Practice development

Practice Development (PD) is the continuous process of improvement and innovation with the central aim of developing Person-Centred Care. Person-Centred Care is health care that is respectful of, and responsive to, the preferences, needs and values of patients and consumers. Clinical Care Standards support the key principles of patient-centred care, namely treating patients with dignity and respect, encouraging, and supporting patient participation in decision making, communicating and sharing information with patients about clinical conditions and treatment options, providing patients with information in a format that they understand so they can participate in decision making.

PD aims to engage clinicians, patients, families, careers, and friends in the experience of care, providing meaningful opportunities to innovate and change services to meet the needs of all involved.

Patient care initiatives

Nurses and midwives have a major impact on patient experience. At Sydney Local Health District we believe supporting our staff and promoting high quality, evidence-based care is integral to achieving positive patient experiences and safe patient outcomes.

Our Culture and Leadership Initiatives help us to: 

• Deliver safe and effective patient care and outcomes
• Improve patient and family experiences
• Create positive working environments for our staff to improve workplace culture and staff wellbeing, making our District a workplace everyone is proud to call their own.

Each program provides a range of methods and tools to help staff make local changes to practice and processes to enhance the care environment.

Safety culture

Sydney Local Health District takes the safety and security of our staff very seriously.

Forming part of the Nursing and Midwifery Executive Unit and working closely with the District's Clinical Governance and Risk team, our Safety Culture Coordinator looks at ways to make our working environments safe. This includes mitigating risks such as violence and aggression. We have programs and models of care to support our staff.

Clinical Practice and Research

Clinical Practice

Our Clinical Practice Nurse Manager helps us deliver the highest quality care in partnership with our patients and their families.

They provide a transparent and accountable culture of safety and quality and are responsible for developing and implementing efficient systems to collect, review and communicate nursing and midwifery sensitive quality and safety data.

Customer feedback is also used to enhance clinical practice.

The Clinical Practice Nurse Manager supports staff so they can deliver compassionate, patient and family-centred care, as well as focusing on the sustainability of staff wellness through coaching and other programs.

Research

Nursing and Midwifery Symposium

Every two years, the Sydney Local Health District Nursing and Midwifery Services team holds a symposium to showcase the outstanding research and practice development activities that have been undertaken by our nurses and midwives.

The symposium celebrates the achievements of our nurses and midwives. The next symposium will be held in November 2025.

Symposium Awards

The purpose of the Nursing and Midwifery Symposium awards recognises excellence and encourages innovation in clinical practice. The awards are intended to support the research/innovation development, research/innovation activities or dissemination of nurse or midwife-led research/innovation across the district.

Awards are presented for individuals or teams.

Abstracts

The Sydney Local Health District Nursing and Midwifery Symposium working party accept abstracts from both completed projects and projects in process. Applications for oral presentations and poster presentations are accepted.

Sydney Local Health District has a number of experienced nurse and midwifery researchers who are available to provide support and advice for when staff consider presenting at the Symposium.