Western Health is further expanding our use of Registered Undergraduate Student of Nursing/Midwifery (RUSON/M) roles following a successful 12-month pilot on the initial 6 wards. The utilisation of these roles significantly grew over 2021 during the COVID Surge period – and were instrumental in supporting our nurses and midwives during this challenging period and allowing our teams to continue to provide Best Care.
Key findings from the initial RUSON pilot includes:
- The RUSON role enabled others to better manage acuity and access demands
- The RUSON role released more time to spend with patients and was viewed as an essential role by peers
- The RUSON role contributed to risk prevention and could be described as the ‘gatekeeper’ of the patient experience through their engagement and presence
To further support our wards, additional second year RUSONs are currently being employed to replace the recently graduated RUSONs.
To enhance the program, this year we will be focusing on:
- Enhancing our governance structures, ensuring the Nurse Unit Managers have consistent and standard tools to maximise the benefits of the RUSON role
- Increasing the Nursing and Midwifery Directorate support for this key role by facilitating the success of our RUSONs ‘through’ appropriate support of our Nurse Unit Managers
- Maximising the RUSON ‘pipeline’ to funnel into Fellowship Programs and graduate employment at Western Health, optimising their gained knowledge of systems and processes. We will provide mentoring for them to encourage them to successfully transition through these time points, to help them become more confident and proficient in their early career years.
To all of our RUSON/Ms we say a sincere thank you for everything that you do to support Best Care and ensuring a good experience for our patients. We look forward to continuing to work with you into the future, and welcoming new RUSON/Ms on board to support additional teams.