Introduction of a liaison nurse role in a tertiary paediatric ICU.

Introduction: 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.

Results: The year of the PICU LN trial (July 2004-June 2005), 1388 patients were discharged from PICU.