To celebrate the International Year of the Nurse and Midwife, we asked a selection of staff who exemplify the key qualities of a nurse/midwife to write a ‘postcard to their younger self’ and offer insight and advice. Andrew Nixon, Nurse Unit Manager, Ward 5, had this to say to his younger self:

“Be patient.

You will make many decisions throughout your life which will have far-reaching implications for you and the people you love. Some of those decisions will be mistakes. The mistakes will help make you who you are, even the couple of years you will spend in the Police Force in the UK will ultimately make you a better nurse.

Be kind.

Tell the people that you care about that you love them. Always remember family is everything. When you emigrate, phone your parents and your sisters more often than you may be inclined to. Believe me, you will regret not being in contact as often as you should when your parents die.

You and your wife will survive having premmie triplets on the other side of the world from your families, with the help and support of friends and volunteers. It will be exhausting and stressful and then, gradually, fulfilling and ultimately you will be the proud father of three kind, generous adults.

Your career will take a variety of twists and turns, in a number of settings, but you will always find fulfilment and enjoy the variety of challenges each role brings.

Also, you may want to plan your 30th wedding anniversary trip to Europe in 2020 a few months earlier. Trust me on that one!”

In the current times of a pandemic, various Northern Health departments had to change their work processes and quickly adapt to the new normal.

Pharmacy is one of our departments playing an instrumental role in managing our response to the pandemic, and it has been involved in a few different ways.

“One of our primary focuses is the supply of medication. In the first wave, we were expecting to see a high number of patients coming in with COVID-19, so one of the key things was making sure we don’t run out of medication,” Angela Given, Medical Team Leader explained.

Another key priority is making sure patients had a continuous supply of their medication and prompt and safe access.

“With our high risk patients, we have developed a system where instead of them coming to hospital, we are posting their medications and doing education over the phone to keep them in a safe environment,” she explained.

Taking some learning from the overseas experience, pharmacy was preparing to ensure patients that would need ventilators and ICU care had the proper medication.

“We needed to make sure we have enough medication that supports patients on ventilators while they are on their life-saving treatment. It was also important that staff had training in new treatments, and pharmacy plays a key role in developing protocols and educating staff,” she explained.

One of the biggest changes for the small pharmacy department was splitting into teams, to make sure the team always had enough pharmacists available.

“In terms of the workload, the pharmacists have been upskilling in some of the areas COVID-19 impacted, like ICU. We have trained some additional pharmacists in case numbers get higher, and made sure the team is educated about new treatments as well,” she said.

Like with many other departments, the biggest concern was not knowing what will happen in the future and what impact it will have on the health service.

“We had to change a lot of our day to day processes, like medication ordering and patient education. For our team, it has been a process of changing and adapting and the team has come up with some innovative ideas of how we can do things, whilst managing their standard daily workload,” she said.

Now in the second wave, the team feels they have learned a lot from the first one. With the pandemic processes now developed, the team more easily changed back to a COVID-19 way of working.

“Making sure we care for all of our patients, not just the ones with COVID-19 is also our priority. We do a lot of patient communication with local pharmacies to make sure the care is continuing and that patients have access to medication when they are in community,” she said.

The communication with other hospitals has been great and others have offered to share resources during the pandemic.

“Our professional body enables us to share experiences all over Australia,” she said.

Featured image (left to right): Jeff Khoshaba, Surgical Lead Pharmacist; Nivein Yenis, Clinical Trial Pharmacist; Angela Given, Medical Team Leader Pharmacist.

Our Northern Health volunteers, in collaboration with Northern Heath Foundation, raised funds to support the purchase of a bariatric wheelchair for the Broadmeadows Hospital Dialysis Unit.

Led by Nurse Unit Manager, Cheryl Rofe, the Broadmeadows Dialysis Unit were thrilled to receive the wheelchair to help support their patients.

Bariatric wheelchairs are designed to meet the needs of patients who are larger, and have a significant impact on helping patients to feel more comfortable, while supporting staff to move them safely between areas.

“Patients need appropriately-sized wheelchairs to support them when they come to Dialysis. For larger people, we didn’t have a bariatric wheelchair available in our unit, so we would borrow from Unit 2 and sometimes there was a delay in their care. By having a bariatric wheelchair, we are able to support our patients in our unit in a reasonable time frame,” Cheryl said.

“Patients are now able to feel more comfortable in a chair that is more accepting of their size. Patients don’t feel left out or feel that our hospital is unable to cope with their condition, as we have the equipment to care for them appropriately, which makes them feel safe,” Cheryl added.

Along with supporting Dialysis patients, the wheelchair has also been used to assist patients in other units at Broadmeadows Hospital.

“The chair gets borrowed to assist our patients and theirs, so it’s become a shared responsibility between all of us – a good team approach from the hospital. It’s made such a difference for our patients,” Cheryl said.

Together with Northern Health Foundation, our wonderful Northern Health volunteers made it all possible.

Northern Health Foundation work closely with the volunteer services team to allocate funds to wishlist items. Last year, a new bariatric wheelchair was identified as a much-needed item. To raise funds, volunteers held stalls selling donated new and pre-loved items at Broadmeadows Hospital, as well as facilitated the annual Volunteer Easter Raffle. Through their efforts, a total of $3,000 from volunteer fundraising was used to purchase the chair.

Last year, Northern Health volunteers raised over $14,000 through their various raffles and fundraising stalls.

“It’s so wonderful that the volunteers can see the impact their fundraising efforts make. Thank you to our amazing volunteer team and to everyone that supports our volunteer raffles and stalls,” said Henni Wade, Engagement Manager, who oversees our volunteer program.

“I would like to say a big thank you to the volunteers and Northern Health Foundation – they’ve just made such a large impact for not only the staff but the patients themselves – they feel safe and they feel we are accommodating their needs,” Cheryl added.

Featured Image: Patient, Mr Brian Powell with Cheryl Rofe, Broadmeadows/Craigieburn Dialysis Nurse Unit Manager (left) and Naveeni Natkunarajah, Unit 1 Nurse Unit Manager (right) 

Twenty-seven Queensland Health nurses have come to Melbourne to help out with the virus outbreak.

Expressions of interest were sent out to nurses in the Sunshine State on whether they would like to be deployed to Melbourne to help with the COVID-19 response.

“From the twenty-seven nurses, Northern Health now has nine nurses, who are at this stage assisting with our offsite COVID-19 testing and screening. The team are from six different health services in Queensland and have started working with us in our testing clinics located at Northern Hospital Epping, Meadow Heights and Oak Park,” explained Roslyn Payne, Director of Nursing and Midwifery.

The nurses started helping out at Northern on 6 July and will be with us for a month.

“Our team is very grateful for the help we have and the additional resources. They have quickly adapted and have become part of the team, as the whole Fever Clinic team works really well together,” Roslyn added.

Two Queensland nurses (pictured above) were helping out at Northern Hospital’s Fever Clinic on Thursday afternoon.

Danilo Derain, a recent graduate nurse from Queensland, said he was happy to come and help out, even though it meant swapping sunshine for winter chills.

“The opportunity doesn’t knock on your door twice, and this is a good opportunity,” he said.

Unsurprisingly, Danilo finds Melbourne cold and adds – “I even have to wear socks here!”

Featured image (left to right): Danilo Derain and his colleague, Jordan Soueidan

We are extremely proud and appreciative of all of our dedicated staff and the amazing work they have been doing over the last four months to fight COVID-19 together and protect our community.

Our hard work and commitment hasn’t gone unnoticed and we have received many comments and words of appreciation on our social media channels from community members. Read some of them below:

“Thank you and all of your colleagues for all of your hard work! You did my test for me a few days ago and was absolutely lovely and very reassuring, wonderful bedside manner! Really appreciated it!” – Catherine 

“Thank you for the support and dedication you have shown to our community!” – Julie 

“Now I know why I’m a volunteer at Northern Health, I’m very proud to be in your team. At the moment I’m home but I’m on board in spirit, shout out loud and be proud it’s a beautiful thing, go Northern Health ❤❤❤” – Brian 

“ED staff = true heroes.” – Stella

“Each and every one of you are doing a great job. It takes great teamwork, well done.” – Julie 

“Thank you and your staff, God Bless you and keep you all safe.” – Mary 

“l would like to send a VERY BIG THANK YOU to all our wonderful cleaners, what would we do without you – you all do such an amazing job.” – Mandy

“Thank you for all your hard work. We have a family member in the UK, a doctor, working every shift with Covid patients in ICU. What an amazing job you do!” – Sharon

“The team at Northern Oncology are brilliant! You do a terrific job and should be so proud of the hard work you do!!” – Alf

“Happy International Nurse Day, you are all angels, where would we be without all the dedicated, loving & patient nurses.” – Pat

Like us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn to read some of these comments for yourself! We are sharing daily tips to help reduce the spread of COVID-19, our achievements and latest information to keep our community informed.

The High Reliability Organisation (HRO) and Project Management team have been working on a number of initiatives, both in the quality and safety space, and in finding new ways and initiatives for the organisation to adapt to the new normal.

Quantum is one of those projects that the team has been working on, with Brooke Williams leading the way in its development.

“This is a brand new Northern Health project management tool and the HRO team is excited in its staged roll out across the organisation in the coming period. The software is designed to manage projects, accreditation and committee file management on a SharePoint platform. Quantum will provide a central repository to record project activity across the organisation, demonstrating how the project aligns with strategic values, objectives and accreditation standards,” Brooke explained.

“In the beginning, we plan to use the software for our HRO projects as well as sustainability projects. Over time, the software will used in various areas across the organisation – watch this space,” added Ariana Carrodus, Project Manager.

“The software was always something that we knew we needed to do, we just needed to make sure we did it right,” explained Sophie Argiriou, Director HRO and Project Management Office.

“This new software will be hugely important for the organisation. Our HRO transformation has been a catalyst in ensuring we have visibility for both HRO activities as well as other process improvement and project work across Northern Health,” explained Sophie.

Northern Health’s HRO transformation has been fully active for two full years now and is entering the third year, called “Horizon 3”. In Horizon 2, we have seen numerous initiatives and projects implemented throughout the health service, such as the increasing roll out of Comprehensive Unit-based Safety Programs (CUSPs), with nine active CUSPs across Epping and Broadmeadows sites.

Another successful HRO initiative is the Daily Safety Brief.

“The Daily Safety Brief is a meeting that occurs every day at 9.45 am – it’s a chance for the organisation to come together and report out on any quality and safety issues. Since COVID-19, the Daily Safety Brief has transitioned to MS Teams with great success,” Ariana said.

“There are numerous projects still happening, like the Patient Experience project relating to assisted meals and packs for vulnerable patients, with a trial currently under way in Bundoora Centre. There are also projects in the maternity space which are ongoing,” Ariana added.

Every project under our HRO transformation is sponsored by a member of the Executive team.

“Whenever we consider our projects, we are looking at which project can make a real difference in various health service areas. From an Operational Efficiency perspective, we have the “Sprints” Ariana has been working on with Ed Savill, Anthony Gust and Penelope Grellet,” Sophie said.

“Sprints” started when we realised that, as an organisation, we needed to find new ways of working in the COVID and post-COVID world.

“Twelve people pitched their ideas of their models of care and from there we chose six pieces of work aimed at being completed in eight to ten weeks, with the support of our team. This is new for Northern Health, as we haven’t done short, sharp and targeted projects before,” Ariana explained.

Our staff can still get involved in our transformation work, by joining the “HRO Champions” group or sending ideas through. HRO projects can be related to quality, safety, operational efficiency and patient experience. Please email hro@nh.org.au and the HRO team is happy to answer any questions.

The Foot Procedure Unit (FPU) at Northern Health have been notified by The National Association Diabetes Centres (NADC) as an Accredited Core Level High Risk Foot Service. The news comes just in time for the National Diabetes Week, which starts this Sunday.

The FPU team had been involved earlier this year to put through an online application showcasing the breadth of our services.

“The certification of an accredited service showcases to the community that when they attend FPU/podiatry services at Northern Health, they are receiving the best care, as this proves we provide great evidence-based multidisciplinary care,” explained Jaspreet Kaur, Senior Podiatrist.

The National Association of Diabetes Centres (NADC) is a network of diabetes organisations across Australia. The NADC was established to develop and implement a number of strategies for improving the standard of care for people with or at risk of diabetes.

A Collaborative Interdisciplinary Diabetes High Risk Foot Services (HRFS) Accreditation program was set up by the NADC, aimed at the improvement of quality and safety within Interdisciplinary Diabetes HRFS. The accreditation model is the only national accreditation of its kind with a three-pronged approach combining governance, clinical and quality criterions.

Jaspreet explained that earlier this year, Northern Health’s Foot Procedure Unit (FPU, previously known as High Risk Foot clinic) underwent this process aiming for Centre of Excellence.

The eight core service indicator standards that the FPU team presented and submitted were: from standard one to standard eight, which include: Interdisciplinary Approach, Physical Environment, Coordination and Administration, Evidenced-Based Clinical Management, Access and Defined Intake Criteria, Continuity of Care and Communication, Equipment, Wound Care and Quality Improvement.

“This process guided the health professionals working within FPU of the standard of care required and how to aim for Centre of Excellence in the future. The team received feedback on areas FPU excel in and suggestions for improvement which the team will discuss for business planning,” she said.

“Being certified for this accreditation has meant that our FPU department can be recognised nationally for its large efforts towards the care of this population, as diabetes related foot complications account for large hospital admissions nationwide. FPU’s ability to provide such great service is a credit to the organisation and its consumers,” she added.

The Northern Health Diabetes service is a member of the NADC. As part of this membership, we participate in the Australian National Diabetes audit (ANDA) each year; there are two ANDA audits that alternate each year:

“Australian Quality Self-Management Audit – focuses on self-management and diabetes distress and collects data related to diabetes education, self-care practices and quality of life, while the Australian Quality Clinical Audit focuses on clinical indicators known to impact on the care of the person with diabetes,” Catarina Hart, Ambulatory Care Diabetes Coordinator explained.

“The audit allows our diabetes service to benchmark against other diabetes organisations and promotes continuous improvement in the care that we provide to our clients in the North,” she added.

The National Diabetes week is on from 12 – 18 July.

Featured image (left to right): Kellie Le Podiatrist; Stephen Tucker Associate Director Podiatry; Jayden Beever Podiatrist and Jaspreet Kaur, Senior Podiatrist.

 

Northern Health, as part of our response to COVID- 19, has introduced telehealth as a strategy to support patients attending our Specialist Clinics (Outpatients).

Tracey Webster, Project Officer Telehealth says, “The majority of our telehealth consultations are still on the telephone, however this April we began a pilot project for video consultations.”.

“We started with low risk paediatric and respiratory patients. This has now grown to include Hand Therapy, Northern Autism Spectrum Disorder Assessment Clinic, Pleural Clinic, Women’s Health Physiotherapy Clinic, Speech Pathology and Dietetics Feeding Clinic,“ says Tracey.

Dr David Tran, senior paediatrician at Northern Hospital was one of the first to trial telehealth.

He says “A lot of paediatric assessment relies on the observation of a child. In the outpatient setting, we manage conditions that vary from acute to chronic conditions and although it is important they need to have regular reviews –they don’t need to necessarily come into the hospital for it.”

“It is this cohort of patients for whom telehealth is ideal, particularly in the current situation where we don’t want to increase their risk of coming into the hospital.”

“Besides, for a child to attend their appointment they need to bring in mum and dad, sometimes the other siblings – it can be quite an exercise. ”

“With telehealth they can do it from the comfort of their home, without disrupting the family routine, whilst observing social distancing.”

David says the vast majority of families have really welcomed it. “It has certainly made things incredibly easier for families.”

Belinda Baldry is one mum who will agree. When she was called up and offered a telehealth for her son Kyle, she readily agreed. She says her experience with telehealth is that “It was so much easier and convenient. There were no distractions. It was also more convenient and hassle free of waiting rooms and parking.”

Son Kyle on his part appreciates the extra time it gives him with his Playstation.

Dr Tran has been a paediatrician with Northern Health for five years who says prior to telehealth the only other option was a phone appointment. As he points out, “we often do that as a check-in on patients, but you can’t do that with a new patient and with patients that you need to lay eyes on.”

David says there is a big difference between telehealth and a phone appointment. He says a phone appointment is “like having a phone conversation without really a full consult. Whereas in a telehealth appointment, the patients are there in a virtual waiting room, we accept them into the consult and you and the patient dedicate your time and attention to make the most of the appointment. Plus you get to see them.”

“It really improves the clinical assessment of the patient.”

The fact that we have a significant non-English speaking population has not been a deterrent, says David, “Our interpreter service has been really helpful in setting this up and communicating with patients on how to set up. It has added an extra layer of preparation for it- but when it works it has worked really seamlessly, where the interpreter is there on the screen and the patient is there too and it feels like all three of us are there in the consult.”

David would recommend telehealth even post COVID-19. Particularly “patients we have met before and we know have difficulty accessing services, transport, time etc., for them telehealth would be very helpful. “

“We certainly can convert a lot of them to telehealth for the convenience of the patient and the family whilst maintaining good clinical care,” says David.

Mum Belinda agrees. When asked if she would recommend telehealth, her response was an emphatic,”yes, indeed!”

Featured picture shows Dr David Tran in a telehealth consultation with  Kyle-Simon Watson