Gabriella Poga

Education, Leadership & Staff Development

• Clinical Education and Teaching: Acting as a clinical resource, delivering guidance and structured education aligned with adult learning principles.
• Preceptorship and Professional Development: Supporting Transition to Practice (TTP) nurses through SMART goal planning, reflective debriefs, and clinical competency development.
• Leadership: guiding colleagues and providing an example of excellent nursing care in the roles of float nurse, shift coordinator, and preceptor.

Governance & Quality Improvement

• Governance & Delegation: Applying the NMBA Decision-Making Framework, Code of Conduct, and NSQHS Standards to guide safe supervision, delegation, and teaching.
• Psychological Safety & Inclusive Practice: Creating a psychologically safe space for learning and feedback, informed by the Equal Opportunity Act 1984 and Disability Services Act 1993.
• Quality Improvement (QI): actively engaging in departmental QI initiatives, including starting a project on independent second checks to promote medication safety.

Clinical Expertise

• Airway Assessment: Understanding the airway-specific risks and complications of anesthetic, with the ability to recognise and respond to acute clinical deterioration.
• Preceptorship and Professional Development: Supporting Transition to Practice (TTP) and junior nurses through SMART goal planning, reflective debriefs and clinical competency development.
• Governance and Delegation: applying the NMBA Decision-Making Framework, Code of Conduct, and NSQHS Standards to guide safe supervision, delegation and teaching.
• Psychological Safety and Inclusive Practice: Creating a psychologically safe space for learning and feedback, informed by the Equal Opportunity Act 1984 and Disability Services Act 1993.
• Airway Assessment: understanding the airway-specific risks and complications of anaesthetic, with the ability to recognise and respond to acute clinical deterioration.
• Advanced Airway Management: delivering PEEP, CPAP, and manual ventilation, and utilising airway adjuncts.
• Clinical Assessment: assessing vital signs, neurovascular and neurological observations and delirium.
• Pain Assessment: understanding and utilising pain assessment tools specific to paediatric patients aged 0-16.
• Pain Management: administering analgesia as per hospital monographs.
• Post-operative Nausea/Vomiting Management: administering antiemetic medications as per hospital monographs.

Collaboration, Advocacy & Communication

• Multi-Disciplinary Team (MDT) Collaboration: coordinating with anaesthetists, surgeons, medical teams and ward nurses to ensure comprehensive care.
• Communication: clear and effective communication adapted to the needs of the patient, parent, or staff member, including the utilisation of an ISOBAR handover.
• Advocacy: prioritising patient safety and positive patient outcomes, facilitating communication between parents/patients and the MDT.
• Family-Centered Care: providing emotional support and comfort to the entire family unit, ensuring their involvement in the patient's care.

• Neurological Assessment: care of patients with complex neurological histories including age-appropriate full neurological observations.
• Seizure Management: recognising and responding to the different types of seizures, following a seizure management plan and administering the appropriate medications as per hospital monographs
• External Ventricular Drain (EVD) Management: documentation and management of EVDs as per hospital policy.
• Cardiovascular Assessment and Management: care of patients with complex cardiac histories including ECG monitoring, performing and understanding 12 lead ECGs, fluid management and oxygen therapy.
• Chest Drain Management: documentation and management of chest drains as per hospital policy.
• CVAD Management: accessing and maintaining CVADs utilising aseptic technique as per hospital policy.
• Patient Nutrition: knowledge of age-appropriate nutrition, liaising with MDT including nutritionists and speech pathologists to develop and appropriate feeding plans, insertion of nasogastric tubes and the accessing and management of various types of enteral feeding tubes.
• ADLs: assisting patients to prioritise ADLs whilst maintaining dignity.
• Medication Administration: administering medications requiring complex medication calculations as per hospital monographs.
• MDT Collaboration: liaising with the MDT, including medical teams, after-hours teams, speech pathologists, dieticians, physiotherapists, palliative care specialists, pharmacy, and HITH, to coordinate patient-specific care plans and discharge planning.
• Wound Management: dressing changes, suture and staple removal and escalation of deterioration utilising hospital policies and aseptic non-touch technique.
• Catheter management: utilisation of bladder scanners, insertion of IDCs CICs using aseptic non-touch technique and ongoing IDC management including hourly readings and appropriate documentation.
• Time management: facilitating and learning to prioritise care of 4-5 patients per shift ensuring their needs were met and the instructions of the treating team followed.