The Northern Health Medical Education Unit (MEU) is pleased to announce that our junior doctor, Lucas Taranto, HMO2, won the prestigious 2021 ‘PMCV Junior Doctor of the Year’ award.

This award is granted to only one junior doctor across Victoria by the Postgraduate Medical Council Victoria (PMCV) for significant contribution to teaching and education.

When asked how he felt when he heard the news of winning the prestigious award, Lucas said, “I’m still in shock I think – it’s not something I had ever considered being able to win, but it’s an award I am so grateful for.”

Lucas Taranto is a Hospital Medical Officer (HMO) at Northern Health, with interests in medical education and pain medicine.

He has been involved in the teaching of medical students as a clinical tutor and lecturer through The University of Melbourne and Deakin University. His passion for education stems from a desire to better improve training for junior doctors and, in his role as Junior Medical Staff Association (JMSA) Education Officer, has been developing and implementing a new near-peer mentoring program.

“I am most proud of being involved in mentoring and teaching the current interns and medical students. I am passionate about education and have been so disappointed that many learning opportunities have been limited by COVID. It’s been so great to see the students enthusiasm as they begin to hit the wards again now,” Lucas said.

“Every day has been equally rewarding and challenging. Like everyone, I would not have guessed the last two years would have involved a pandemic, which has been a huge learning experience. Despite this, I have absolutely loved meeting and helping out the northern community in different ways,” Lucas explained.

Associate Professor Wanda Stelmach, Chief Medical Officer, said, “I was excited to hear that Lucas was voted PMCV JMO of the Year. This recognition of his engagement and support of his colleagues is reflected in his support of staff at Northern Health.”

“Additionally, my sources tell me that he is always willing to help out Medical Workforce Unit, which is really appreciated by the staff who frequently juggle the unenviable task of ensuring rosters are covered. Congratulations, Lucas – well deserved!” Wanda added.

Lucas has been involved in multiple research and audit processes to date to help improve hospital processes. Outside of medicine, he loves all things coffee and basketball.

In January 2021, Lucas assisted the Medical Education Unit with the planning, coordination and implementation of the face-to-face Intern Orientation Program. He also participated in the PMCV Symposium – The Great Debate as a panellist, discussing the impact of COVID-19 on the quality of supervision of JMS.

Our Virtual Emergency Department (ED) Triage service, an Australian-first, is celebrating its 1^st birthday.

At its launch a year ago, Dr Loren Sher, Emergency Physician, explained this service will enable patients to talk to our ED nurses and doctors from their home or work.

“If a patient has a non-life-threatening emergency, they can connect virtually with our ED staff, who will be able to provide medical advice,” she explained at the launch.

Patients living in Northern Health’s catchment area, as well as local General Practitioners (GPs), benefit from this service. The service has now expanded its working hours and is now available every day, including weekends, from 8 am to 11.30 pm and 24/7 for COVID patients.

Since its launch, Virtual ED has seen over 5,707 patients, with 1,300 seen just last month. The service additionally offers interpreting services for patients who are more comfortable speaking to our medical staff in their own language.

The community has been effusive in their praise.

“Emergency triage is an excellent service, seen quickly by extremely professional and lovely staff.” 

“Just wanted to say how wonderful and easy the virtual ED program is, staff who assisted were fantastic and reassuring, thank you for the service, nice not to leave the house and to know we were in safe virtual hands. Thank you.”

The staff involved, clearly make the difference, as the following  comments prove. 

“We used the virtual ED triage. Thank you so much for providing this service, it is absolutely the best. Thank you Dr. May Chang and Nurse Ellen, it saved heaps of time and we can stay home instead of going to the crowded ED waiting room.”

“Patient’s mother would like to compliment the virtual triage and the nursing staff especially John who was phenomenal, a most amazing and friendly nurse, so supportive and always smiling.” 

“I want to commend two staff members I spoke to through virtual triage today, was even more surprised on arrival to see the two same staff members. Christie and the doctor, were both fantastic and had so much patience with my son. I commend you.”

Says Loren, “What started off as a small idea has resulted in a massive hospital-wide collaboration, which is now showing its worth in this pandemic. We are now offering care to both patients with and without COVID.”

Today also marks the launch of a collaboration between our Virtual ED and Ambulance Victoria, to enable paramedics to call our Virtual ED from the patient’s home.

Says Loren, “Our service is rapidly growing and we are excited and happy to be part of this community. Happy Birthday Virtual ED!”

Malnutrition Week Australia New Zealand (ANZ) is marked from 4 – 8 October 2021, with the goal to ‘help fight malnutrition by getting involved and raising awareness’.

Northern Health has made significant gains in identifying and managing patients at malnutrition risk. This week is an opportunity to celebrate our achievements in reducing malnutrition prevalence amongst our inpatients.

Steph Yap, Dietitian, explained that for the last three years, the dietetics department has undertaken malnutrition prevalence studies to understand how many of our inpatients are malnourished at one point in time.

“Malnutrition rates have significantly decreased across both the acute and subacute service streams and are less than the national prevalence,” she explained.

This year, none of the malnourished inpatients were classified as ‘missed malnourished patients’, meaning all high malnutrition risk patients had been screened by nursing and referred to dietetics for nutrition care.

In honour of Malnutrition Week ANZ, the Northern Health dietetics department want to say a big “thank you” to our nursing staff for their amazing efforts in completing malnutrition risk screening and weighing of inpatients, and referring to the dietetics department when indicated.

One ward excelling in malnutrition identification and management is Kath Atkinson Wing Aged (KAW) at Bundoora Centre. This ward specialises in managing patients with BPSD-related dementia, delirium and with other medical conditions requiring high level of nursing care and who also have high malnutrition risk.

Vinnie Shetty, Nursing Nutrition Champion at Kath Atkinson Wing, explains how she supports nursing staff to ensure patients receive timely malnutrition screening and intervention.

“In our KAW ward, I run regular in-services on malnutrition re-screening, dietitian referrals and weekly weights every Saturday. Reminding staff about this weekly process keeps us on track with our shared responsibility in identifying and preventing malnutrition,” she said.

This patient cohort often present with fluctuating food refusal, reduced self-feeding ability, and/or swallowing difficulties, which negatively impacts on their ability to meet their nutrition and hydration needs. Malnutrition can then lead to other related complications such as pressure injuries, high risk of falls, increased confusion and poor wound healing.

As part of Vinnie’s work, she liaises with nursing staff, dietitians and the Malnutrition Working Group to provide feedback around malnutrition screening processes, and advocate for nutrition at Northern Health. Her work in achieving high rates of malnutrition screening at Northern Health has recently been acknowledged by the Nutrition and Hydration Sub Clinical Improvement Committee.

“KAW has been performing really well in the last quarter. The average KAW compliance rate was 95 per cent or higher for malnutrition screening on admission, weekly re-screening and referrals to the dietitian,” said Steph.

“It’s been a complete joy to work with Vinnie, and see a friendly face on the ward who is so proactive in advocating for nutrition on behalf of our patients. Often the best way to enact change is to do so with someone working on the inside, and we are so grateful to have Vinnie as our Nutrition Champion in KAW,” she concluded.

Featured image (left to right): Stephanie Yap, Clinical Dietitian and Vilasini Shetty, Registered Nurse/Nursing Nutrition Champion.

This is a unique time for all of us, and that is why it is important to take extra care of our wellbeing and mental health.

To support you on that journey, the Wellbeing team are excited to announce virtual “Collective pause” mindfulness sessions. These expert-led sessions start from today, 5 October, and will be held on Tuesdays and Thursdays, at alternating morning and afternoon times.

The first mindfulness session will be the all familiar ‘TREAT Rest and Recovery’, led by Jo Gibbs, who will guide staff through a gentle movement and rest practice, aimed at providing relaxation, fatigue management and improved mental focus.

Jo is a firm believer that the key to preventing burnout is recovery time after a particularly stressful event or series of events.

“TREAT is based on a month-long study performed at Sandringham Hospital. The study evaluated whether a regular, short and guided group mindfulness practice for staff in an acute general medicine team improved attention and teamwork,” she explained.

“The study concluded that a mindfulness-based intervention delivered to a general medical team improves staff attention. Good clinical practice includes self-awareness and self-reflection. In order to navigate the unpredictability and challenges of working in healthcare, taking a regular team pause gives staff an opportunity to reduce intense cognitive loads and allows space to emotionally regulate,” she added.

The second mindfulness session will be led by Sneza Filiposki, one of our Northern Health employees.

Sneza is a social worker, with a personal passion for mindful meditation that focuses on breath, body, emotions, thoughts and compassion. Some of the topics that Sneza will be covering during these sessions include mindfulness of breath, body scan meditation, self-compassion, accessing peace and ease, affectionate breathing and spacious awareness practice, just to name a few.

Stephen Whittaker, Wellbeing Lead, explained this is a great opportunity for all our staff to attend.

“We know fatigue and heavy emotions are being felt across our community. We acknowledge the unique challenge of being healthcare workers, and time is a luxury, so both Jo and Sneza’s sessions will only require 30 minutes of your day, to pause, and to reset. We encourage all staff to please take advantage of these tools – they, like us, are here to help,” he added.

The Wellbeing team will also be sharing specific wellbeing advice every Monday – with a new theme every week. The ‘5 Ways to Wellbeing’ framework will include advice on how to connect, how to be active, how to keep learning, stay aware and help others.

Please see here for the weekly timetable of the ‘Collective Pause’ mindfulness sessions.

Jacqui Harper, Nurse Unit Manager (NUM) COVID Ward 20 at Northern Hospital Epping, spoke at the Victorian Premier’s COVID-19 media conference on Sunday, along with Michelle Spence, NUM Intensive Care Unit (ICU) at Royal Melbourne Hospital (RMH).

Jacqui and Michelle were invited to help spread the word on the importance of being fully vaccinated.

‘‘COVID-19 is a terrible illness,’’ Jacqui said.

‘‘The patients we see coming into our hospitals are seriously, seriously ill. The clinical deterioration is so sudden.’’

Jacqui said she’s witnessed patients go from “sitting in a chair one minute” to saying their goodbyes an hour later.

“They find it difficult to breathe, some needing oxygen, ventilators and ICU support.”

Jacqui said many patients had expressed regret at not being vaccinated.

She said the hospital saw many anti-vax patients, and their families change their mind once they realised how dangerous COVID-19 is.

“By then, it’s too late. COVID is real, it’s affecting younger age groups and it’s scary,’’ she said.

Michelle Spence, RMH ICU Nurse Unit Manager, said she had seen patients in their 20s and 30s.

“Last week, I saw a 30-year-old, with no past history, put on a ventilator. He didn’t get vaccinated and now he’s on life support.”

She said nurses who have never worked in the ICU are putting up their hand and working on the ward after just four days of training.

Michelle said healthcare workers were braced for a ‘‘tough time” between now and Christmas.

“I know you’re over it,’’ she said. “We’re over it. It’s going to be a tough few months.”

Echoing her sentiments, Jacqui said, “To be a nurse right now? Very challenging when the community is not getting vaccinated.”

“The three vaccines are safe, effective and your best form of protection against this virus. It protects you from hospitalisation – please get vaccinated.”

“Our nurses, doctors, allied health and support staff are professional and dedicated – all working as a team,” Jacqui said.

“I’m extremely proud of them for their unwavering commitment to keeping our patients safe.”

In concluding the media conference, Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews said, “You have to go and book an appointment today – for yourself, for the people you love, for the people that love you, for people who you’ll never meet, for heroes like Jacqui and Michelle and the many thousands like them. If you respect our nurses, if you value them and the work that they do, then let’s not make their job any harder – let’s instead get vaccinated.”

Featured image: L-R Michelle Spence, NUM Intensive Care Unit (ICU) at Royal Melbourne Hospital (RMH) and Jacqui Harper, Nurse Unit Manager (NUM) COVID Ward 20 at Northern Hospital Epping.

Spring is here, and this favourite season often brings thunderstorms and pollen in the air. During grass pollen season, from October through to December, people may notice an increase in asthma and hay fever. These months also bring the chance of thunderstorm asthma.

Kirin Channa, Emergency Physician, explained thunderstorm asthma is thought to be triggered by a unique combination of high amounts of grass pollen in the air and a certain type of thunderstorm.

“For people who have asthma or hay fever, this can trigger severe asthma symptoms. This can become very severe, very quickly and many people may require medical help at the same time,” she said.

People with hay fever are likely to be allergic to grass pollen, and are therefore at increased risk of thunderstorm asthma. Having both asthma and hay fever or poor control of asthma increases the risk further.

“Thunderstorm asthma can affect people of any age, even if they don’t have a history of asthma. Having reliever medication appropriately available during this season and being aware of how to use it, ideally with a spacer is essential. With thunderstorm asthma season fast approaching, now is the time to ensure you have your reliever medication available, and those with asthma should ensure their Asthma Action Plan is up to date,” she added.

Where possible, people should avoid being outside during thunderstorms from October through December, especially in the wind gusts that come before the storm. The usual advice is to stay inside and close your doors and windows, and if you have your air conditioner on, turn it to recirculate.

Jason Amos, Emergency Management added: “ Northern Health has recently updated the Code Brown – External Emergency procedure and the Code Brown Subplan – Thunderstorm Asthma procedure on Prompt to ensure appropriate response to Code Brown/Thunderstorms Asthma events during COVID-19. This is a timely reminder for staff to ensure they are aware of our emergency plans for such events.”

Patients with mild or moderate symptoms can contact Northern Health’s Virtual Emergency Department via nh.org.au/ed

Melbourne Pollen Count and Forecast report on pollen counts the risk of thunderstorm asthma. See the link below to the website and smart phone apps: https://www.melbournepollen.com.au

Are you aware that Northern Health has its own Foundation?

Northern Health Foundation is a formally registered charity with the Australian Charities and Not-For-Profit Commission (ACNC) and has its own board of directors.

Established in 2005, the Foundation’s purpose was to increase philanthropic, corporate, and community support for Northern Health services. While this is still the mission today, it’s role goes even deeper than this.

According to John Molnar OAM, longstanding Foundation Board Chair, “We support Northern Health in its vision of creating a healthier community. We do this by funding life-changing medical equipment, research, and training. We are a partnership.”

“Our partnerships with stakeholders have enabled us to purchase some very important pieces of equipment for Northern Health over the years” says John.

In 2019, Northern Health Foundation funded the purchase of 60 new, state-of-the-art defibrillators for all campuses across Northern Health. The Foundation has also successfully funded an Endobronchial Ultrasound Machine (EBUS) which will enable clinicians to diagnose lung cancer earlier, and therefore commence treatment sooner, leading to better patient outcomes.

Just recently, Northern Health staff participated in the ‘Dry July’ campaign where they raised enough money to purchase an additional car for the Day Oncology Unit, enabling more cancer and haematology patients to receive chemotherapy and other treatments in the comfort of their own homes.

“We have a wonderful network of supporters from corporates and local businesses, trusts and foundations, our amazing workplace givers, and of course, our patrons, who work tirelessly to fundraise for specific needs within the health service. We are very grateful for their support” says Pina Di Donato, Foundation Director.

“And we have our wonderful staff who witness the needs of our patients each day as they work on the front-line against COVID-19. They are the first to raise their hands and offer to donate items when we are caring for kids, and volunteer to go ‘dry’ in July so that funds can be raised for cancer services. We can’t do it without the support of our staff” adds Pina.

The Northern Health Foundation works with Northern Health staff to make an impact on the diverse and growing community. This is the most important partnership, built on the values of safe, kind, and together. Working together is the most rewarding way to impact the community.

Having recently joined social media, the Foundation is building its audience. You can help them reach more people and connect them to your people by following them on their social media platforms.

The Foundation will be giving away 50 x $10 coffee cards across Northern Health campuses. To be in the draw to win a coffee card, all you need to do is like our page on Facebook and follow us on Instagram between today and the end of October. Winners will be announced on 1 November 2021. And to make it super easy for you, we’ve provided the links below.

To learn more about the Northern Health Foundation, head to nhfoundation.org.au.

At the beginning of the year, Northern Health became part of the North Eastern Public Health Unit (NEPHU), a team of healthcare workers focusing on the North Eastern region to help manage the COVID-19 outbreak response. Austin Health has been appointed as the lead health service, in collaboration with Northern Health and Eastern Health.

Dr Christian McGrath, Clinical Lead NEPHU @ Northern, explained the idea for a localised health unit came about last year due to an increase in COVID-19 cases and the need for more contact tracers to support the Department of Health.

“At some stage, it got quite busy and demand was high – then the decision was made to form these local public health units, and decentralise public health into local regions. It’s much easier to manage 15 or 20 post codes as a public health unit, than thousands across the state. At the moment, all we can focus on is COVID-19, but the idea is that one day, those local public health units will start developing into units responsible for other health issues and communicable diseases in the region, like measles, environmental health issues, as well as play a role in health promotion,” Dr McGrath said.

For Dr McGrath, working locally has numerous benefits for getting things done quickly and efficiently, and improving local health outcomes.

“Having these health units attached to health services, like we are here, means there are a lot of relationships that can develop and the units can really improve local health outcomes. Our North Eastern Public Health Unit roughly covers a catchment area of 1.8 million people. Our teams operationally work integrated with the Austin and Eastern Health teams, and there is probably 300 staff across NEPHU working on this program at the moment,” he added.

Samantha Soggee, Operations Lead NEPHU, explains how the unit works to contact trace and reduce transmissions in the north-east catchments.

“At the moment, we are in the super surge and the volume of cases is high. Northern, Austin and Eastern Health work together by joining into one team and we function out of pods – like ‘confirmed case pod’, ‘primary close contact pod’, ‘exposure site pod’, and each of those pods will have a team leader and an overarching operations lead across all of the pods,” she said.

“Once there is a confirmed case in the catchment, the team would pick that up on the dashboard and interview the case, generate all the exposure sites, all primary close contacts, and then the designated pods will follow up. For example, the ‘exposure sites pod’ will follow up with the businesses, close them down if needed, advise on cleaning etc,” she added.

For both Samantha and Christian, this new role meant a lot of learning on the job and adapting processes and procedures to make the response more efficient.

“Our COVID response unit started in April this year, and that is when things started to ramp up. It was really the baptism of fire, as the City of Whittlesea outbreak started at that time, and it has been go-go-go since,” Dr McGrath said.

“It’s no secret that a lot of COVID-19 cases are in the northern suburbs. For example, the NEPHU team conducted 300 case interviews one day last week, and that is an amazing effort, considering the total case number for Victoria that day was around 500. If we are concerned about a case, we join the efforts from ED, pathology and our contact tracers to get the results quickly, and that is the main benefit of working locally,” he added.

The team works seven days a week, and also works closely with metro and our regional public health unit partners and the Department of Health, to manage outbreaks.

“Over the months, it has been streamlined what information is being collected, in terms of information from cases. Previously, we would contact trace everywhere a case would go, but now we are contact tracing sensitive settings and exposure sites around that, usually workplaces and homes. We are trying to suppress COVID-19, while the vaccination rates are going up,” Samantha added.

The team is welcoming new members – if you have some free time, enjoy working from home and are interested in contact tracing, please contact Lara Madden on: Lara.Madden@nh.org.au.