Hospital staff roles

There are many people who contribute to your care while you are in hospital. Numerous people and services work together to provide you with successful treatment in a hospital, from medical assessments and daily treatment to medication and catering. The key roles for staff in a hospital can be broadly categorised into four areas being: support staff.

All these people will play an important role in your treatment and recovery. You may be treated by a number of doctors during your hospital stay – the consultant (specialist), the registrar and the resident.

Together they assess and manage your medical care

Depending on which hospital you are in, you may also be treated by interns and student doctors who work under the supervision of the senior doctors. Doctors have different roles and responsibilities based on their level of experience and their medical specialty. These roles include: student doctors – undergraduate medical students.

The resident is based on the ward and is typically the doctor you will see most often. The registrar is the ward’s senior doctor and is usually contactable on site, while the senior consultant (or specialist) attends ward rounds and meetings at specific times.

Nurses manage most of your ongoing care and treatment in hospital

They assess, plan and administer your daily treatment and manage your general health.

Speak to them about your immediate needs

They can also direct you to the right people to speak to about specific medical issues. Like doctors, nurses have different roles and responsibilities based on their experience and specialties. These roles include:

• associate nurse unit manager – helps the nurse unit manager to run the ward
• acts as the manager when the nurse unit manager is off site specialist nurses
• such as clinical nurse specialists
• clinical nurse consultants clinical nurse educators triage nurses
• emergency department nurses enrolled nurses – provide basic medical care under the supervision of more senior nurses

Allied health professionals are university-educated practitioners who work as part of your multidisciplinary healthcare team. They assess,

• diagnose treat conditions work to prevent disease
• disability. Some examples of allied health professionals include
• speech pathologists

You may also meet allied health assistants, who have been trained to help some of these allied health professionals in a support role. Keeping a hospital running requires a great deal of organisation and administration.

During your hospital stay, you will see a wide range of support and administrative staff taking care of everything from laundry and meals to patient transport and maintenance.

Hospital support staff you may meet during your stay include:

• ward clerks – staff the ward reception desks. doctors (medical staff) nurses allied health professionals Doctors (medical staff) Doctors – roles
• responsibilities senior consultants – specialist doctors who see patients at specific times registrars – senior doctors who supervise residents
• students residents – look after patients on the ward
• are in training for specialisation interns – have completed their studies
• are now finishing their final year in hospital Nurses Nurses – roles
• drinks porters – take care of patient lifting
• transport volunteers – help with fundraising
• ward visits Where to get help Your GP (doctor) Your nurse Your allied health professional Other hospital staff

Key Points

• key roles for staff in a hospital can be broadly categorised into four areas being: support staff
• All these people will play an important role in your treatment and recovery
• Nurses manage most of your ongoing care and treatment in hospital
• They assess, plan and administer your daily treatment and manage your general health
• They assess, diagnose and treat conditions and work to prevent disease and disability