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Your child’s condition will be discussed and plans made for the day. We recommend you are present, and we encourage you to ask questions while the doctors are seeing your child.

It can be helpful to write questions down before seeing the doctor. You can use the whiteboard behind your child’s bed for this. Please let your nurse or the ward clerk know if you are leaving the ward, so they can get in touch with you if your doctor comes to see your child.  

The resident or registrar (junior doctors) in your child’s medical or surgical team will let your child’s consultant know that you are in the hospital. Sometimes your child will be seen by the resident or registrar, rather than the consultant, but they will be reporting to the consultant. In most cases, junior doctors and the nursing staff will be providing most of your day-to-day contact and care.  

As a member of your child’s health care team, we strongly encourage you to be actively involved in your child’s care and in decisions for their future care. 

However, it is very important that you provide care for your child only. Please do not touch other patients and speak with your nurse if you have concerns about another child.

On admission to the ward a nurse will orientate you to our facilities including a bedside nurse call button and patient emergency button.  

Patient cots and beds have rails for use to keep patients safe in bed and to prevent falls. Please use the rails if you are not within arms-reach of patient.  

SIDS Guidelines recommend babies sleep on their back, with their head uncovered, no toys or extra blankets in the cot and no objects hanging over their beds.  

It is not safe to put your child into your chair bed with you. Please always put your child to sleep in their bed where we can safely care for them.  

Very small objects or toys must be kept out of reach of our smaller patients. Please make sure these items are out of reach at all times.  

To prevent children from getting burnt, no hot drinks or boiling water are allowed in patient areas.  

The top drawer of the bedside locker is reserved for emergency equipment. Please do not put anything in this drawer. Clear access to this area needs to be maintained. 

Your child may be monitored continuously to allow review of their vital signs. There are monitors located at each bedside, in each ward corridor, and at the nurse’s station located in the middle of the ward. You child's monitoring can be seen by our staff on all of these monitors but please let us know if you have any concerns.  

NSW Health has a Zero Tolerance Approach to preventing and managing violence in the workplace.  This means that everyone in a NSW Facility has the right to an environment free from risks to their personal safety and from any exposure to acts of aggression or violence. Please let you nurse know if you have any concerns during your hospital stay.  

It is expected that families, patients and visitors will respect patient and staff privacy when taking photographic images and other recordings on hand held mobile devices, including smartphones, and sharing photographs or recordings on social media.

Patients and visitors should only take photographs, video and voice recordings with the agreement and/or appropriate written consent of any individual whose image/voice is captured by such devices. Where written consent is not possible, verbal consent must be obtained. 

This includes, but is not limited to, the administration of treatment, medical interventions, consultations or meetings, or the performance of any aspect of clinical duties regardless of whether the staff member can be identified or not. .

Patients and families should respect clinical advice and not photograph, film or record clinical procedures where it is identified it could interfere with care.

Hand hygiene is the single best way to prevent the spread of infections in the hospital and at home. All NSW Health employees are required to comply with hand hygiene guidelines when caring for your child. 

Please wash your hands before and after touching, feeding and changing your child and ask visitors to do the same. Also if siblings, family or friends are unwell, please ask them not to visit.  

Your child may need to be isolated during their hospital stay if they are infectious or immunocompromised. 

If your child needs to be isolated your nurse will give you instructions about where you and your child are allowed to be within the hospital and what personal protective equipment you may need to wear. 

They will also let you know what bathroom facilities to use. Your nurse will be able to assist you if need anything from the common areas on the ward, including the kitchen, as you and your child need to stay in the room.   

Please try to keep valuable items at home. If you do have valuable items with you, including your mobile phone and other electronic devices, jewellery or money, please keep them safe at all times.  

We ask that you be respectful of other patients and families by keeping your phone calls brief and please do not make phone calls from the ward in patient areas between 8pm and 7am. Please make sure that you take your phone charger when your child is discharged from the hospital.  

You can receive calls from family and friends directly to your bedside phone. Please note that if you receive a phone call between 8pm and 7am, it will automatically be diverted to the nursesâ€� station, so it does not disturb others in the room. Please ask your nurse if you need to make a call and are unable to.   

We provide linen, including baby wraps and clothes if required. If your child has a preferred blanket or pillow please bring these to the hospital.  

We supply nappies for children who need them and have bathroom facilities for all patients. 

We can provide you with clean towels and soap, and you can buy toiletries from the hospital if you need them. Please don’t use the patient’s bathrooms unless instructed by a nurse. 

Each bedspace has entertainment options. Please ask your nurse if you need assistance operating TVs or tablets. We ask that all TVs are turned off by 9pm so that patients can rest.  

It could be helpful to bring some familiar items from home, such as a favourite book, music, toy, pillow slip or blanket that may comfort your child or young person during their stay in hospital.  

Breastfeeding and expressing 

Your child’s hospital admission is a significant event that could impact your milk supply as well as your baby’s ability to breastfeed. Our staff are happy to help support breastfeeding. If you would like any equipment, assistance or advice, please ask the nurse looking after you child and we will get the information you need and ask a lactation consultant to see you where possible. 

Meals are provided by the hospital for breastfeeding mothers so please let us know if this is your intention so we can organise this for you.  

Formula

If your child is using formula please bring an unopened tin to the hospital and it will be sent to the Formula Room so that your child’s feeds can be made. The Formula Room won't accept opened tins. We have a supply of teats and bottles, but if your child has preferred equipment for feeding please bring these to the hospital. We provide sterilisation equipment.