Placement Overview
| Placement Title | Critical Care Unit – SRFTP 13 |
| Trust | |
| Your Placement Contact | Collette Garvey, Rebecca Quinn – Send Email |
| Placement Contact’s Role | Collette- Unit Sister, Rebecca-Unit Sister |
| Placement Address | Salford Royal Hospital, Stott Lane, Salford, M6 8HD |
| Placement City/Town: | Salford |
| Placement Phone | 0161 206 8741, 0161 206 8752 |
| Placement Web Site | salfordcriticalcare.org |
| Your University Contact: | Melanie Stephens, Mary Braine, Sue Walker – Send Email |
About this placement
What is organised for students on commencement of placement?
Critical care is a fast paced and dynamic environment. We provide specialist care for our patients with major trauma, a wide range of surgical and orthopaedic specialties, neurosurgical and neuroscience conditions and critically ill medical patients.
The critical care unit has 40 level 2 (high dependency) and Level 3 (intensive care) beds divided into 5 pods of 8 beds.
All nurses rotate throughout all the pods.
We provide a welcome pack and induction at the start of your placement.
Off duty, and mentor allocation is provided before coming to the unit.
What are the arrangements for mentors/assessors?
We have multiple learners on the unit at any one time including pre and post registration nurses.
You will be allocated an assessor and supervisor. You will be expected to work with the staff allocated to you to ensure your assessor can assess you appropriately during your placement.
What shift patterns are students allocated for learning?
Long Days:
07:00 – 19:30
Nights:
19:00 – 07:30
Short shift can be accomodated on discussion.
Notes:
We expect students to follow their assessor / supervisor’s off duty where possible, however some flexibility will be accommodated. In order to enhance your learning experience, we normally expect students to complete at least one week of nights whilst with us to understand the full working cycle of critical care.
The shifts are 12hours, therefore every 4 weeks you will be required to work an additional 6 hour shift to ensure you complete the required hours.
If you anticipate any difficulties with these shift patterns please discuss your concerns with the PEL and PEF prior to commencing placement.
If you are going to be late for your shift you must ring the units shift leader: 0161 2068752.
Changing rooms are provided on the unit.
What patient care situations are available in this placement?
Caring for patients with single or multi organ failure, including trauma / post op care / respiratory failure / neuro surgical.
What nursing model is used for planning care?
We use an adapted Medical Model that has been specifically developed for our Critical Care patients at Salford.
What core clinical skills can be learnt?
Basic nursing skills including bed bathing, mouth care, catheter care, pressure care.
*Oxygen therapy
*Wound Care
*Care of surgical wounds
*Care of wound drains
*Care of patients requiring nutritional support (EG NG & PEG )
*Performing a complete assessment of patient including 5 lead ECG, invasive and non invasive BP, CVP, oxygen saturations, respiratory rate and pattern, neurological assessment using GCS, urine output.
*Caring for the critically ill patient
*Communication with patients and families
What additional clinical skills can be learnt?
Caring for tracheostomies, including wound care and suction under direct supervision.
Care of central lines and dialysis lines.
Basic interpretation of blood results
Care of patients requiring CPAP
Care of patient with an external Ventricular drain (EVD)
Care of the agitated/ delirious patient
Safe transfer of the critically ill patient to CT/MRI.
Interprofessional working Exposure to Trauma rehabilitation pathway
Exposure to organ donation
What resources are available to help students learning?
*Simulations run by medical staff
*Working 1:1 with a qualified nurse
*Working with the MDT
*Internal study days specific to Critical Care
*GCS workbook
*EVD workbook
*Pain management workbook
If there is something specific that you come across during your placement and wish to know more, please ask your mentor to direct you for more advice.
What research and practice development activities are being undertaken?
We have a very active research team and multiple research projects are always underway.
We are also have an active Quality improvement team and we always have some form of change of practice underway. Students are more than welcome to bring ideas to the table.
Spoke Placements
Due the nature of this environment being high risk we are limited as to who can spoke to us.
If you wish to spoke to Critical Care you must contact the PEL by email and they will discuss whether they can accommodate this for you. Please only email with this request and not call as staff may not always be available to discuss.
Please refer to your induction book for possible spoke placements outside of critical care. Please note that we ask students to complete external spoke placements towards the end of placements, and all paper work must be up to date before going on spoke.
Additional Information
Practice Education Facilitator – Practice Education Facilitator, Learning & Development Dept, 2nd Floor, Mayo Building, SRFT
PEF email: PEFTeam@nca.nhs.uk