The Hong Kong Children's Hospital plays an important role of nurturing paediatric healthcare professionals during different stages of their career, in order to raise the overall service standard.

Designated training fund for staff

HKCH receives designated funding from the government for training healthcare professionals to cater for service development. So far, over 450 doctors, nurses and allied health professionals have participated in related training activities including attachment or visit to renowned overseas medical institutions, commissioned training by overseas and local experts, and sponsored training programmes.

▲HKCH is granted designated training fund by the government. The physiotherapist on the left was attending overseas training to acquire the latest knowledge and skills.

Clinical teaching for future doctors

HKCH is the teaching site of both medical faculties of the University of Hong Kong and the Chinese University. Medical students can get clinical exposure and learn about bedside skills through participating in patient consultations and case discussions. The unique and complex paediatric cases at HKCH also offer students a practical learning experience.

▲At the specialist outpatient clinic, Honorary Chief of Service (Paediatrics and Adolescent Medicine) Prof. Godfrey Chan shows some HKU medical students how to review medical records and explain patient's condition.

▲CUHK medical students gather around a patient being examined by Assistant Professor Dr Alex Leung in the haematology and oncology ward.

Hands-on simulation training

The hospital's Simulation Training Centre, also known as ChildSim, provides paediatrics-related simulation training for healthcare professionals all over Hong Kong. Since 2018, it has conducted 364 classes by 260 instructors, training more than 4,000 learners.

According to Deputizing Centre in Charge Dr Bill Chan, all the five mandatory training for paediatric resident trainees (namely neonatal resuscitation, paediatric advanced life support, safe paediatric sedation, children protection, and paediatric palliative care) are held at ChildSim, and some of these courses are essential for paediatric nurses as well. Besides, professionals from other specialties can come to ChildSim to learn how to tackle problems with child patients, such as airway intervention, tracheostomy and surgical emergencies.

ChildSim also arranges simulation programme for paediatric interns to make up for their bedside experience so they are more capable in recognizing paediatric emergencies and providing first responses.

▲Neonatal resuscitation training in action. There are well-equipped labs at ChildSim for simulating real-life scenarios and evaluating learners' performance.

▲A group of paediatric interns just finished training at ChildSim. Behind them is a decommissioned ambulance for critical care transport training, which has become more important as the new hub-and-spoke model calls for increased inter-hospital transfers.

As face-to-face training is affected by COVID-19, ChildSim quickly shifted gear to online learning format. It has to date aired nearly 150 live webcast sessions where speakers shared their profound knowledge and experience over a wide range of paediatrics-related topics, while allowing the paediatric community to earn CME credits.