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Nurse helps form flagship service

The following piece was first published in the Liverpool City Champion.

Evan Liverpool Hospital 

Leader: Evan Alexandrou at Liverpool Hospital. Picture: Chris Lane.

There are only a handful of nurses in Australia who can provide vascular access to patients' major vessels.

One of them is Evan Alexandrou, a clinical nurse consultant at Liverpool Hospital who was recognised as a Hero of Liverpool in this year's Liverpool Council awards.

Mr Alexandrou has worked at Liverpool Hospital for 24 years and still counting.

He is a member of the central venous access service and helped to shape it into being world renowned.

The nurse and father of two said he felt the award recognised the team's hard work over the years.

"Our role is to provide vascular access to the patients' major vessels for the purpose of chemotherapy, antibiotic therapy or patients who can't get peripheral cannulas into their hands or their arms. Our role is to cannulate the major vessels in the chest, in the neck and in the groin," Mr Alexandrou said.

"I'm quite honoured that the hospital put me forward for the award – it's recognition for the high-quality work we've been doing over the years.

"Our service has been running now for over 20 years. We were the first nurses in Australia and probably some of the first nurses in the world to do what we do. The job was traditionally done by medical officers, by anaesthesiologists and intensive care doctors.

"I've been here for 24 years and I've had some wonderful experiences from a career advancement perspective. It has been an expanding health service and has provided us a lot of opportunities for nurses that previously weren't available."

The nurse specialising in intensive care said his secret to longevity was simple – it "felt good to help people".

"I found my niche and it was intensive care. It's an extremely rewarding job, knowing you have patients who come to you that have had multiple attempts at doctors or clinical teams trying to gain access to their veins," he said.

"Then they come to see you. You have an ultrasound machine and place the device first time. You feel a sense of gratification that you've been able to help that patient."

"We've had many patients who have been very anxious from past experiences and once we've done the procedure they are so relieved and emotional because they were so stressed," he said.

While the job can be rewarding, the nurse said like everything in life, it had its pitfalls.

You feel a sense of gratification that you've been able to help that patient.
- Evan Alexandrou

"There is an inherent risk in what we do – when we are placing a catheter in the chest, we're only a couple of centimetres away from the lung or major arteries and if you were to puncture those, the consequences could be quite dire.

"But we are highly experienced in using ultrasound and we now train the doctors in ultrasound for guidance in vascular access so we're very confident in using it."

Despite the hospital's internationally-recognised work, Mr Alexandrou said the fight was never over.

"We are still looking to advance our practice further," he said. "We are starting to go into minimally invasive surgical techniques for the type of work we do and we're looking at expanding our research profile.

"We've just completed the world's largest study on peripheral cannulas.

BEFORE HIS SUCCESS: Evan Alexandrou said initially he had doubts of his career choice. But as soon as he got a replacement at a hospital, he knew he wanted to be a clinical nurse. He found his niche in intensive care.

"There's always pressure working within a public system and everyone tries to do the best they can with the resources they have.

"The biggest problem with us is trying to service the hospital population.

"We have become a popular service because patients are getting sicker, we are arguably one of the busiest vascular access services in the country."

So how did this local hero get to where he is today?

"Without the support of my family I wouldn't have been able to do the things that I've done, which has been time intensive. They've been my rock."

Evan was one of 11 Heroes of Liverpool presented with awards at a ceremony on Monday at the Casula Powerhouse Arts Centre.

The other Heroes of Liverpool recipients were:

Dr Ken Silburn: For service to education.
Chloe Esposito: For sporting achievements and support for the community.
Margaret McMahon: For service to community health.
Kenneth Young: For service to NSW RSL, Legacy and RSL charities.
Professor Minoti Apte: For service to medical research.
Professor Hugh Dickson: For service to aged care and rehabilitation.
Liverpool Hospital: For delivering improved services.
Inspector Kernin Lambert: For service to fire and rescue.
Peter Pearce: For service to surf life-saving and the community.
Professor Jeremy Wilson: For service to medical research.

June 2017