This week at Northern Health we are marking Week Without Violence (WWV). WWV is a global campaign to end violence against women. WWV provides information on how to recognise and prevent violence, reach out to survivors, and make a difference in the community.

Since 1999, the northern metropolitan region has had a proud history of participation in the WWV and this year marks the 20^th Anniversary.

Natasha Knapic, Project Officer Strengthening Hospital Response to Family Violence, says that almost 50 organisations in the northern metropolitan region are planning to run WWV activities this week, with the majority planning a Clothesline Project.

The Clothesline Project is a popular WWV activity for women and their supporters to participate in.

The Clothesline Project originated in Hyannis, Massachusetts in 1990 when members of Cape Cod’s Women’s Defense Agenda learned that during the same time 58,000 soldiers were killed in the Vietnam War, 51,000 U.S. women were killed by the men who claimed to love them.

The mission of The Clothesline Project is to educate students and the community that violence is a problem everywhere, help is available and that there is hope and a path to healing.

Natasha would like to remind us that one in six Australian women over the age of 15 has experienced physical or sexual violence and/or emotional abuse by an intimate partner and that family violence is serious, prevalent and preventable.

The Clothesline Project is a stark reminder that domestic violence exists in our community – and gives voice to those who have been forcibly silenced.

“Hopefully, it will also stir us to action,” adds Natasha.

For more information on how you can support Week Without Violence click here.

It was a gorgeous sunny day at the green Mandalay Golf Club last Friday, where Trudi Hay held her Cancer High Tea, a fundraising event aimed to support the purchase of scalp cooling machines for Craigieburn Centre.

Trudi is a Northern Health Foundation Board Member and has been a dedicated supporter of our cancer services for ten years.

In an emotion-packed event, one of the guests, Shane Pope, shared a personal story of his wife’s breast cancer journey and how the scalp cooling machine helped her.

“It was important for her not to lose all her hair, and it was then I realised how important these machines are for cancer patients,” he said.

“Trudi is a wonderful supporter of Northern Health and, in particular, a champion in raising funds for our oncology services. We truly appreciate her energy and enthusiasm,” said Andrew Williamson, Executive Director Public Affairs and Foundation.

Northern Hospital representatives, Linda Romano – Divisional Director Surgical Services, Ros Payne – Director of Nursing, Melissa Gwynne – Day Oncology Nurse Unit Manager and Samantha Soggee – Ward 3 Nurse Unit Manager, enjoyed the event and even won some prizes!

“The afternoon was lovely. I was really humbled to be part of such a heartfelt cause, raising much needed funds to support our community during a very emotional and stressful time in many patients lives. The positive atmosphere within the room was wonderful and an event I am looking forward to attending again,” Linda said.

Melissa added: “The High Tea was a great event as always – Trudi does an amazing job! The funds raised will be an incredible service improvement allowing us to purchase a scalp cooler for our Craigieburn patients receiving cancer treatment.”

The High Tea sold out days in advance with more than 70 guests generously donating to the cause. The event, together with the generous donation from Core Projects, raised $10,000 for a new scalp cooling machine.

Featured Image (left to right): Trudi Hay, Steve Hay, Nicki Hay and James Thomas from Core Projects

Today is the International Allied Health Professionals (AHP) Day, celebrated for the first time across Australia. This initiative started last year in the UK to celebrate the allied health professionals and the work they do.

Kyrstie Worn, a young mother of four daughters, comes to Northern Health for allied health support and treatment for her youngest daughter, after she had a great experience with her second.

Some of babies who present to Northern Health require ongoing support from the allied health team after they are discharged from the nursery. Northern Health provides allied health developmental follow up through our multidisciplinary feeding clinics (speech pathology and dietetics) and neurodevelopmental motor clinics (physiotherapy and occupational therapy). These clinics are also supported by our paediatric social worker who is able to provide psychosocial assessment and facilitate referral to community support services that can make the transition from hospital to home smoother.

“Willow, my second daughter, was born at 28 weeks at Royal Women’s and then she came here, as that’s the hospital I wanted her to come to,” Kyrstie said.

Willow was only 33 weeks old when she came to Northern Health with a feeding tube.

Northern Hospital neonatal unit has a 20 cot Level V nursery that includes a team of dedicated allied health professionals who deliver multidisciplinary, developmentally supportive intervention.  The neonatal allied health team see all babies who are admitted to Northern Health’s neonatal unit born at less than or equal to 32 weeks gestation and/or born at less than or equal to 2000g.

“She was an extremely premature infant and even though I could have gone to Sunshine Hospital which is closer to my home, I decided to bring her to Northern, because of my previous experience,” Kyrstie said.

A couple of years later, Kyrstie gave birth to her fourth daughter.

“I had my fourth girl, Sophia, at 24 weeks at Mercy. As soon as she was good enough to transfer, I brought her here.  The team here talked to me all the time and explained everything,” she said.

Justine Slattery, Speech Pathologist says babies who are admitted to Neonatal Unit (NNU), particularly those who are born very premature, have an increased risk of difficulties across a range of developmental areas including feeding, growth, motor and communication skills.  Early input from neonatal trained allied health professionals can positively influence these babies developmental outcomes.

“We have a developmental team here; a speech pathologist, dietitian, a physio and OT, and the team had worked with Kyrstie’s older daughter, Willow when she had feeding issues. Willow was discharged home with a feeding tube and attended the allied health feeding clinic for help with growth, nutrition and developing her feeding skills,” Justine said.

Neonatal allied health professionals work together with families, medical and nursing staff to optimize each babies development while they are in the nursery through individualised cue based caregiving practices across feeding, positioning, sleep and handling.

The developmental team also collaborate with nursing and medical teams to make sure that physical environment e.g. lighting, sound in the nursery promotes optimum neurodevelopment.

Image: Kyrstie Worn, mother, with Willow (3.5 years old), Myah (18 months old), Sophia (2 months old) with our two members of our paediatric allied health team

Every year, Research Week at Northern Health showcases a range of local and innovative research projects and presentations from the best and the brightest of research leaders from around the world.

Research Week underlines Northern Health’s commitment to support the creation and implementation of new knowledge that will improve the lives of people here in Melbourne’s north.

Research Week 2019 ended today with a masterclass on ideation conducted by Johannes Mang, Chief Venture Officer from MedTech Actuator – Australia’s premier medtech commercialisation initiative. MedTech Actuator activates ideas from clinicians, researchers, staff and students through industry-led specialised entrepreneurship education and training programs.

Dr John Ferguson, Chief Medical Officer at Northern Health, believes research provides an opportunity to progress current ‘best practice’ and to look to the future of health care and its evolution.

“It helps in keeping us always looking at what can be done better and that inquisitiveness is vital to keep progressing,” says John.

He saw Research Week as a great opportunity to showcase what is happening here at Northern and to educate, stimulate and invigorate our people.

“It is due recognition of much hard work and individual and collective vision(s) on how we can improve our care and services,” adds John.

Molly Galea, Allied Health Education Lead, who keenly followed Research Week 2019 said:

“At each session I picked up a few tips that have had an immediate impact on my work. It was a great chance to put my head up from the day-to-day, look around and notice the inspiring work my colleagues are doing. It’s important that we never stop learning. Research Week makes me look at my work through a new lens.”

Molly also had this to say about the following sessions:

Ideas Lab: I attended a quick intro on design thinking and immediately started thinking about how I can incorporate user-led design into developing our internal education sessions. I took really specific strategies that I can implement straight away.

Oral Presentations: I loved the breadth of these short papers. I felt privileged to be working with such a passionate bunch of health professionals who are working to improve our practice in so many areas.

The Great Debate: A fun way to close the week. It hasn’t convinced me to give up being a vegetarian though, despite the popular vote!

This year there were 44 poster and 18 oral presentations highlighting the quality of research activities occurring across the clinical spectrum.

“The high calibre and quality of the posters demonstrated a real maturity and depth of knowledge from both nursing, medical and allied health staff,” says Chief Nursing and Midwifery Officer, Deb Bourne.

She went on to say:

“Research Week has again proven to be one of the highlights of the year for me. The guest speakers were all interesting and added value and knowledge to Northern Health. The research team needs to be congratulated for all the hard work and effort they put in to produce a truly worthwhile event for Northern Health.”

Get your golf clubs ready for a great day while raising money for an even better cause!

Club Mandalay, Beveridge are proudly supporting Northern Health Foundation by hosting their first Charity Golf Day – this year to be held on Friday 25 October.

Proceeds raised will go towards Northern Health Foundation’s defibrillator campaign, raising $450,000 to provide 60 state of the art defibrillators across our four campuses.

The state of the art upgrade will ensure Northern Health have the latest models and best possible equipment across our health service.

With your help, we can better support the northern community and save more lives.

Alex Jovanovski, Project Coordinator Engineering and Building Services, said, “We are really looking forward to teeing off. From past experience, the Foundation Golf Day’s are always very fun, so we’re sure this year will be no exception!”

Registration begins at 7 am, followed by a players briefing and shotgun start. Presentations and finger food will follow.

Louise Phillips, Commercial Manager at Club Mandalay, said, “Club Mandalay is a strong supporter of the community and are extremely excited at the opportunity to host Northern Health’s 2019 Charity Golf Day. In addition to raising money, fundraising events are an important means of creating community awareness.”

“We as a Club are proud to assist in creating that community awareness whilst also raising funds to contribute towards upgraded defibrillators across all four Northern Health campuses. Come and play Mandalay’s superb 18 hole golf course and help an amazing cause while you are at it!”

Please click here to book your spot today to secure your place!

For more information about Club Mandalay, please click here. 

Featured Image (left to right): Engineering staff, Alex Jovanovski (Projects Coordinator) and Adam Campbell (Security Locksmith)

Northern Health’s National Standards Accreditation

In May 2020, surveyors will assess Northern Health’s services against the National Safety and Quality Health Service (NSQHS) Standards in order to provide us with health service Accreditation.

The NSQHS Standards are a guide for us to achieve best practice when delivering health care, and provide a nationally consistent statement about the standard of care consumers can expect from their local health service. By achieving Accreditation, our community can have confidence that the care they receive at Northern Health is safe, of a high quality and meets national standards.

Commencing next Tuesday, 15 October, we will participate in a “mock” survey to help us prepare for Accreditation next year. We should be all familiar with the eight NSQHS Standards, which cover high prevalence adverse events, health care associated infections, medication safety, comprehensive care, clinical communication, the prevention and management of pressure injuries, the prevention of falls and responding to clinical deterioration.

The surveyors will spend four days visiting many wards and departments across our sites, asking questions and checking documentation, culminating in a feedback session on Friday afternoon.

Thank you to everyone involved in our standards committees for their ongoing work in ensuring quality improvement and compliance with standards.  A special thank you to Bill Shearer, Executive Director Transformation, Executive Sponsors and Chairs of the Standards Committees, Quality and Safety, Maree Glynn, Director of Clinical Practice Improvement, and the Quality team for their great work in helping us prepare for next week.

Research Week

We can all be proud of our growing research work showcased during this year’s Northern Health Research Week. It’s pleasing to see that our research spans across diverse clinical areas and health professions. The enthusiasm of our young researchers and the quality of their poster presentations displayed during the week has also been inspiring.

Well done to Professor Peter Brooks, Dr Michael Kirk, Brittany Szabo and Natali Cvetanovska for organising such a successful week of events.

I hope you all have a great week ahead.

Jane Poxon
Acting Chief Executive

What an exciting year it has been for research at Northern Health, reflected by the posters and presentations at our capstone event, Research Week 2019. These contributions highlight the quality of research activities occurring across the clinical spectrum being driven by an increasing number of staff at Northern Health. We know that a health service which commits to, and nurtures, a research culture has better patient outcomes and happier and more satisfied staff and patients.

We should be very proud of the clinical care we deliver and we are underpinning it with education and research. This will ensure we evaluate and question everything we do, leading to continuous improvement in the way we deliver trusted care to our community and educate our staff and our students, Northern Health’s workforce of the future.

We were privileged to have an exciting range of speakers at this year’s Research Week. They encouraged us to reflect upon our current practices and challenged us to explore how we can rise above the increasing demands we will continue to face. Future service challenges are not to be underestimated, but by reviewing and evaluating what we do, and how we do it, gives us the opportunity to change things for the better and to deliver trusted care for our community, now and into the future.

Research at Northern Health is not just about Research Week, it is about many highlights throughout the year.

Recently we re-established Northern Health’s own on-site Low Risk Human Research Ethics Committee. Chaired by Professor Bill van Gaal, this has significantly streamlined the governance review process for low-risk ethics applications and reduced the barrier for staff to initiate research.

Northern Health has invested into the establishment of a world-class Reproductive Health Biobank. Located within the Northern Centre of Health Education & Research, this is championed by one of our emerging researchers, Associate Professor Lisa Hui.

We have been successful in securing grant funding through the Melbourne Academic Centre for Health, in collaboration with research partners, covering areas such as improving outcomes for indigenous patients with cardiac disease, investigating knowledge of disability services around NDIS providers and helping to better understand childhood respiratory diseases.

Northern Heath is the major partner in the recently announced NHMRC Centre of Research Excellence in Interactive Digital Technology to Transform Australia’s Chronic Disease Outcomes. This grant, led by Professor Brian Oldenburg from the Melbourne School of Population and Global Health, provides a major opportunity for Melbourne’s north to become the focus for digital health research. It will also significantly enhance our Staying Well program by utilising patient interactive digital technology to transform the way care is delivered for those living with chronic disease.

We hosted the inaugural Digital Health Futures Summit bringing together expertise from around the globe focused on co-designing innovative ways of creating a sustainable future in healthcare.

Recently, Northern Health partnered with Amazon and Swinburne University to launch the Swinburne University Data for Social Good Cloud Innovation Centre powered by Amazon Web Services. The centre is one of seven worldwide, and the first of its kind in the Southern Hemisphere. The first innovation challenge, aimed at improving outcomes for newly diagnosed type-2 diabetics, was held at Northern Health resulting in the development of digital solutions that were co-designed with Northern Health staff and patients from our Endocrinology team.

Congratulations and thank you to all who have contributed to research. Research is on the move at Northern Health and we are looking forward to an even bigger and better 2020.

Professor Peter Brooks AM
Research Lead Northern Health

See videos below to hear from our speakers:

In this week’s Get to know: Q&A with… we catch up with Maree Glynn, Director of Clinical Practice Improvement.

Get to know Maree:

What’s your coffee order?

I actually don’t drink coffee!

Tell us about your Northern Health journey?

It would be hard to say that I am not totally committed to Northern Health. I have spent 40 years of my working life at either PANCH or Northern Health. I love the talent and the, “can do,” attitude of the staff and the commitment they have in making it better for people in the north.

Prior to commencing at Northern Health, I was on the project team for The Northern Hospital Development, which planned and managed the development and construction of Northern Hospital, the logistical move of PANCH to Epping and commissioning of a new facility. At the same time, I had divisional responsibility for Allied Health, Pastoral Care, Interpreter Services and the Private Consulting Rooms.

What is your greatest achievement or favourite memory since working here?

The move occurred in February 1998, and one of my great memories was to be able to finish the last services at PANCH at 8 am and open at the same time at Epping with a relatively smooth transition. An amazing achievement for all involved. One of my special memories of this great achievement was walking through, “a hospital with no patients,” the night before we opened and knowing that we were ready to go.

I also remember the first day in the Emergency Department when a patient went and got their own deck chair out of their car because there were not enough seats in the waiting room. Our popularity has not changed! I have loved seeing the challenges Northern Health has faced in this ever growing environment and how we have responded to these.

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

My clinical background is emergency nursing, and one of my career highlights was in my first Nurse Unit Manager role to establish one of the first private Emergency Departments in Melbourne at Epworth Hospital. My greatest learning from this experience was the importance of having a clear vision, establishing a strong cohesive team to deliver the vision and never compromising on the need to build a service on a strong foundation, followed by a dedicated effort for sustainability. This has been my mantra for all my working life.

What does a typical work day look for you?

I now have a very challenging role as Director of Clinical Practice Improvement with the responsibility of ensuring that Northern Health meets all the requirements of The National Standards for Safety and Quality and that we are prepared for Accreditation assessments. I am proud that we had a very successful outcome at our last Accreditation survey in 2017 with no recommendations for follow up. Our next Accreditation assessment is in May 2020.

In preparation for this, we are having a Mock Survey from October 15 to 18 to check our preparedness against the second edition of the National Standards.

My vision for the role is not to talk about Accreditation, but to talk about quality care as everyday business. But the reality is in our very busy working days it has become important to have a time when we bring a focused attention to knowing that we are meeting the required standards in the way we do our work.

What are some things people don’t know about you?

My passion is football and I have barracked for Geelong all my life. I think it is a great medium for conversation and banter at work across all levels of the workforce. Like work, even with great effort as a team, we don’t always get the outcomes we want, so we just need to recharge and start again – always with new energy and hope.

What do you like to do after work?

My absolute joy at the end of a busy day is to arrive at home and be greeted at the door by my beautiful cavoodle, Winnie the Pooch, and have a home cooked meal prepared by my supportive husband.

How would you describe Northern Health in one sentence?

There is a YouTube video that reminds me of the roller coaster that we are on at Northern – the faster we go the harder it is to keep up. Some of you will be far too young to know who Lucille Ball is, but take time to watch the video below – it will make you smile. It gives me back my sense of humour – enjoy the ride!

Who would you nominate next for a staff profile and why?

I worked with Dr Kim Jeffs who is a Geriatrician and an expert in delirium when she was a registrar and I was in Medicine. Kim has been instrumental in helping us implement some of the requirements for comprehensive care in the new standards and I would like to nominate her for the next Q&A profile.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8NPzLBSBzPI