The RCH’s Education Hub has been central to the delivery of education on campus for close to a decade. By working with campus partners such as The University of Melbourne, the Hub has supported clinical excellence through its one-of-a-kind delivery of programs.  

“When it comes to clinical care, we often think about the technical bits of learning. For instance, learning about diseases or treatments. A lot of what the Education Hub does is think about how we can support health providers thrive,” explained Professor Amy Gray, Head of the University of Melbourne Department of Paediatrics and the Director of the Education Hub.  

Through innovative and bespoke learning practices, the team have been able to deliver programs that are cultivating a holistically skilled workforce. Similarly, as a well-established leader in the field, the RCH’s Simulation team has been making a profound impact in improving teamwork and driving safer clinical environments. 

“We’ve known for years how important simulation is in supporting health teams. But simulation today doesn’t look the same as it did five years ago. We now use simulation to test ideas before we even put them into practice. This really elevates the safety for patients and their families,” Amy highlighted.   

The Education Hub and Simulation team have already made a profound impact on the paediatric workforce across the state. For instance, in 2024, both the Education Hub and the Simulation team’s outreach efforts supported 111 health facilities across metropolitan, regional and rural Victoria, empowering clinicians to look after their local communities. 

“We’ve worked with hospitals that have never done a tonsillectomy before. Hospitals across the state expanded their services to address long waiting lists for this common procedure.  To help them do so with the best possible care our nurses went to metropolitan and regional hospitals to upskill the post-operative teams. So, I think this statewide and regional impact is really important,” Amy said.  

“The feedback we’ve heard on our outreach programs is that it has helped change the way they look after children. It has also given them new evidence and new ideas of how to practice that has been quite rapidly incorporated into what they do,” she continued. 

This new partnership will help uplift clinicians and paediatric staff across the RCH and state-wide, ensuring that even more children and young people can receive the best possible care, closer to home.  

“Our health system needs to continually grow and change, and so to do the best for our patients, we need to continually take in new evidence and research. We’re working to enable the whole organisation to grow and learn, and be more adaptable,” Amy emphasised.  

The Education Hub’s impact would not be possible without the support of the Good Friday Appeal and its generous donors. This is something that Amy and her team are incredibly grateful for.   

“Investment in education is an investment in the future. This can often be taken for granted, but I’m so incredibly grateful when education receives the support from philanthropy because it allows us to do things that we would not be able to do otherwise,”. 

Professor Amy Gray, Head of the University of Melbourne Department of Paediatrics and Director of the Education Hub.  

Key Statistics

• In 2023, more than 15,000 clinical and non-clinical staff participated in the Education Hub and Simulation team’s programs combined, helping build a quality workforce both within and beyond the hospital’s walls. 
• In 2024, these outreach efforts provided custom education programs to 111 health facilities, including 36 regional centres and 75 rural hospitals or acute care facilities.
• In just the last year, the program has reached 5,000 staff across the campus through 500 face-to-face education events. The program has also accelerated opportunities for digital learning through technology. This includes the introduction of a virtual learning platform with over 20,000 users in 67 countries, podcasts that have 17,000 downloads a year, and web-based video content which have over 35,000 views each year.