Christmas cheer is in full swing across all campuses!

Our Christmas decorating competition has attracted numerous creative entries from various departments.

Northern Health judges, including Jane Poxon, Alison Dwyer, Simon Keating, Debra Bourne and Andrew Williamson, visited all contestants over three days, completing their visits with our annual Christmas staff BBQ’s.

The talented entries made it very hard for the judges to pick a winner. Entries were marked based on visual impact, creativity and overall festive theme. All the judges agreed that our staff and volunteers have shown incredible skill, effort and true holiday spirit.

And the winner is…. Hand Therapy, Northern Hospital Epping!

The creative talent behind this storybook fairytale is Laurelle Bland, Occupational Therapist and artist, who said initiatives like this bring our staff together, increase morale and bring out hidden abilities in our hospital. Laurelle enjoys painting backdrops for children’s birthday parties and said the inspiration for this year’s Christmas decoration came from a book she read.

Long, long ago, in a land far away, lived a perfect little tree named Small Pine. Small Pine hoped to maintain its perfect form and be selected by the Queen as her Christmas tree. But as the warm-hearted little tree gave shelter to birds, rabbits, and deer in the forest, its branches became damaged. Fortunately, the Queen had a different idea of perfection…

Second place goes to…. Broadmeadows Surgical Centre.

And third place goes to…. Cyril Barling Wing, Red Room, Bundoora.

Due to the large number of creative wards and departments, our judges have added two Highly Commended awards.

The first Highly Commended team is…Unit H and I, Northern Hospital, with a “Grinch” theme across their wards.

The second Highly Commended team is….Unit J, Northern Hospital, with an “Aussie Christmas” theme.

Thank you to everyone who participated and congratulations to our winners. We hope you have a happy Christmas!

To have a look at our Northern Health’s Staff BBQ photos, please click here.

The Northern Health Quarterly Staff Recognition Awards are open now with entries due by 31 January 2019, and the Awards being presented in February.

This quarter we introduce a new award of Clinical Excellence that is open to individual clinicians and clinical teams.  The executive believe that, given clinical excellence is at the core of our commitment to outstanding care for our community, it justifies a separate award.

The Clinical Excellence Award will recognise a team or individual that is generous with knowledge, instills confidence in patients and colleagues, and achieves the best patient outcomes.
(There is a separate criteria sheet for this award that nominators should read before submitting a nomination).

In October, we were delighted to launch the first of these new Awards, where six wonderful staff were recognised for their achievements.  They are currently being profiled in iNews stories. 

The Awards have been designed to formally recognise outstanding contributions by our employees and celebrate staff excellence.  We have over 5,000 staff in a wide range of areas dedicated to providing trusted care for our patients and we would like to reward their hard work and commitment to patients.

We encourage staff to nominate their colleagues for their achievements at Northern Health, whose actions align with our values across the six categories:
Clinical Excellence, Patient Experience, Excellence in Safety, Innovation, Above and Beyond and the Rising Star Award. 

Six Award Certificates and prizes of $250 each will be awarded each quarter courtesy of Maxxia and BankVic.

The Awards will culminate in Annual Awards to be held in the second half of 2019.

To nominate a colleague or team, please click here

Dr Rachael Coutts, Associate Director of Medical Education and Emergency Physician, has won the Inaugural Australasian College of Emergency Medicine (ACEM) Wellbeing Award.

The award celebrates the initiative(s) of groups, individuals, or whole emergency departments that have resulted in enhanced wellbeing for their emergency department colleagues.

Rachael was nominated by Will Halpin, Director, OHS & Wellbeing, for her work in developing a strategic wellbeing framework and an initiative to facilitate conversations on mental wellness.

“Rachael is a passionate advocate for improving the wellbeing of medical professionals, in particular, the protection and promotion of good mental health,” Will says.

Rachael played a pivotal role in the ‘Conversations on Mental Wellness’ initiative coinciding with R U OK Day in September; a week of speaking events, education sessions and wellbeing initiatives for the whole Northern Health workforce.

Our ‘Conversations on Mental Wellness’ week was about normalising the discussions related to the mental health and wellbeing of all staff.

Rachael says these conversations are relevant to all of us – our colleagues, staff, family and friends.

“If you think about mental wellness as being on a spectrum from thriving at one end, to severe mental illness at the other, any one of us could be at any location along the continuum at some time of our life,” she says.

“By opening up these conversations we can provide the opportunity for each of us to examine our own workplace environment, our unit, or department and question the culture and practice and begin to advocate for and create change,” she continues.

Some of the questions raised included:

• What does a mentally healthy workplace look like for your area?
• What protective factors exist?
• Are you able to speak up about mental health and wellbeing without fear of stigma or discrimination?
• Is there a culture of respect, openness and inclusivity in your department?
• Do you know where to seek help if you or a colleague need it?

Rachael says the award means that these conversations can be had at a much broader level, with the ability to share ideas, learn from each other and continue to advocate for change.

On a final note, Will says, “We’re lucky to have Rachael continuing to contribute to the implementation of the Northern Health psychological wellbeing strategy, and ultimately, a safer workplace for all of us.”

(Photo courtesy of ACEM) 

Northern Health Cardiac Nurse, Madonna Goro, was recently honoured with an Alfred Clinical School Award for Academic Excellence in Postgraduate Studies – cardiac nursing stream, from La Trobe University.

Currently studying a Master of Cardiac Care, Madonna received the highest marks across her course this year, excelling in both theory and practical components.

Previous to this, she completed a Bachelor of Nursing at RMIT. As part of the course, Madonna had the opportunity to work in different areas of the hospital – starting off in theatre then moving to pool nursing. It was during this time she found her passion in the field of cardiology.

“I have always been intrigued and fascinated by the heart and really enjoy working in coronary care looking after high acuity cardiac patients,” Madonna tells us.

Madonna has worked at Northern Health for four years and being able to help her community is what she enjoys most.

“Having grown up in this area, I feel I am contributing and serving my community,” she says.

“Working here is a way of giving back for me and I love that.”

Madonna sees herself becoming a cardiac educator, helping young nurses by offering her experience and knowledge. Madonna also has a passion for educating cardiac patients as she believes this is important to their recovery.

“On our ward, we prioritise education time for our patients prior to discharge. I think it makes a big difference when they have an understanding of what they’ve been through, what the next steps are, and how to live a better life. Having this understanding promotes confidence and prevents re-admission,” she says.

Madonna is very grateful for her team – managers, clinical support nurses and educators, who have been supportive and encouraging.

“We have a really good team on Unit D and I think when you work with supportive people it makes such a big difference. You’re happy to come to work and you apply yourself more,” she says.

Madonna would like to thank her whole team – Nurse Educator Maria Jolic, Clinical Support Nurse Natalie Kolegar, La Trobe University Course Coordinator Brendan MacDonald, and her managers Andrew Nixon and Gladis Thomas.

NECTAR, Northern Health’s Collaborative Group for Thrombosis And Research, has had a very successful year.

The NECTAR research team presented at Northern Health Research Week (4 orals, 5 posters), the World Congress of International Union of Angiology in Beijing (5 orals) and Blood/THANZ 2018 Conference (3 orals, 10 posters)  in Brisbane and had three publications this year.

Dr Prahlad Ho, Director of Haematology, said this work has showcased to Australia, and the world, the excellent research performed here through NECTAR at Northern Health, which has generated a significant amount of international interest.

“One of the biggest things we have done this year is we’ve been very well represented internationally. We’ve been to San Diego at a premier haematology conference, and had two posters there. For the size of our institution, that was very well represented,” he said.

When it comes to thrombosis, Dr Ho says that Northern Health has one of the premier thrombosis research institutes in the state and that we are producing more research than other organisations in the state.

“This is a testimony of the hard work the team does, particularly Dr Rowina Brook and Dr Yin Lim, as well as three medical students who are working with us and have already presented at international conferences,” he added.

“One of our students, Brintha Krishnamoorthi, won the Best Poster Award at Blood 2018 in Brisbane,” Dr Ho said.

It is the sheer volume of research that this team does which makes Dr Ho proud.

“We’ve come from a service that never had thrombosis research to now be one of the largest thrombosis research centres, at least when it comes to conferences. At the Australia and New Zealand thrombosis conference, more than 20% of all posters were from Northern Health,” he added.

Having a dedicated thrombosis research laboratory is unique to Northern Health.

“We are probably the only institution in the state, and maybe even in the county that has the full range of diagnosis and tests which measure the total amount of clot formation. This means that other researchers now come to us to perform the tests, as we recently had samples sent from Austin Hospital to the Northern”.

“That is a testimony of how good the service is and how respected NECTAR research is.”

After three months on display in the foyer of Northern Hospital, the sleek and stylish Audi A1 Sportback has found a new home.

The Northern Health Foundation Annual Car Raffle winner is Anne Gravette, Program Manager of Transition Care at Northern Health Bundoora. Her role is to support patients in staying well at home once they leave the hospital.

Anne’s ticket was one of 470 tickets sold this year. She bought the ticket because she wanted to support the work of the Foundation in improving services available to Northern Health’s community.

“I’d like to encourage people to show their support for the Northern Health Foundation, and buying a ticket was a great way of doing that. The Foundation is doing great things to help the community,” she said.

Funnily enough, Anne loves Audi’s and even used to own one about two years ago, giving her one more reason to buy a ticket online just a couple of days before the draw closed.

Anne was at home drinking a cup of tea and getting ready for bed when she received a call from the Foundation team – “I was completely shocked…I remember yelling, are you for real?”

“I didn’t buy the ticket thinking I would win the car, as I never win anything, and I had almost forgotten that I even bought a ticket,” she said.

“I hadn’t actually told my family I bought a raffle ticket. Lucky I answered the call!”

The new car came at the right time for her family – her daughter is currently on her learners permit and was going to inherit the family car. Dinner dates with her husband will also now become much more stylish.

“Winning the Audi means I don’t need to look at buying another car next year. Also, my husband and I have a date night every month where we go out to dinner in the city, so it will be nice to drive this lovely new car when we next go out,” she said.

The Northern Health Foundation Annual Car Raffle ended in November, with the lucky raffle ticket drawn at the Freemasons Victoria Grand Master’s Gold & Black Charity Ball.

Freemasons Victoria have pledged to dollar match the funds raised during the car raffle, with Maxxia generously donating the car to the Foundation.

The car raffle has raised $47,000, which will be used to purchase much-needed medical equipment for the Paediatric High Dependency Unit at Northern Hospital Epping.

The new Paediatric Unit will allow Northern Health to provide comprehensive care to the most vulnerable young patients. This will save vital travel time for patients and enable treating the children of Melbourne’s north locally.

Christmas should be a joyous time spent with family and loved ones, but sadly, many sick children will be spending this festive season in the Children’s Ward at Northern Hospital Epping.

To help spread some Christmas cheer and put smiles on the faces of some of our smallest patients, the ISS team (Santa’s little helpers) at Northern Health Bundoora, will be running their annual Christmas present drive.

ISS Facility Services Manager and Christmas drive organiser, Snezana Poposka, says “I’m a mum of two and this is very close to my heart. Nobody wants their children in hospital, let alone at Christmas time.”

Santa’s little helpers will be collecting kindly donated presents to give to the children over the Christmas period – because Santa definitely doesn’t forget about the children in hospital.

If you would like to make a child’s day this Christmas, please wrap a child-friendly present (ideas below) and pop a sticker on with an age group range written.

Some ideas for age groups: 

1 – 3: Soft toy

3 – 5: Toys

5 – 8: Colouring book

8+: Puzzle or game

In the spirit of giving, please bring your present to our Christmas tree at Café 1231 at Northern Health Bundoora, or to have your present collected, email snezana.poposka@au.issworld.com

Yesterday, Victoria Police Blue Ribbon Foundation dedicated the Northern Hospital Paediatric Emergency High Acuity Unit in memory of Constable Neil Clinch, who at 22 years of age died in the line of duty.

For many years now the work of the Blue Ribbon Foundation has been a collaboration between our community’s protectors and its healers, and Northern Health is honoured to have the first Victoria Police Blue Ribbon dedication in Melbourne’s northern suburbs.

In honour of Constable Neil Clinch, Victoria Police Blue Ribbon Foundation donated $150,000 to the Northern Health Foundation, to support the Paediatric Emergency High Acuity Unit.

The police memorial dedication and awards ceremony, held at Northern Hospital Epping, welcomed representatives from the Blue Ribbon Foundation, members of Victoria Police, local community representatives, Northern Health staff and Clinch family members.

Commemorative plaques in Neil’s honour were revealed during the ceremony and the Clinch family had the opportunity to visit the Pediatric Emergency Department, with the High Acuity Unit now named in memory of Constable Neil Clinch.

“This project will greatly benefit the children who require resuscitation with a dedicated space within the paediatric emergency department” said Northern Health Board and Foundation Board Director Peter McWilliam.

“We thank Victoria Police Blue Ribbon Foundation and the Northern Metro Branch for their generous donation and for choosing Northern Health to honour the memory of Constable Neil Francis Clinch.”

The project includes state of the art monitoring capability to four cubicles, allowing clinicians to manage high acuity presentations, high flow oxygen equipment to support management of asthma and bronchitis patients who require respiratory support, and neonatal resuscitaire for the monitoring and management of unwell newborns and infants.

The Victoria Police Blue Ribbon Foundation preserves the memory of members of Victoria Police who have died in the line of duty through the support of community projects within Victoria.

For many years now, the work of the Blue Ribbon Foundation has been a collaboration between our community’s protectors and its healers.