Dr Meredith Allen With a background as a paediatric intensive care consultant and clinical lead for quality and patient safety, Meredith was recently appointed as Director of Medical Education by The Royal Children’s Hospital (RCH) and The University of Melbourne, a position funded by the Foundation. Meredith is focused on developing education programs that span all levels of training, including an innovative simulation training program in the education precinct at the new RCH. Simulation training allows teams of doctors, nurses and allied health professionals to train together to optimise performance in complex and critical patient scenarios. When completed, the RCH simulation training program will be a world leader in medical simulation, providing enormous benefits to hospital staff and medical students, and improving quality of care for patients. Meredith says of the program: “This exciting program allows continual education through simulation into the daily clinical environment. Embedding education into clinical care allows all health professionals to continue to improve their skills and behaviours to
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deal rapidly and effectively with a clinical emergency, ultimately, improving outcomes for our patients and families.” Meredith champions an holistic approach to training at the RCH: “Education is a lifelong commitment in medicine. It’s an ongoing journey from novice to expert both technically and non-technically, then still remains vital for health professionals with years of experience. And it’s more than knowing just the medical facts; other skills such as communication, decision-making and teamwork are equally important to our patients and families.” “It’s my hope that sharing the work we do at our state-of-the art facility here in Melbourne will inspire the next generation of health care workers in Australia and also around the world.”