renal/ dialysis nursing in australia

[ordoghaz]

Hi,

been reading through different threads, and realised there isnt much about renal/dialysis nursing in Australia.

I have interest in this because I am at the moment, working on getting registered with AHPRA.

bit of a background renal/dialysis nursing in the UK, the average ratio for 1 nurse is around 4 patients but depeding on where you work the set up can be quite varried. I have worked in a hospital in London where you have like 4 stations for yourself, where you put on 4 set of patients, take off, put on, and take off again. they only had 2 shifts a day, which was good. and almost everyone did long hours shifts. on the other hand, where i work now,

its more like team nursing approach, where you have like 4-5 RNs putting patients on, with around 16-18 patients all together. you will have one support worker who could help in moving patients around, doing obs, etc. we have 3 shifts on some days, and 2 on the rest, then around turn-overs we again an additional 3-5 staff on the floors. this is on a chronic outpatients dialysis set- up.

on acutes, obviously numbers differ all the time, but i think they may have around 3 patients each, and its all changing, bec they are training ward/bedside nurses to do dialysis as well, so you may actually end up looking after 6 patients in a bay, plus dialyse 1 or 2 out of 6.

then you have outpatients renal nurses for kidney care/ low clearance 2-3 looking after 300 or so patients,

3 transplant nurses looking after 400 or so patients, these jobs are mostly clinic ff-ups.

pre- post transplant

then you have around 4-5 capd nurses looking after i dont really know how many. hundred or so, i would imagine.

and 1 home haemo nurse with 7 patients or so.

service wise, its quite holistic, meaning. you get involved referring patients to podiatry, ots, falls care team, community stuff, gps, transport etc.

[eley26]

Hi there,

I want to work as a dialysis nurse here in australia but i don't know where to start. I gained my qualifications in the philippines and did the bridging course. I am currently working in a medical centre as a practice nurse.

So i have to do post graduate degree to get in?

Ahmmm..

thanks