The 21-year-old is one of 16 staff at Wollongong Hospital who will take over senior clinicians' paperwork to give them more time with patients and juniors.

She has worked in administration for nearly seven years and in the health service for the past few years.

The formal job description for the clinical support officers is massive, with dozens of separate tasks. They are meant to support nurses, midwives, medical and allied health staff in such things as data entry for rosters, ensuring births are registered, preparing financial reports, recruitment, leave, payroll and ordering medical stocks.

Previously many of these duties were undertaken by the nurse unit manager.

''I find that my managers now have more time to spend with patients,'' said Ms Menegazzo.

She helps four nurse unit managers in intensive care and the high-dependency units.

''They're all very happy to see me,'' she said. ''They're happy that they're able to liaise with their nurses more and find out what's going on [on the ward].

''I saw my manager's office - when I first [arrived] there was quite a pile of paperwork and now that's my office now.''

Compared with the other area health services, South Eastern Sydney Illawarra has moved quickly to fill its allocated 103 jobs; just 16.5 are unfilled.

Among the hospitals to get clinical support officers, Sydney Children's Hospital has six, the Royal Hospital for Women three,

St Vincent's 11, St George 14 and Sutherland 10. Next week 11 are due to start at Prince of Wales.

The director of nursing at Wollongong Hospital, Suzanne Harris, said the new jobs would make a ''huge difference'' to life in the wards for patients and staff.

''It's of great benefit and certainly a position that is very much appreciated by the three clinical groups … ,'' she said.

Nurse managers spent up to 40 per cent of their time on clerical work, making it difficult to spend time managing patient care and supervising staff, she said. ''It will free clinical time up for nursing, allied health, and the medical officers … It puts these people back on the floor for patient care.