INTRODUCTION

Welcome to the Newborn Care Centre (NCC) at Royal North Shore Hospital (RNSH) in Sydney, Australia.

RNSH is a major teaching hospital of the University of Sydney and is a tertiary referral hospital. The RNSH NCC is the only Neonatal Intensive Care Unit in the Northern Sydney health area which sustains about 11,000 births annually. RNSH has approximately 2500 births per year.

The NCC is funded for 27 beds. There are approximately 500 admissions per year and of these we ventilate 150 babies. There are three distinct areas in the NCC:

· Intensive care area: accommodates 9 babies on full respiratory support.

· High dependency area: accommodates 10 babies, some requiring assisted respiratory support and others non-ventilated intensive care patients.

· Special care area: accommodates up to 10 babies requiring special care.

We provide a wide range of medical management for both pre-term (from 23 weeks gestation) and full-term infants using conventional ventilation strategies. High frequency ventilation and nitric oxide therapy are also available. Neonatal echocardiography for physiological assessment purposes is encouraged and taught. A consultative service is provided by physicians and surgeons from the two children’s hospitals: Sydney Children’s Hospital at Randwick and The Children’s Hospital at Westmead.  Babies with major surgical or cardiac problems are transferred to one of the specialised Children’s Hospital.

There are 6 neonatologists, 7 registrars and 1 fellow working in our NCC.The registrars are expected to manage the day-to-day running of the NCC with supervision as required from the fellow and consultants. There are no residents employed in the NCC, however, the nursing staff are experienced and skilful in a number of activities and procedures that are carried out in some other units by residents.