The Staff Specialist will provide specialist medical services to the Royal Hobart Hospital within the limits of specified clinical privileges and will undertake work within allocated clinical support portfolios that are aligned to the strategic priorities of the Trauma Service.

The staff specialist role in the Trauma Service will participate in all aspects of the medical management of injured multi-trauma patients across a range of settings, including the trauma and acute surgical ward, the emergency department, and intensive care. The role also has strong supervisory, education and quality improvement activities attached to it. The Trauma Service at the Royal Hobart Hospital also aims to provide timely advice for regional hospitals managing severely injured patients across the state and the staff specialist is involved with retrieval, Ambulance Tasmania and other relevant specialties in assessing need for timely transfer.

Royal Hobart Hospital is Tasmania’s largest hospital and major referral centre. As the major clinical teaching and research centre, RHH collaborates with the University of Tasmania and other institutions.  All our services work closely together to focus on delivering excellence in healthcare to achieve improved outcomes for our consumers, our workforce, and the Tasmanian community.

The Royal Hobart Hospital (RHH) Trauma Service has two key functions: clinical service provision for injured patients and trauma system clinical governance.

Clinically, the RHH Trauma Service is a consultant-led multidisciplinary team that provides timely, evidence-based care to patients with complex or multiple injuries from the point of arrival in hospital until such time as they can be discharged or safely transferred to the care of another team. While the trauma bed-card has medical leadership, the Trauma Service emphasises the value of nurse-led case management and extensive allied health involvement in order to achieve continuity of care and to maximise the wellbeing of patients after injury.

The clinical governance function of the Trauma Service includes operation of the statewide trauma registry, development and revision of trauma clinical guidelines, provision of a statewide trauma education program and operation of community outreach and injury prevention programs.

• Lead daily ward rounds of trauma inpatients in collaboration with the Clinical Nurse Consultant - Statewide Trauma (CNC).
• Ensure a Trauma Service medical officer of appropriate seniority attends trauma calls within working hours and ensure timely progression to definitive care.
• Supervise junior medical staff to ensure timely completion of all routine elements of trauma care, including the trauma tertiary survey, referrals and discharge documentation.
• Provide expert medical advice to multidisciplinary meetings affecting trauma patients.
• Communicate with other specialty teams in order to facilitate admission, transfer, takeover of care or discharge of trauma patients.
• Lead the medical component of trauma outpatient clinics.
• Participate in the after-hours on call roster, with in person review according to current trauma service guidelines.
• Provide expert trauma management advice to other inpatient teams, to clinicians at referring hospitals and to primary care providers, as requested.
• Work collaboratively with Ambulance Tasmania and retrieval services to assess if timely transfer of an injured patient is required
• Develop and maintain collaborative relationships with key stakeholders throughout the Tasmanian trauma system.
• Partner with Trauma Case Managers and the CNC to ensure continuity of person-centred care for all trauma inpatients.
• Actively participate in and contribute to the organisation’s Quality & Safety and Work Health & Safety processes, including in the development and implementation of safety systems, improvement initiatives, safeguarding practices for vulnerable people, and related training.
• The incumbent can expect to be allocated duties, not specifically mentioned in this document, that are within the capacity, qualifications and experience normally expected from persons occupying positions at this classification level.