During its first year, the Respiratory Care Unit (RCU) has seen 284 patients, looking after patients who would most likely be taken to intensive care.

Gavin Fahey, Respiratory Clinical Nurse Consultant, says this unit bridges a gap between critical care areas and ward beds, where staff can manage more complex respiratory patients, enabling patients to receive a closer observation.

“The nurse to patient ratio here is one to two for the four beds the unit has. The patients usually stay here around two to three days, and that varies as we’ve had patients who had referrals elsewhere. Here, we also do non-invasive ventilation and high flow oxygen, as the main therapies,” he said.

Katharine See, Head of Respiratory Medicine, added the staff have done an amazing job in developing new skills and learning all about new therapies which make our patients safer.

Respiratory Nurse Emma James agrees that the Respiratory Care Unit has been a really great addition to the ward, giving staff the ability to take care of complex patients and see a different variety of patient acuity and conditions.

“Having that one nurse to two patient ratio allows us to take care of our patients with greater ability. As the year has gone by, I think we’ve done really well to progress to where we are now, and we are continuing to make improvements,” she said.

Opening this unit required additional training of the existing staff to enable them to look after more acute patients safely. The Respiratory department plans to increase the amount of education for the staff within the Respiratory Unit and is commencing with a Supported Transition to Excellence in Practice (STEP) program in June this year. This program will assist nurses in advanced practice, and it’s a step between general training and post-graduate training.

Photo (left to right): Dr Victor Duong, Respiratory Registrar; Dr Liam Hannan, Deputy Director Respiratory; Emma James, Respiratory Nurse; Dr Toby Fothergill, Respiratory Registrar; Gavin Fahey, Respiratory CNC; and patient Julie Uren.

Northern Hospital ICU

The Northern Hospital Stage 2 expansion project has reached a significant milestone with the completion of the $22m early works. This provides a modern 18-bed intensive care unit, freeing up space for a future cardiac care unit, as well as delivering a new loading dock and facilities for support services.

The new Intensive Care Unit will open in two weeks with the latest high-tech monitoring equipment, with improved comfort, care and privacy for patients and their families and new staff facilities.

Well done to our Capital Planning team and everyone else involved in this key stage of the development.  Next, we look forward to mid-year – when we commence the main works providing 96 new inpatient beds, three new operating theatres and more treatment rooms.

Strategic Plan

As you know, we are currently in the midst of developing our Strategic Plan 2019-2024. Thank you to almost 2000 staff who participated in the staff survey or workshops to help us identify the key themes and priorities for Northern Health over the next five years.

As we work on the strategic plan, we are well into our High Reliability Organisation – Trusted Care transformation work.

This month we are checking in to identify any gaps or improvements in our ability to continue to meet our commitment of delivering trusted care to our community.

We are also looking into the work we are doing to move our organisation from a hospital-centric culture to a partnership in a healthy community – helping our patients Staying Well.

These aspirations will be incorporated into our new Strategic Plan.

My HR

This week People and Culture are launching the My HR suite of initiatives to help your journey as an employee of Northern Health.  My HR will improve rostering, payroll, recruitment, your training and much more, as they are introduced over the coming months.

You can read more about My HR in the guest column this week. Well done to Michelle Fenwick and the People and Culture team.

I hope you all have a great week ahead.

Regards,

Siva Sivarajah

Chief Executive

This week, I am pleased to announce that my team at People & Culture are launching the ‘My HR @ Northern Health’ Campaign.

During this launch, Northern Health staff will be able to see how all the pieces of the ‘My HR’ puzzle are being upgraded or implemented. Another change is that some services will be returning to an in-house service model.

The pieces of the ‘My HR’ jigsaw puzzle are six core foundational systems and processes, which make up a dynamic and responsive HR Business Model, supporting HR services across Northern Health.

One of the new features I am really excited about is that now we will have a faster, scalable system accessible from multiple devices anywhere.

Each piece of the puzzle has the ability to develop and grow with us, which is especially important as we increase our workforce over the next decade.

It’s a very exciting time for systems and service enhancements at Northern Health, because ‘My HR’ will assist in reducing duplication, improving accuracy, and allowing greater visibility.

Each piece of the puzzle has key project and operational resourcing assigned to them. This allows each of these pieces’ project requirements to move forward, whilst the current services are being maintained.

Over the coming months, between April and July 2019, as these systems are implemented or upgraded and Go Live, we will be informing Northern Health staff on what is changing, how it affects you and what are the benefits of the change.

We are looking forward to the launch, and are excited to see the improved system take place.

 

Michelle Fenwick

Executive Director, People and Culture

In July last year, Paediatric Allied Health, in collaboration with our Paediatrics Department, were successful in obtaining a Department of Health and Human Services Grant entitled ‘Advancing Practice in Allied Health Workforce in Autism Spectrum Disorder’ (ASD).

The aim of the program is to improve outcomes for Victorians with Autism, and encouraged applications for projects that support practitioners to work to their full scope of practice in a multidisciplinary and innovative way.

The grant program came about, due to a two year parliamentary inquiry into services for people with Autism, providing 101 recommendations to improve the serious shortcomings identified within our existing systems.

Prior to the grant, Northern Health did not provide a multidisciplinary ASD diagnostic service, and families had to be referred by a paediatrician to either Austin Health or Royal Children’s Hospital, as these are the closest public health ASD diagnostic services.

The grant money received has enabled funding for a project officer role, training for staff, and resources such as the Autism Diagnostic Observational Schedule (ADOS-2), to support the launch of Northern Autism Spectrum Disorder Assessment Clinic (NASDAC) at Craigieburn Centre. The project will run for 18 months, finishing in December 2019, with the aim for NASDAC to continue beyond the completion of the grant.

The clinic, launched on 1 March 2019, will run every Friday at Craigieburn Centre with the involvement of a Paediatrician, Speech Pathologist, Occupational Therapist and Psychologist.

Speech Pathologist and Project Officer of this initiative, Amanda Lees, says, “assessment for ASD is important so it can assist parents’ and teacher’s understanding of a child’s abilities and difficulties; it can help inform decisions about therapy; it can allow the family to access some Medicare options for extra assistance, and can support an application for the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) and Department of Education support.”

This project will help to improve the pathway from referral to diagnosis, upskill our Allied Health workforce and enable Northern Health to deliver a Multidisciplinary ASD assessment for the children and families in the outer north of Melbourne.

On a final note, Amanda says, “our objective is to ensure that we provide the right care, coordinated with the right people, and link children with suspected ASD and their families into the most appropriate services in a timely manner.”

For more information about the clinic, please click here or email NASDAC@nh.org.au.

Photo left to right: Beth Kozaris (Occupational Therapist), Jolene Fraser (Paediatrician), Michelle Rowland (Clinical Psychologist), Amanda Lees (Project Officer and Speech Pathologist) and Graham Barrington (Paediatric Fellow).

Today is International Women’s Day – a global day celebrating the social, economic, cultural and political achievements of women. The day also marks a call to action for accelerating gender parity.

International Women’s Day (IWD) has occurred for well over a century, with the first​ ​IWD gathering occurring in 1911, supported by over a million people across Europe. Today, IWD belongs to all groups collectively everywhere, and is not country, group or organisation specific.​

This year’s campaign theme is ‘a balanced world is a better world’ – #BalanceforBetter. The theme focusses on celebrating women’s achievements, helping to forge a more gender-balanced world, raise awareness against bias and take action for equality.

Cindy Joffe, Divisional Director – Emergency Services, ICU and Cardiology

In relation to work – New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern. Jacinda has navigated the male-dominated world of politics with poise and grace, and always models the behaviours she advocates for. Wearing ‘two hats’ as both a mother and a leader should not be underestimated.

In my personal life – my mum for raising three kids as a single mum. We all grew up to be strong, independent and successful women. Although my mum won’t say she gave up anything, I will always appreciate how I never doubted that she would drop everything to come and support me.

Sneza Filiposki, Project Support Officer, Strengthening Hospital Response to Family Violence

The woman who inspires me has turned her pain and struggles into strength. She had experienced an unimaginable loss, the death of her son, due to family violence. She is now an advocate for family violence, empowering women all over the world to take a stand and say “enough is enough – I have the right for freedom and to feel safe.”

This message is important in a world where patriarchy has been central to our human existence. Thanks to Rosie and other victims/survivors who have stood up against power and control, we can change the story so we can all live a life free from violence and fear.

Roslyn Payne, Director of Nursing and Midwifery

To me, International Women’s Day is about recognising the opportunities for women and gender equality. It’s about raising the profile and telling young women – you can do and be whatever you want – and the most inspirational woman in my life is…my mum!

Yvonne Amos, Northern Health Foundation Director 

Early in my career, I worked side by side with the Sisters of Charity in Sydney, raising funds and promoting outreach services to the local community. Sister Clare Nolan, at the time, led the Outreach Service and was an incredibly charismatic, passionate and focussed woman, whose commitment to those less fortunate and to her religious life were unshakeable, regardless of the obstacles in front of her.

At the time, with seemingly apparent ease, she could convince those in the business community to fund her work – generating an army of supporters and volunteers in her wake. She was a force to be reckoned with and often, this is why I loved working alongside her.  She taught me many things but above all her legacy to me was always be kind, compassionate and if you want to create change – find your voice, be the change, make it happen. Fast forward to today, and she is now the Congregational Leader of the Sisters of Charity and working as hard as ever for her community.

Stefania Zen, Cultural Liaison Officer 

The first person who comes to mind is my mum, Angelina. I am from Italy and my mum grew up in a small town in the north of Italy. Her parents ran a bakery business and were very hardworking. My mum started working when she was just over three years old, helping with the bread deliveries riding her tricycle.

She got married young and had four children but was able to run the household as well as working full-time. Later on in her life, she re-invented herself and started her own business. She has taught me to be resilient and to seize opportunities when they come.

(Featured Image: Sharryn Beard and Roslyn Payne) 

Yesterday, Northern Hospital Epping welcomed Associate Professor Rajesh Subbiah and his team of cardiologists from St Vincent’s Hospital in Sydney.

The group met with Associate Professor Uwais Mohamed and Northern Health cardiologists to observe and learn about ‘His Bundle Pacing’ – a revolutionary new pacemaker technique performed as a Melbourne-first by Dr Mohamed at Northern Hospital last year.

This technique has been attracting nation-wide attention, with Northern Health hosting Channel 9 in December last year to share a remarkable story about the impact this technique has already had on the lives of patients.

The new procedure, only performed on a small number of patients across the country, involves placing tiny electrodes in a different section of the heart – which surgeons had previously been unable to reach.

Northern Health’s guest, Associate Professor Rajesh Subbiah from St Vincent’s Hospital Sydney, said, “it’s been an outstanding experience here at the Northern Hospital with Dr Uwais Mohamed and we’ve really enjoyed our time here and learnt a huge amount.”

“We will be taking these skills back to St Vincent’s Sydney to develop the ‘His Bundle Pacing’ program in Sydney. It’s our first visit and it won’t be our last – we’ve enjoyed our time here and we’ll get updates as we move forward to launching the program.”

Dr Mohamed and his cardiology team hosted our guests, and were happy to share the skills and knowledge.

“It’s a pleasure for us to welcome Professor Rajesh Subbiah and his team down from St Vincent’s Sydney. This is a learning experience for us all,” he said.

Dr Mohamed said the new technique involves placing the probe into a central area of the heart, which stimulates both sides at the same time, enabling a more natural and synchronised heartbeat.

He said the new procedure can be performed on patients requiring a pacemaker for the first time, or those who have developed complications from an existing device.

In this week’s Get to know: Q&A with… we catch up with Shiraz Lubke, Northern Pathology Victoria Operations Manager.

Get to know her:

What’s your coffee order?

Long black! I started off half strength and have now worked my way up to full strength.

Could you tell us more about your Northern Health journey?

I started in April 2017 – I moved down from Cairns for the job. It sounded exciting and it’s been very challenging. It’s been a lot of fun, a lot of hard work, a lot of laughs, but I’ve enjoyed my time here. I was managing a small regional laboratory so I’d finished my MBA and I didn’t feel as though I had much room for growth in the job I was in, and this job came up in Melbourne so I thought why not give it a crack?

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

I was a bench scientist for many years and then a supervisor – my interest lies in biochemistry. I moved around in lots of different labs. So my last stop was in Cairns as the manager there.

What do you enjoy most about your role here?

I have to say I enjoy the people. If it wasn’t for the people, you wouldn’t stay in a workplace. I love the people and I love the fact that in this job I feel like I’m giving back to the community. This particular role, bringing public pathology back into the public sector, is so against the trend and it’s something I’m really passionate about. I also love that the role is in Melbourne – I love the sport!

I was born and bred in Ipswich, went to Uni in Brisbane, but Melbourne’s always been one of those places we go to on holiday and love it. I’m a sports nut – I love the cricket, footy, tennis. I also go to the Melbourne Theatre Company – there’s just always something on. The lifestyle down here is just fabulous – I love it, so to have a job down here that’s meaningful and challenging, ticks all the boxes.

What was your biggest challenge?

I think it was coming from private to public, it’s very different. And also not having a network, because when you’ve been in a company for as long as I had in my previous role, you know who to go to for what and you’ve got all those networks. Coming down here, I didn’t know anyone, had to build all of those networks and find out who to go to for what. That was actually a really big challenge. And of course there was the inherent parts of the job which I hadn’t done before, so the role itself has been challenging, but also very rewarding.

What is something that people don’t know about you?

That my ultimate favourite job in the world would be walking dogs for a living! I’m one of those weird dog people…

What do you usually do after a long day at work?

I run – that’s how I keep my head in its rightful spot. And I also read, I love just switching off and I love paper books – there’s nothing better than going to a secondhand bookshop and flicking through a paperback book.

How would you describe Northern Health in one word? 

Community.

Who would you like to nominate next for a staff profile?

I would love to nominate Evelyne Kollaras from People and Culture!

Recently, we welcomed our new students completing their Certificate II in Community Services and Business Administration to Northern Health.

Northern Health Chief Executive Siva Sivarajah, and Executive Director People and Culture, Michelle Fenwick, would like to personally welcome the new students and wish them exciting times ahead at Northern Health.

“It’s great to welcome these new students to Northern Health and see their eagerness to learn everything there is to know about business and community,” Michelle said.

“This program delivers real time business administrative experience, and provides recognised business experience and qualifications for one of the largest employers of Melbourne’s north – Northern Health.”

Alysha Spencer, Advisor – Organisational Capability, said the program started when Michelle had a conversation in late 2016 about youth employment and training opportunities in Melbourne’s North. Fast forward to 2019, and Northern Health has a youth employment and training program in place for the third year running.

“These students join us from various high schools in our catchment area. Their focus is to achieve their goals whilst completing their Certificates,” Alysha said.

Our eight students will be working with us across Broadmeadows Hospital, Bundoora Centre and Northern Hospital Epping every Thursday and Friday.

Students will be working across different areas including Health Information Services, Patient Quality Experience, Outpatients, Neonatal Unit, Engineering Services and Broadmeadows administration.

Please say hello to our students if you see them around the various campuses and make them feel welcome.