#WeAreNorthern

Today is International Day of the Midwife and to mark the day, we meet Kiri Platek, Clinical Midwife Specialist

Q: Tell us about your current role at Northern Health?

A: My role at Northern Health is as a Clinical Midwife Specialist. I work solely in the Maternity Assessment Centre, caring for and supporting women, antenatally, with high-risk pregnancies that require frequent fetus monitoring, and those in the early stages of labour or requiring urgent obstetric care. I’m also currently a part of the Preterm Birth Prevention Collaborative team, working to reduce the incidence of preterm and early term birth at Northern Health as a part of the nationwide collaborative.

Q: Today is International Day of the Midwife. What advice would you give to students and those wanting to pursue a career in midwifery?

A: My advice to students is to fully immerse yourself in midwifery. It is a vast profession with a lot of avenues that you can be drawn to. It’s essential to experience all areas to find the area/s that are most engaging, and you’re most passionate about. But also, it’s important to remember that even though one area may suit you at one stage of life, you are more than capable of diversifying and excelling at other areas that you may grow to develop an interest in, later on.

Studying and practicing as a midwife is a very rewarding profession that allows you to form incredibly strong bonds and connections. Not only are these bonds formed with the families that you care for, but also with the team you work within. The families you care for throughout pregnancy, birth, and postnatally, will remember your kindness, compassion and how you made them feel during such an important shared moment in their lives. From the moment they hear their baby’s heart beating, to baby’s first cry after birth and the first cuddle during skin-to-skin contact, your work as a midwife helps to form key memorable experiences for families, which will stay with them forever. Midwifery also connects you with colleagues that you work with collaboratively through often incredibly high paced and stressful, but also joyous and happy, workdays. Not only are you always learning, but you are also adapting and supporting one another through whatever challenges and new experiences you face together as a team. Midwifery provides you with a sense of reward in that you have the ability to care for and support families through such a pivotal life moment, and utilise your knowledge and skills to communicate, educate, care for and assist in welcoming their baby into the world.

Q: Is there a quote that motivates you?

A: A few words that really resonate with me by Charlotte Freeman: SUNSHINE

The best kind of people are like sunshine- they are warm and brighten your soul with their light. They love unconditionally. They are soft and gentle with your heart and soul. They make you smile with just their presence. They know when something is not right without you having to say anything at all. They are accountable and take responsibility for their actions. They respect other humans. They are kind. They let you be yourself and accept you as you are. They forgive others instead of seeking revenge. They are patient with your struggles. They are there for you no matter the situation. They make you feel safe, loved and understood. These words motivate me to be like sunshine.

Q: Which two radio stations do you listen to in the car the most?

A: I don’t usually listen to the radio when driving. I like to listen to podcasts like Darling Shine or The Imperfects.

Q: Who is your favourite author?

A: I don’t have a favourite author, but the only books I’m currently reading are those to my 4-year-old and 2-year-old at bedtime, so right now, our favourites are Marvel’s ‘The Avengers’ and ‘Mem Fox- Possum Magic’.

Tessa Bruno is a Clinical Nurse Specialist in Ward 19 and in the Plastics Wound Clinic. She spends her days working on the floor, interacting with patients and their families, and providing safe, kind and together care to the community.

She recently completed a month-long secondment with Quality and Safety, where she took on the role of Acting Quality Coordinator, Surgical Division, while Erika Dax, stepped in as Acting Quality Coordinator, Women’s and Children’s Division, for six weeks.

In their roles, both Tessa and Erika were responsible for supporting staff in their respective divisions, which included educating on quality, reviewing incidents and being a resource for staff on the ward.

“A large component of our role is serious clinical incident management, review of systems, processes and event reporting,” Erika said.

“We also look for trends in minor incidents, and work with Nurse Unit Managers, Heads of Units and other leaders to identify opportunities to make our care safer for our patients and staff at Northern Health.”

“We are always evaluating what we are doing, understanding the effectiveness, and trying to improve.”

For Erika, stepping into the role to support the Women’s and Children’s Division was a challenge. But it was a challenge that Erika was up for.

“I am not a midwife, so that was a really big learning experience. But, it was a terrific experience with a great team and therefore it was really valuable,” she said.

“I was able to step in and provide lots of support and education, and make staff feel more comfortable with the quality components of their role, helping to improve safety in their areas for their staff and patients.”

“I learnt a lot about midwifery, clinically, that I did not know about. It was a privilege to be entrusted in the role for a period of time. It was very rewarding, a thoroughly enjoyable and a really positive challenge.”

For Tessa, coming from shift work and clinical work, and stepping into a non-clinical role, Monday to Friday, was an adjustment. But she was able to rely on her clinical knowledge and supportive colleagues to step up into her new acting role.

“The role definitely broadened my horizons. Nursing is so broad so it was great to see a side of things that we don’t usually get to see when we are on the floor,” she said.

“On the ward, we routinely do VHIMS/Riskmans, but we don’t actually see the outcomes of them once they have been submitted. Everything is reviewed, everything gets commented on and things that are more serious get put through a system where multiple people are involved in reviewing and making changes to prevent the incident from happening again in the future.”

“It was great to see that reporting doesn’t go unnoticed – there is actually something that happens.”

“I have learnt so much, which I am able to bring back to the ward and help other staff members with reporting and investigating incidents,” Tessa said.

“Definitely in the future, a non-clinical role would be great – but that would be later in my career. I have a little bit more hands-on clinical work to do in the next few years.”

Erika also encourages staff to step out of their comfort-zone and into a new role if an opportunity presents itself.

“It’s really important to support staff when there are opportunities to work across different areas, as it is such an invaluable experience. It is great to share knowledge and expertise, and see things from a different perspective. Both Divisions and Quality and Safety are richer for our experiences.”

 

Featured image: Tessa Bruno and Erika Dax.

Have an idea but don’t know where to start? Trying to get some improvements off the ground but keep facing barriers? Let’s get them moving! May is your month!

The Transformation Team is focused on fostering and supporting innovation at Northern Health. Innovation is defined as having the creative idea plus having the skills and capabilities to deliver on the idea.

Innovation Month will run through the month of May and will include avenues to elicit creative and different ideas on solving issues relating to clinical or non-clinical work and building staff skills in innovation.

Across Northern Hospital Epping, Bundoora Centre, Broadmeadows Hospital and Craigieburn Centre, there will be a range of events and activities to help develop new and innovative ideas. Staff can interact in a range of activities across the month through face-to-face or online sessions or via IdeaScale.

Staff can submit ideas through IdeaScale, which will be open until Monday, 22 May. All ideas will be reviewed by the Executive team, with a select few to be pitched to them in more detail on Wednesday, 31 May in the IdeasLab at Northern Centre for Health Education Research (NCHER).

Those ideas will then go through the Northern Academy of Learning Improvement (NALI). NALI is the structured delivery of improvement learning, which will be delivered from June to August. This will include a component of online self-directed modules for staff to attend fortnightly, along with deliverables aligned to their idea submission. The modules are run through the Institute of Health Care Improvement and will be delivered along with one-on-one fortnightly coaching sessions by members of the Transformation Unit to support the pilot and implementation of their idea.

Staff will also have the opportunity to attend Ideas Cafes – informal sessions set up for staff to discuss ideas. It is an opportunity to bring like-minded people together to discuss some of the current opportunities for improvement. Transformation Unit team members will be available with resources to assist in shaping ideas for submission on IdeaScale.

During May, there will also be presentations from staff who have gone through the process of submitting, refining, scoping and implementing their Big Ideas. Staff will discuss their experiences navigating Northern Health to implement service improvement.

Short bites are structured education sessions on topics to support and build innovation skills, including an insight into Northern Health’s HRO journey so far, creative thinking, what exactly is NALI, and presentation skills.

“We want to see as many staff engage with innovation as they can across the month. Log onto IdeasScale and submit ideas, attend a short bite or Ideas Cafe, talk to your teams about ideas you may have. We are looking forward to starting the conversation about innovation with everyone,” said Laura Hughes and Cassie Bramston, Project Managers.

For more information on Innovation Month, including a structure of what the month will look like, please visit the Intranet.

To attend any of the Innovation Month sessions, please email BigIdea@nh.org.au.

Featured image: Derwin Or, Paula Dimakos-Pugliese, Sue Mathieson, Steve Ferguson and Erika Dax attending an Ideas Cafe.

At Northern Health, the Continence Service is a major public health service available to both adults and children. The clinicians working within the continence service specialise in the management of bladder and bowel dysfunction. The service provides assessment, diagnosis, management, education and support for the promotion of continence to clients.

The multidisciplinary team consists of two medical consultants, four allied health staff and six nursing staff members, who work across Northern Health and can provide:

• Comprehensive continence assessment
• Client and carer education counselling and support
• Bladder retraining programs, nocturia assessment and management, toileting programs and bowel regulation programs
• Equipment/aids prescription
• Catheter education
• Medication assessment
• Product selection, facilitating access to trial products and advice
• Health promotion in relation to lifestyle and behaviours
• Physiotherapy management programs for urinary or faecal incontinence, incorporating pelvic floor muscle assessment.

Consumers of the services also includes patients who are NDIS participants with additional needs and who require continence nursing support as part of their NDIS plan.

The team provides holistic management for many older patients who have dementia and for their carers, as well as patients which are diagnosed with neurological diseases, such as stroke, Parkinson’s disease or Multiple Sclerosis.

The team also manage patients with mental health issues and those with increasingly complex social needs.

One of the founders of the Continence Service is Santha Tisseverasinghe, Continence Physiotherapist. Over the years, she has mentored many staff who have rotated through the service, including many continence registrars.

“I started at the Bundoora Continence Clinic in October 1997, in a team consisting of only one continence nurse consultant, one geriatrician and myself.  Since then, we have grown and become part of the Northern Health network and have now expanded to other campuses such as Broadmeadows Hospital and Craigieburn Centre,” said Ms Tisseverasinghe.

“When I first started, our patients were mainly older women at the age of 60 years and older, and only for symptoms urinary incontinence. Today, we see a wider population group inclusive of younger patients and different genders, with various conditions.”

Beverly Leiper has worked as a Paediatric Continence Nurse for almost 50 years, making a significant contribution to the service and to her patients. Ms Leiper has made the decision to retire from her long nursing career at the end of June 2023.

“I returned to Northern Health in 2007 as part of the Paediatric Developmental Team at the newly opened Craigieburn Centre. I have worked in many roles since then, but all have involved working with children and families. Being able to improve the quality of life for children and supporting their families to achieve this for their children is my passion and what motivates me,” said Ms Leiper.

“I am looking forward to my retirement and am excited about the opportunities that may present themselves. I will take some time to ‘smell the roses’ and then will look for some volunteer work – with children and families of course.”

In 2023, the Continence Service team is excited to be teaching new staff members the skills required to be a continence nurse, with the team recently welcoming a new Registered Nurse Parmeet Kaur. The team are also looking forward to promoting continence awareness to staff and the community during World Continence Awareness Week from 19- 25 June.

Thank you to our Continence Service team for all your hard work and dedication.

Pictured (L-R): Jonathan Marriott, Geriatrician, Michael Farber, Geriatrician, Christine Sumper, Coordinator of Continence Service, Parmeet Kaur, Continence Nurse Consultant, Santha Tisseverasinghe, Physiotherapy, Eva Stachnik, Registrar Geriatrics and Femy Jacob, Continence Nurse Consultant 

The Electronic Medical Record (EMR) survey is back! Some of you might recall completing this survey last April – thank you again to those 730 individuals who completed the survey.

Since the last round, we were able to take the comments and feedback back to the team and work on ways to better inform you. Some new engagement activities include publishing regular EMR updates, increasing the frequency of publishing iNews stories, and providing more transparency on the project via the EMR website, as well as running EMR familiarisations to give you early visibility on the system before going into training.

From today, you will be able to let us know how you feel about the EMR implementation by taking part in the survey. The survey is anonymous and is open from 1 May until 18 May, running simultaneously with the EMR Solution Gallery.

This information will inform the team further on how supported you feel and any areas of improvement to make sure this transition from a paper-based to a paper-light approach is as smooth as it can be.

“As we move closer to our EMR go-live date, I would like to acknowledge the significant amount of work both the EMR team and wider organisation have undertaken over the last year. In this home straight, it is important that this work continues and your contribution to this survey is vital to ensure we are hearing about this implementation process and any changes we may need to make,” says Debra Bourne, Chief Operating Officer.

Click here to complete the survey.

Featured image (Left to Right): Amelia O’Reilly, EMR Trainer, Cliff Wiltshire, EMR Training Manager, Chandini Luchoo, EMR Trainer.

#WeAreNorthern

Meet Sharon Jansen, Divisional Personal Assistant, Women’s and Children’s Services

Q: Tell us about your journey with Northern Health?

A: On leaving the Army in January 2018, I thought working in hospital administration might be interesting, so I got a job at Kilmore Hospital. After working in so many different areas in the hospital due to COVID-19, I thought Northern Health would be a great place to further pursue my career and it would offer a lot more opportunities. Kilmore was great, but as a 30-bed hospital with only one ward, regular shifts were not consistent and a new challenge was needed, so I applied to work at Northern Health in May 2022.

I started at Northern Health as a weekend roving ward clerk and absolutely loved the work and challenges that a large and busy hospital offered. Not long after starting, I was asked to backfill at Ian Brand Residential Care in Bundoora, in the capacity of an office manager for a couple of months, and during a period of leave absence. On returning to Nothern Health at the end of the Ian Brand task, the Director asked me if I would be interested in backfilling a vacancy in the Executive Admin area. She was aware of my extensive administrative background, as I had previously worked as a Chief Clerk in the Regular Army, Trade Transfer Warrant Officer Victoria and had many years moving around Australia in different administrative roles – a career I had dedicated 30 long years. I was happy to take on this role and eventually in February 2023, the Divisional Personal Assistant role in Women’s and Children’s was advertised. I decided to apply and here I am today.

Q: You are wearing your medals today. Tell us a bit more about them?

A: I am wearing my medals today, as I recently attended the Northern Health ANZAC Day Service as a Returned Service Veteran. I wear my medals proudly at memorial events such as ANZAC Day or Remembrance Day. Serving for more than half of my life in the military, I am proud of the service I provided to our country and have many fond memories of my time serving in both Australia and overseas. My medals are worn in precedence of importance (closest to the heart – toward my left arm) are the Australian Active Service Medal for service in East Timor from January – July in 2003, the Long Service Medal with clasps signifying 30 years-service, the Australian Defence Medal signifying four years of service, and the United Nations Peacekeeping Medal for peacekeeping in Timor-Leste. Other awards of service include Australian Day Medallion and Soldiers Medallion for Exemplary Service (not worn today).

Q: What is your current passion project?

A: My current work passion project is keeping up with the huge number of emails I get every day and ensuring I submit the doctor timesheets every fortnight before pay cut-off. I am also passionate about improving admin processes for continual improvement and better business practices. My private passion is creating things with my hands. I like jewellery making, sewing and card making. I am currently making new reading glasses chains in different colours, to match different outfits.

Q: What is your favourite way to unwind?

A: I love to binge on Netflix with a lovely glass of Shiraz or dining out with friends.

Q: What is your favourite movie of all time?

A: Hmm, hard to pick. There are so many great movies, however, I think ‘Saving Private Ryan’ and ‘Castaway’, both Tom Hanks’ movies… he is such a great actor!

Starlight Children’s Foundation (Starlight) has launched Planet Starlight, an innovative and interactive virtual platform designed to deliver engaging, positive distraction for sick kids in every hospital in Australia.

With the launch of Planet Starlight, the organisation can now deliver happiness to even more hospitalised children, especially in Australia’s general and regional hospitals where children’s support services can be limited. Free to register and easily accessible from an internet-enabled device, Planet Starlight features daily, interactive livestreams uniquely shaped by the participation of the kids watching and hosted by Starlight’s superhero of fun, Captain Starlight.

The platform has been rolled out to patients in 19 metro and regional hospitals across Australia since its launch in November, including Northern Hospital Epping, with another 20 nationwide planned by the end of the year.

Northern Health Child and Adolescent Health Unit Associate Nurse Unit Manager, Aleks Dimitrieski, says she and her team are excited to partner with Starlight and bring Planet Starlight to Melbourne’s northern community.

“Innovative digital projects such as Planet Starlight are really important for keeping the children distracted from their, sometimes scary, time in hospital. I’m really looking forward to seeing the positive impact this has on our patients,” she says.

Planet Starlight was first trialed during the COVID-19 pandemic, when some of the most significant restrictions in children’s healthcare required Starlight to come up with innovative ways to deliver essential programs to isolated, hospitalised kids in any way they could. A virtual Starlight program was designed and delivered in a number of hospitals, where evidence confirmed the power of this live, interactive digital platform where kids led the play.

“Starlight is uniquely positioned and excited to launch Planet Starlight with a goal to reach sick kids at every hospital in Australia. Planet Starlight takes Starlight into the virtual world for hospitalised kids in need of happiness and positive distraction. Whenever they need it and wherever they are. Children are digital natives, so it’s no surprise Planet Starlight has really taken off!” said Starlight CEO, Louise Baxter.

Community Therapy Service (CTS) has welcomed back exercise groups following the easing of COVID-19 restrictions across Northern Health.

One of the exercise groups running out of Bundoora Centre and Broadmeadows Hospital is the Balance Boost Group. Clients complete exercises close to benches, tables and chairs, with exercises designed to improve balance and strength, with various levels of challenges. The program runs for eight weeks and involves weekly group exercise and education sessions aimed at reducing the risk of falls.

Physiotherapists Claire Lee and Lauren Mitchell run the Balance Boost group at Bundoora Centre.

“Balance Boost is a really fun and social group. As it is a closed group, the same clients attend across the eight weeks, allowing social bonds to be formed and clinicians to build on the education each week,” they said.

“Involving patients in their education helps improve their self-efficacy and motivation for forming lasting exercise habits, giving them greater control over their rehab.”

The current participants in the group have been referred to the group to improve their balance, general strength and to reduce their risk of falls.

As part of the education sessions, clients were asked to identify barriers to regular exercise. Patients responded with, “motivation, pain, time and tiredness” as barriers to regular exercise.

Patients also agreed that exercise can help prevent future falls, with exercise also important to improving their balance, increasing confidence, reducing pain, feeling good, having pride and being stronger.

Featured images Balance Boost Group members in action.