The Dame Elisabeth Murdoch Nursing Development Scholarship was established to champion nursing excellence at the RCH and help transform paediatric healthcare. This year, that vision is realised through its recipient, Neurovascular Clinical Nurse Consultant at the RCH, Adam Rozsa. His mission is clear: to ensure the early signs of neurological decline in children are recognised and acted upon before it’s too late.
Adam Rozsa (middle), the 2026 scholarship recipient with Adjunct Professor Kathryn Riddell (left), Chief Nursing Officer at the RCH, and Ryan Brown (right) Chief Executive Officer of the RCH Foundation
When a child’s neurological condition begins to deteriorate, every minute matters. Conditions such as stroke, spinal cord compression and refractory seizures can escalate rapidly – and missed warning signs can mean the difference between recovery, permanent disability or worse. However, identifying early neurological changes in children remains highly complex.
“It can be a tricky area of assessment – not just for nurses, but for clinicians throughout the hospital,” Adam explained.
“We’re trained to pick up neurological deterioration, but it can be obscured by other factors: a child who is pre-verbal, drowsy after an operation, critically unwell, or has a developmental delay. We know that these cohorts are at further increased risk, and that delayed recognition can lead to significant complications,” he continued.
According to Adam, current assessment tools are often better at detecting late-stage deterioration rather than subtle early changes, which can impact patient outcomes.
“We want to recognise the change sooner. That’s what I’m hoping the scholarship will help me do,” Adam explained.
His project, ‘Detecting Acute Neurological Changes Early’ (DANCE), aims to develop a hospital-wide framework to improve early recognition and response to neurological deterioration across all patient cohorts and clinical settings.
The project will map current practice gaps, involve a comprehensive review of validated international assessment tools, and develop an implementation plan to embed consistent, evidence-based escalation pathways across the hospital.
“We’re looking to move what can be a significant patient safety issue towards an opportunity for clinical leadership and excellence in paediatric care. There is a lot of innovation happening in the neurology space, and our assessment tools need to keep up to recognise some of these changes,” Adam explained.
Thanks to the scholarship, Adam will be able to undertake site visits to leading paediatric centres in the United States – including the National Children’s Hospital Washington, St. Louis Children’s Hospital and Johns Hopkins Children’s Center – to benchmark best practice and explore how proven models can be adapted for the RCH.
Adam’s project has the potential to enhance patient care and transform paediatric healthcare for generations, reflecting the true purpose of this scholarship.
“I’m incredibly grateful to the RCH Auxiliaries for investing in me. The opportunity stands to bring great benefit to the children Dame Elisabeth was thinking about when this scholarship came into existence – and I intend to honour it to the best of my ability,” Adam concluded.
The Dame Elisabeth Murdoch Nursing Development Scholarship is made possible thanks to the RCH Auxiliaries and is proudly supported by our Principal Partner, Pentavite.