Day 14 & 15 – Vocational Days in Riverside and San Bernardino County

Ladd Seekins took Jeffrey on a tour of downtown Riverside. They had a look at the historic Mission Inn which was established in the 19th century whn Riverside was founded. It has major Spanish theme with Moorish architecture. It has the chapel of St Francis inside it. The building still operates as a hotel with a grand lobby.

Jeffrey Williams spent the afternoon with the Trauma Nurse Coordinator, Michael May and Clinical Nurse Educator Terri Reynolds at the Loma Linda Medical Centre in the City of Loma Linda.

With 900 beds are available for patient care, including at Loma Linda University Medical Center East Campus and Loma Linda University Behavioral Medicine Center. LLUMC operates some of the largest clinical programs in the United States in areas such as neonatal care and outpatient surgery and is recognized as the international leader in infant heart transplantation and proton treatments for cancer. Each year, the institution admits more than 33,000 inpatients and serves roughly half a million outpatients. As the only tertiary-care hospital in the area, LLUMC is the only level one regional trauma center for Inyo, Mono, Riverside, and San Bernardino counties.

The actual Loma Linda University Medical Center (LLUMC) and Children's Hospital (LLUCH) is a 797-bed tertiary care facility, and the only Level I trauma center serving an area roughly equal to 25 percent of the State of California. The emergency department evaluates more than 58,000 high acuity patients a year. Of the patients evaluated, forty percent are children.

Admissions by helicopter are very frequent with around 6 per day. The hospital has an 80 bed neonatal unit and therefore is s referral center. Most neonatal retrievals are done by helicopter.

The hospital is a base station for paramedics and provides Mobile Intensive Care Nurses to provide consultations, advice and direction for paramedics on patient destination. All the hospitals are linked up via a system called Readinet which provides details on the hospital status such as ED capacity and bed availability.

Thanks to Treva Webster for organizing the visit.

Arrowhead Regional Medical Center is a state-of-the-art 373-bed facility featuring the newest technology in the field of patient care. The Medical Center is the host to a 24-hour Emergency Department, Level II Trauma Center, three Family Health Centers and the only Burn Center serving San Bernardino, Riverside, Inyo and Mono counties.

The Emergency Department at Arrowhead Regional Medical Center sees approximately 111 000 patients in its 48 bed department. The ED has a three bay locked prison unit to serve County prison and the Sheriff. 1500 major traumas are seen through the hospital each year.

Jeffrey spent the morning with Emergency Preparedness Coordinator, Scott Smith. The Medical centre is reasonably new and as a result design of clinical areas is suited to the management of hazardous materials incidents. The ED has a large decontamination area. The Arrowhead Regional Medical Center maintains a large stock of disaster supplies for the county.

Jeffrey then met with the Associate Hospital Administrator, Judith McCurdy who gave an overview of the nursing related issues. Commonalities with the nursing issues in Australia exist. Arrowhead Regional Medical Center has undertaken some unique initiatives with the nursing shortages. With a vacancy rate of 10%, the hospital has looked at programs where they rehire student nurses as Certified Nursing Assistants with a view to attracting them to work once they graduate. They have also undertaken intensive training programs to try and address critical skills shortages in ICU, ED, Neonates, Labour & Delivery and the Operating Room

Thanks to Lynda Van Hoof from Marketing at Arrowhead Regional Medical Center who gave a tour of the hospital.