Laura Raiti started working at Northern Health as an intern in 2016.

Just two years on, after commencing her paediatric training with us, she was awarded the 2018 Victorian Junior Doctor of the Year award, by the Confederation of Postgraduate Medical Education Councils (CPMEC). Laura tells us about her Northern Health journey.

“Following my internship and paediatric training, I was lucky enough to come to Northern Health as a paediatric resident for six months in 2018 and hope to return for another rotation in the future as a paediatric registrar. In between my rotations, I have an ongoing casual contract so I can work as a locum doctor to help cover shifts,” she said.

Laura’s favourite thing about working here is the culture.

“There is a great culture at Northern Health, and Northern Hospital has a fantastic work environment! Everyone is very approachable, friendly and keen to help each other,” she says.

“I had a wonderful experience in my internship, working with a number of different teams and was lucky to have been mentored, supervised and taught by so many passionate clinicians,” she adds.

“I thoroughly enjoyed returning to Northern Health in 2018 to work in the Paediatric Department, and I genuinely felt like a valued part of the team working in the Children’s Ward and Special Care Nursery,” she says.

Northern Health recognised her hard work and nominated her for the ‘Junior Doctor of the Year’ award.

“In 2018, I was the chair of the Postgraduate Medical Council of Victoria (PMCV) Junior Medical Officer Forum and the Australasian Junior Medical Officers’ Committee, where I had the opportunity to represent junior doctors at both a state and federal level. The ‘Junior Doctor of the Year’ award recognises my advocacy work, interests and passion for improving the culture of medical education and training within our workplace and the profession,” she adds.

The award was a huge achievement and meant a lot to Laura, who says she’s very appreciative of Northern Health for recognising her work, in particular, Susie Sangas from the Medical Education Department, who nominated her for the award.

“Dr Laura Raiti is an outstanding junior doctor and has participated in many activities that enhance the wellbeing of junior doctors. We congratulate her on this well deserved award,” Susie said.

“I am very passionate about education and training, and have held a number of leadership positions and representative roles to help advocate for the needs of junior doctors both at a state level and nationally,” Laura says.

“I have also helped to promote wellbeing and a supportive workplace culture, to help deliver excellent patient care, but also, self-care to ensure we are looking after ourselves and each other,” she adds.

Laura hopes to continue this advocacy work during her paediatric training and throughout her medical career.

Pictured (left to right): Susie Sangas, Laura Raiti & Rachael Coutts 

Kim Kennedy is a former Broadmeadows Hospital dialysis patient using her own experience to help others.

She first connected with Northern Health in 2011, having end stage renal failure, and started peritoneal dialysis in 2013 until she converted to haemodialysis in 2016.

The diagnosis of kidney failure came as a shock to Kim, who had never been in hospital apart from having her children.

“I remember I was outside one day and for some reason my ankles felt really funny, which I thought was strange because you’re not really meant to feel anything there. I looked down and they were huge! I pressed them in – usually you get that white and then it goes, but that didn’t happen – it was a dint that didn’t bounce back. Everything started from there,” she says.

Cheryl Rofe, BHS-CHS Nurse Unit Manager, says kidney failure is a quiet disease that tends to sneak up on people, because symptoms are usually mistaken for something else.

“People just think I’m tired because I’m getting old, I’ve put on weight, that’s why I’ve got fatty ankles, I’ve become breathless because I’m unfit – they don’t realise these are the symptoms of kidney failure,” she says.

“You have to lose 95% of your kidney function before any symptoms begin.”

Kim was on the transplant waiting list for a new kidney for four years, finally receiving her transplant in June 2016.

When Kim received her kidney transplant, she wanted to make difference to other dialysis patients by doing some fundraising for the unit, and also wanted to raise awareness about this disease within the community.

“I wanted to help the patients somehow through my own experience and give back,” Kim says.

“There’s not much awareness about kidney failure and kidney patients within our community. I wanted to do something to change this and support patients going through what I went through.”

With assistance from Priscila Angeles, IDU – TNH Satellite Nurse Unit Manager, and dialysis unit staff, Kim got in contact with the Northern Health Foundation, who, alongside a close friend of Kim’s, organised a Nephrology Dinner Dance to raise funds for the dialysis unit.

The event was a success and supported the purchase of a new treatment chair (pictured below), helping future dialysis patients to feel more comfortable and reduce pressure areas.

For more information about kidney health and symptoms to watch out for, please visit Kidney Health Australia.

Priscila Angeles and dialysis patient, Luchie Kimmer, on the new dialysis chair.

Northern Health’s Daily Safety Brief is a daily huddle whereby all areas of the organisation come together to highlight any issues affecting patient and staff safety that might have happened in the previous 24 hours, and whether anything is predicted to happen over the next 24 hours.

Jane Poxon, Chief Operating Officer, leads the huddle and says, “the idea of the briefing is to take the pulse of the organisation and know where our hot spots are”.

A senior medic is also the ‘Safety Officer of the Day’. Their roles are to ensure that all areas reporting as Red/Amber have sufficient plans and support in place to ensure patient and staff safety on a daily basis.

Inpatient areas and departments (clinical and non-clinical), represented by at least one person from their area, report out for 60 seconds each to highlight their areas’ overall safety status. If the area is in Red or Amber, they are asked to identify the issues that are affecting them and how the organisation can support them (if needed).

The Daily Safety Brief came about through a High Reliability Organisation (HRO) project, whereby a working group (consisting of nurse unit managers, medics, allied health etc.) came together to review the ‘Reliable Patient Management System Tier Meetings’ that were in place, and to understand whether there was an opportunity to improve these.

The Daily Safety Brief happens everyday at 9.45 am and is a standing meeting with Broadmeadows Hospital and Bundoora Centre phoning in via conference call.

Any further questions or feedback can be directed to the project manager for this HRO project, Ed Savill: Edward.Savill@nh.org.au.

They say laughter is the best medicine, and our youngest patients at Northern Hospital Epping got to test that theory out today thanks to another visit from the ‘clown doctors’.

Clown doctors provide a welcome escape from the reality of hospitalisation, visiting patients and their families to bring humour to healing.

Laughter not only relaxes our patients, but also helps their families who may be anxious and overwhelmed.

The clown doctors visited a number of different areas of the hospital including the Emergency Department and Children’s Ward, and prescribed a healthy dose of cheer throughout.

“We just love having them here – they are a great distraction to break up the hospital day,” said Children’s Ward Nurse Unit Manager, Katrina Burke.

We thank them for their unique contribution to health care, as they add to our patient-centred approach here at Northern Health.

You can check them out in action in the Children’s Ward in the video below!

Yesterday, we welcomed Channel Nine to Northern Hospital Epping to interview Cardiologist and University of Melbourne Professor, Peter Barlis, about a cutting-edge technology used to create virtual scans of inside coronary arteries.

In collaboration with Melbourne University, the world-first virtual reality technology has been designed to give cardiologists greater information and help to improve clinical decision-making for better patient care.

Pioneered by Professor Barlis, the technology uses the latest in high-resolution scans and the use of super-computers and mathematical models to compute a “virtual fly through” inside the artery, to look at how cholesterol deposits form and to guide cardiologists on whether treatment with a stent is required.

Not only will the technology be beneficial for clinicians, it will also provide numerous benefits for patients including minimising the number of invasive procedures and allowing for faster, more accurate assessment.

“Future developments of the technology will see scan results available almost instantaneously at the point-of-care, thereby giving doctors the best and quickest way to safely manage each patient with cardiovascular disease,” said Professor Barlis.

Northern Health patient, 68 year old Frank Davies, has suffered heart complications for over 20 years. Yesterday, he spoke with Channel Nine reporters about his journey and his hopes for the new technology.

“If it saves one person, it’s worth it,” Frank said.

“Hopefully me,” he adds.

The technology has been patented by Professor Barlis and his team, who are working to bring this to as many patients across Australia and the world, and has been published in the prestigious European Heart Journal.

See the full story here:

Melbourne surgeons are turning to virtual reality in their fight against heart disease. @maddieslattery #9News pic.twitter.com/ouQO7NiEgK

— Nine News Melbourne (@9NewsMelb) February 13, 2019

This week, Northern Health launched its new Oncology and Haematology Symptom and Urgent Review Clinic (SURC).

SURC is a free service for any patient with cancer, who is experiencing distressing side effects from undergoing systemic (chemotherapy or immunotherapy) treatment at Northern Health.

SURCs provide an alternative to patients attending the emergency department (for those with non-critical issues) and is staffed by an experienced cancer nurse, who may provide advice over the phone or request that a patient comes into the clinic.

These clinics have been established at major cancer units across Victoria and have proven to be a very useful service for patients undergoing cancer treatments.

Our clinic will be located within the Day Oncology Unit at the Northern Hospital, and will give patients direct access to Specialist Oncology/Haematology Nurse Practitioner, Michael Cooney.

“SURC will benefit the Northern community, as it provides a context-specific place for patients to call and go to, to manage treatment or cancer related side effects,” Michael said.

“It adds to continuity of care, in that they can get in touch with someone who knows their story and who understands what’s happening to them,” he said.

“It’s great that Northern has supported the idea of establishing one of these clinics, and puts us in the running with major hospitals that have also established these clinics,” he added.

Frances Barnett, Medical Oncology Head of Unit, said, “overall, the clinic aims to proactively manage patient symptoms, keeping our patients as well as possible and reducing their need to access emergency services.”

“Thank you to our SURC project team, the steering committee and consumers who provided feedback, the cancer services leadership team and executive,” she said.

Northern Health patient, Dom (pictured above), did the honours of cutting the ribbon to officially open the clinic. Check out the video below!

If you have any patients experiencing side effects from their systemic treatment at Northern Health, the SURC nurse can be contacted on 0498 131 363 from 8.30 am – 4 pm Monday to Friday (excluding public holidays).

The Northern Hospital foyer was buzzing with kids, parents, Melbourne University students and teddy bears, for another ‘Teddy Bear Hospital’ day.

This initiative, held four times a year at Northern Hospital, aims to help kids get familiar with hospital environments and some of the basic equipment, helping our youngest patients feel more comfortable when they come to see a doctor.

The programme benefits the medical students as well. Ashlee Frye, third year medical student at Melbourne University, says this programme helps them get used to talking to kids in a fun way.

“For some medical students, talking to small children can be scary. We are used to seeing healthy children, so opportunities like this can help potentially seeing and picking up on changes in behaviours, recognising symptoms and similar. We have to know what is normal first, to be able to pick up on abnormal,” she said.

Wei Qi Fan, Head of Neonatal Unit Northern Hospital and Associate Professor in Paediatrics at Melbourne University, said that both parents and children come to hospital stressed and anxious, and the teddy bear activities are here to help them familiarise, not only with the environment, but also with the stethoscope, bandage, blood pressure equipment and similar.

“The children who familiarise with the hospital this way find it less scary. While the kids get over the fear of the doctors, the medical students learn to engage with kids of different ages and to communicate both with kids and the parents. The mutual benefits are huge,” she said.

The medical students involved with the Teddy Bear Hospital are currently on their paediatric clinical rotation, in their third clinical year, and this is their first time to get in direct contact with the children.

Get to know: Q&A with… is a new series of Northern Health staff profiles, where we talk about working at Northern, hobbies, personal interests and fun things!

The first staff member we’ve interviewed is Colin Woodward. Get to know him:

• What is your coffee order?

I prefer instant coffee.

• Tell us about your Northern Health journey? 

I started at Northern Health almost 11 years ago. Prior to this, I was working in the private health sector as a Facilities Manager for Villa Maria Disability Services.

Being a Wallan resident, I wanted something closer to home and applied for a role at Northern Health that was being advertised. I didn’t get it!

But, I did get a request to speak with the Executive Director of Corporate Services at the time, where he told me that they actually had another job for me, as the Senior Maintenance Engineer.

Northern Health Engineering & Building Services department was just established. It was a tumultuous time and I eventually moved into the role of Director of Engineering around May 2010. When I first arrived, the engineering team was small. There was only 5 people. Today, we have 23 full time employees. We brought a lot of services in-house and in doing so, created significant savings financially.

It’s been a challenging time and now we are looking at another period of growth and development. This is pretty exciting!

• Can you tell us a bit about your career before starting at Northern?

I started as an apprentice plumber and gasfitter at the Greenvale Centre. This facility has since closed down and transferred its services to the Broadmeadows Hospital. My working journey has seen service at Western General Sunshine, Mount Royal, The Royal Melbourne, Royal Children’s Hospital and Thomas Embling Hospital.

While I was working full time, I was also serving in the Australian Army. I was only 16 when I enlisted and have had a colourful 26 year long career.

The high pressure environments that I was exposed to and the skills learnt in the army have equipped me to deal with the work I do today, especially in a growing, complex environment like Northern Health.

• What do you like most about your role and what do you find most challenging?

I enjoy the challenges of maintaining and developing the Northern Health environment, in particular, delivering on time and within budget. The biggest challenge is finding enough time in a day to deliver.

• What is your greatest achievement since working here?

I am proud of the number of tasks we in Engineering have completed in very short time frames and budgets. We have delivered great outcomes for the organisation and the community.

If I look back at the past 11 years, my biggest achievement is survival!

• What are the things people usually don’t know about you?

A lot of people don’t know about my military background.

The passion for military came from my father, who was drafted back in the 1960s and went to Vietnam in 1966. All of his three sons – my two brothers and I joined the army. My sister married a soldier as well. The whole family gravitated towards the military because of my dad.

The funniest part was that he never wanted any of his kids to join, but we still did.

There is also a story behind my father’s military service. There were three mates that deployed to Vietnam – my father and two friends. The two mates who served with my father were called Tony and Brian.

My dad’s three sons are called Colin, Tony and Brian. My father’s name was Colin, so was my grandfather’s. Nobody actually realised that until my father passed away in 1999.

My experience within the healthcare industry might be another thing not many people know. I have held a Board position with Plenty Valley Community Health – DPV Health, and I only stepped off the Board last year.

• What do you like to do after work?

I spend far too much time at work, but when possible, I can be found landscaping around our family home in Wallan with my wife. I have three children, a 25 year old daughter, a 22 year old son and a 17 year old son. My family and I like to go kayaking.

• How would you describe Northern Health in one sentence?

Northern Health is an agile organisation striving to meet the acute and sub-acute demands of the community utilising all its assets and resources.

• Who would you nominate next for a staff profile?

I would recommend Shiraz Lubke from Northern Pathology Victoria. She was part of the pivotal lead that saw the pathology service become in-house. She is very approachable and focussed on the needs of the organisation – I am sure she has a great story to tell!