Ella Gagolkina is a nurse practitioner employed at the Royal Adelaide Hospital (RAH). She works as a nurse practitioner sedationist (NPS) and anaesthetic nurse. The RAH is a tertiary healthcare facility that is part of the Central Adelaide Local Health Network in South Australia.
Ella has a background in cardio-thoracic intensive care and anaesthetic nursing. She completed an in-service training program in procedural sedation in 2009 and went on to complete both a Master of Clinical Science (Adel) and Master of Nursing – Nurse Practitioner (UniSA). In the fields of procedural sedation and anaesthesia, Ella discovered her passion for advanced practice nursing.
Ella’s passion is to promote advanced practice nursing to anaesthetic and recovery room nurses as a career path to higher knowledge, greater clinical challenges, responsibility and satisfaction. She also wishes to see the role of NPS adopted through the wider health system.
Terrence (Terry) Leane is also employed at the Royal Adelaide Hospital. He has qualifications in several fields of nursing, vocational education, and public health. He has a Master of Nursing – Nurse Practitioner (UniSA) and has been administering procedural sedation since 2006. He is endorsed as nurse practitioner by AHPRA, and employed as a NPS.
Terry’s interests include safety in anaesthesia and procedural sedation, and the development of agreed standards for the selection and training of nurses for advanced practice clinical roles such as NPS.
Both Ella and Terry provide a procedural sedation and analgesia service to patients undergoing diagnostic and therapeutic medical procedures. Working as part of the operating theatre team, the NPS role carries a high level of responsibility and advanced degree of autonomy in decision making. The role requires specific clinical skills and knowledge in human science, pharmacology, disease process and anaesthesia.
