The doctors' actions also earned them the praise of thousands of people at a rally in support of refugees at Melbourne's State Library on Sunday, who erupted into cheers when the hospital was mentioned.
The Australian Medical Association said it had a "fundamental problem" that children were in detention and had been asking governments to look for "any alternative" to it for years.
"We acknowledge the evidence that children in detention face circumstances which are very harmful to their health, their growth and their development," vice president Stephen Parnis said.
He said that if children did need to be detained, then they should be released "in weeks" at the absolute most. Dr Parnis said the AMA was aware that a "number" of doctors who had provided care to children in detention had been quite distressed.
Children were presenting having self-harmed, with anxiety, severe depression and not growing in a healthy or normal way, he said.
Dr Parnis said doctors were constrained in the care that could be offered to these children.
"It flies in the face of our ethical obligation to provide good care." Sydney paediatrician David Isaacs, who runs the children's refugee clinic at the Children's Hospital at Westmead, also backed the Royal Children's Hospital staff.
Dr Isaacs visited Nauru in December 2014 and saw a six-year-old girl try to hang herself. He said his visit to the island left him deeply troubled, and he experienced nightmares on his return.
"These are very traumatic cases where children are severely suicidal and in a lot of trouble," Dr Isaacs said.
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"There is nothing more; but I want nothing more." Christopher Hitchins
