paediatric ED discharge communication
> Pneumothorax study
> Lung ultrasound study
> PHFEW, CO2 in paediactic nasal hi-flow
> POTTY, technique for urine sample collection for pre-toilet trained children
> ED complaints
> Pathology checking
> Melatonin for paediactric ADHD
> ED alternatives study
> Whiplash study
> EMER
> Interns prescribing abilities

Capacity Building Grant: Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital

The Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital (RBWH) Department of Emergency Medicine (DEM) is constantly looking for better ways to improve the care of the sick and injured. Patients are cared for by a team of professionals including doctors, nurses and other allied health professionals. Improvements in care come largely from high quality research.

Our medical specialists in Emergency work on a wide range of challenging, innovative emergency medicine research topics. Their results are reported in some of the top professional journals, including the Lancet. Research led by other team members including nurses, however, is scarce despite the fact that these clinicians play an integral part in emergency care. We believe one of the main reasons for this is the lack of senior research mentors accessible to all clinicians in our department.

We propose creation of a dedicated research position to enhance capacity, develop grants and opportunity for research among our multidisciplinary team. She/he will identify key research questions, design scientific studies, write and submit proposals for funding, supervise the collection and analysis of study data, and support the preparation of reports for presenting and publishing in medical, nursing, and other professional meetings and journals. He/she will also provide training, guidance and encouragement to all ED staff to participate in research; liaise with other investigators (external to DEM) to facilitate optimum conduct of all departmental interdisciplinary projects. Furthermore, she/he will establish collaboration and professional partnerships with academic institutions and other research bodies to attract funds, grants and research to the department.

This position will help to improve the quality of emergency medicine research outputs from the RWBH and boost multidisciplinary team focused research in the department. It will also help build the knowledge base and provide the evidence to guide interventions by all health care workers in the emergency department.

Capacity Building Grant: Princess Alexandra Hospital

The Princess Alexandra Hospital (PAH) Emergency Department is a designated Level 6 Trauma Centre. In 2012, in excess of 50,000 patients presented to the PAH ED, of which more than 35 per cent were admitted.
Clinical expertise within the PAH ED is wide, with specific disease emphasis in toxicology, chronic disease, multi-system disease associated with the elderly population, cardiovascular disease, sepsis and septic shock, infectious diseases and critical care.
The PAH ED is a tertiary referral hospital for trainees of the Australasian College for Emergency Medicine and excels in service delivery and education; areas in which it has a national reputation for excellence.
The outcome from Phase 1 of the QEMRF funded three-year plan to increase research capacity within the PAH ED was successful with all key performance indicators being exceeded.
Phase 2 will build on the platform created in Phase 1 focusing on research promoting prevention or control of diseases.
The vision for research within the PAH ED is that the ED will be regarded as a leader in emergency medicine research attracting clinical and research staff and producing outcomes which will change clinical practice and improve the health and well-being of patients.