I would like to wish all of our staff and volunteers a very Happy New Year. For those returning to work this week, welcome back. I hope you all had some time to rest and recover during the holiday period. For those of you who have been working over the festive season, thank you once again for your ongoing dedication to caring for our patients and community.
As you are aware, last week, Victoria declared a State of Disaster for six local government areas as a result of the ongoing bushfires threatening large areas of our community.
This is a challenging time for Australians, and many of us have been, or continue to be, affected by the bushfire emergency. I would like to acknowledge the brave and courageous work of those who are part of the firefighting efforts, some who are also work here at Northern Health. Thank you.
The bush fires are having a major impact in our community, and there are a number of ways you can show your support.
If you are considering making a monetary donation, I would encourage you to do so via the Victorian Bushfire Appeal with 100 per cent of donated funds going directly to communities in need.
If any of you live in potentially affected bushfire areas, please let your manager know so we can provide support. Be vigilant, fire ready and safe and check in with family and friends, particularly those within areas affected by fires or who may develop health issues as a result of the air quality.
Melissa Taylor (Brunet) is an Associate Nurse Unit Manager in the Birth Suite at Northern Health. She has been with Northern Health since 2005 and her role involves caring for women and their families in labour and birth, supervising and supporting staff in the busy Birthing Suite.
However her commitment to patient care does not stop with Northern Health. Melissa is also a member of the Australian Medical Assistance Team (AUSMAT). The team is drawn from state and territory health services to deploy at short notice. AUSMAT is one of just a few World Health Organisation (WHO) globally-verified Type-2 Emergency Medical Teams in the world.
Melissa recently volunteered to provide support to the Government of Samoa in response to the measles outbreak there. More than 5000 cases of measles have been reported in Samoa with more than 74 confirmed measles-related deaths.
Melissa was deployed with the second rotation of AUSMAT personnel in mid-November 2019. The team worked in the Tupua Tamasese Meaole (TTM) Hospital at Motootu in the Intensive Care Unit and the Paediatric Ward, the Vaccination Clinic, the AUSMAT High Dependency Unit (HDU) facility, the lab, the Health Emergency Operations Centre and an additional 20 bed AUSMAT field ward.
A spokesperson for AUSMAT described the workload as “complex and challenging, with a large caseload of critically ill children admitted to hospital.”
Melissa describes her time in Samoa as one of the most rewarding but also most heartbreaking time in her career.
“During my two weeks working alongside Samoan health care professionals in TTM Hospital, I was privileged to witness a country come together as one and work with enormous passion, pride and love for their community. I was able to work alongside so many incredibly skilled and committed Samoan doctors and nurses, teaching me how to provide high quality care to critically unwell patients in a low resource setting,” said Melissa.
Although she is pleased to be back at the Northern Hospital, Melissa does not hesitate when asked if she was ready to volunteer with AUSMAT again.
“I am always willing and ready to deploy with AUSMAT if called upon. Working within such a supportive and prepared Emergency Medical Team to assist countries in crisis is always a privilege,” Melissa said.
Chief Nursing and Midwifery Officer, Debra Bourne says, “Melissa is a valued member of our Northern Health midwifery team and she is to be congratulated for the extraordinary work she has undertaken with AUSMAT.”
Broadmeadows Hospital recently commenced a pulmonary rehab program for clients with lung disease. Prior to this, the service was only offered at Northern Hospital and Craigieburn Centre.
Craig Whitbourne, Senior Clinician Exercise Psychology explains the waiting list for this service was very long and patients usually don’t like to travel very far for service.
“As a result, we have commenced a pulmonary rehab program at Broadmeadows Hospital to service the clients living closer to us. Now with three sites offering the service, we can get through the waiting list quicker,” he said.
In association with DPV Health, the hospital offers maintenance classes, exercise programs at home or gym sessions at Broadmeadows Leisure Centre.
“This allows patients to manage their condition. We see people who come to the sessions with oxygen bottles, and we also have them here if they need them during exercise. These patients come to the clinic after being either referred by a specialist or following a hospital admission,” said Craig.
Craig went on to explain, the exercises help patients improve their quality of life.
This service is being run by the Exercise Physiology team and is held twice weekly, i.e. Tuesdays and Thursdays from 3-4 pm, with patients attending for eight weeks.
Grant Taylor, Director of Nursing and Operations for Broadmeadows Hospital and Craigieburn Centre added that this service is a fantastic addition to the suite of services on offer to patients at Broadmeadows Hospital.
“I am very proud of the hard work and commitment shown by the pulmonary rehabilitation team in developing this service in response to growing patient need”.
At the Q4 Staff Recognition Awards for 2019, Michelle Morrow was awarded the prize for Excellence in Safety and recognised as ‘an individual who has assisted in making Northern Health safer for patients, visitors or staff’.
Michelle, the Nurse Unit Manager of Maternity, recognised that there were a core number of mothers whose cultural background support co – sleeping with their babies – and education alone was not going to overcome their desire to do so.
She actively researched interventions that could prevent neonatal falls in this situation and discovered that infant mortality rates have been falling in New Zealand in recent years, after a decade of little change. Her research further showed that the Pēpi-Pod sleep space programme is one approach being applied in some regions of New Zealand and Australia to enable more vulnerable babies to have a safe space for sleeping .
It is a programme of ‘portable sleep space (PSS) plus safety education‘, that began as an emergency response during the Christchurch earthquakes of 2011. It is now offered to families of babies at increased risk of accidental suffocation.
Michelle arranged to trial a Pēpi-Pod borrowed from The Royal Women’s Hospital in Melbourne and, after the success of the trial, worked with The Northern Health Foundation to secure funding for 20 Pēpi-Pods. She also developed educational material for the unit to inform mothers and families of the safe option for safe co – sleeping with their babies.
“I am very grateful for the support received from both the Northern Health Public Affairs department, assisting with graphic design for brochures/posters, and the Northern Health Foundation for their financial assistance. We can now offer these to mothers who choose to co-sleep with their infants in the early days post birth. I am confident that the Pēpi-Pod will not only address and avert infant falls due to co-sleeping but will enhance breastfeeding and the patient experience. I am therefore delighted to receive the Excellence in Safety award for implementing an initiative so important to infant welfare,” says Michelle.
Chief Nursing and Midwifery Officer, Debra Bourne says, “Michelle took the initiative and ensured that the response to this safety issue, took into account patient groups and their preferences. She demonstrated exemplary leadership in promoting patient safety at Northern Health.”
Northern Health has had an impressive 2018-19 year!
In our rapidly growing community, we are continually improving our services and care to meet demand.
To support our increasing population, Northern Hospital’s Emergency Department (ED) treated more than 107,000 presentations, continuing on from last year as the busiest ED in the state.
We admitted 98,193 patients to hospital, performed 10,385 elective surgeries and saw 232,496 outpatients in our specialist clinics!
Our Ambulance Offload initiative has led to an increase from 78 per cent of ambulances offloaded within 40 minutes to 95 per cent in the last 12 months, and is now the best performing in Victoria. This makes ambulances more available in the community and gets patients to hospital to be cared for more quickly.
Northern Health’s elective surgery ‘time to treatment’ has improved to 97 per cent in 2018-19. Currently, 100 per cent of Category 1 and Category 3 elective surgery patients receive their care in the clinically recommended time.
In addition, there have been sustained improvements in managing patients within clinically recommended treatment times, and a reduction in the number of long waiting patients.
We have embarked on a major program strategy – ‘Staying Well’ – connecting with our community and linking them to the services they need to ensure that only those who really need hospital care end up being referred.
Partnerships have also been developed with academic and industry partners from around the globe to explore tangible ways to utilise technology in new and innovative ways to improve the patient journey through co-design with our consumers.
Northern Health Chief Executive, Siva Sivarajah, said, “Over the past 12 months, Northern Health has driven numerous quality and improvement initiatives whilst expanding reliable access to care for patients and families.”
“As we move towards new opportunities in the year ahead, we thank all our staff, volunteers, students, Board Directors, Northern Health Foundation supporters and our partners, whose contributions help us provide outstanding care for our community.”
With the temperatures rising to 43 degrees today, it’s important to stay safe and protected from the heat, as well as to keep an eye on the fire warnings.
Jason Amos, Manager, Emergency Management, said today is an Extreme Fire Danger Day in Central and North Central Districts along with most of the State of Victoria.
“These conditions may have a serious impact on Northern Health and our community, and have the potential to place patients, staff, volunteers and other workplace participants at risk. Please stay aware of the fire danger rating and know what to do at all times. The chart below can help,” he said.
Extreme heat can be serious, especially for elderly, people working outdoors, children, pets and people with chronic conditions.
Here are some tips on how to stay safe during a heat wave:
Drink water, even if you don’t feel thirsty. Take a bottle with you always.
Hot cars kill. Never leave kids, older people or pets in cars. The temperature inside a parked car can double within minutes.
Keep cool. Seek out air-conditioned buildings, draw your blinds, use a fan, take cool showers and dress in light and loose clothing made from natural fabrics.
Plan ahead. Schedule activities in the coolest part of the day and avoid exercising in the heat. If you must go out, wear a hat and sunscreen and take a bottle of water with you.
Check in on others. Look after those most at risk in the heat – your neighbour living alone, the elderly, the young, people with a medical condition and don’t forget your pets.
Everyone can be affected by hot weather and it is important that you take care whenever the temperatures start to rise. A heatwave over a period of days, or even a single day of extreme heat, may cause illnesses such as heat cramps, heat exhaustion, and heatstroke, as Better Health suggests.
Thi Nguyen, Nurse Unit Manager Ward 4, won the ‘2019 Clinical Excellence Award’ at this year’s Northern Health Annual Meeting. This annual award came after her winning the ‘Above and Beyond’ at the Staff Recognition Awards in July this year.
She was nominated by Sue Pike, Operations Director Medicine, who said Ward 4 is a medical ward with a complex patient cohort, including patients with behavioural challenges due to dementia, mental health diagnoses and younger patients with autism and intellectual disabilities.
“At all times, Thi strives to ensure that her patients and their families are supported during admission. Recently, the team had several incidents impacting staff and the relatives of a patient. Thi made sure she took the time to provide individual support to each impacted staff member, with staff mentioning how supported they felt by Thi. She needs to be recognised for going above and beyond in providing care and support to all patients and their families and to her team/colleagues,” Sue said.
Thi started her career at Northern Health eight years ago as a graduate nurse.
“I was lucky enough to rotate through multiple specialty areas as a graduate and had the chance to work with many inspiring clinicians. I then re-joined Unit B (now known as Ward 4) as a registered nurse and was fortunate enough to progress to ANUM & NUM roles, which have all been very rewarding,” she said.
Thi enjoys caring for the geriatric cohort of patients on Ward 4 and feels she currently has the best of both worlds.
“I get to practice as a renal nurse and work with our elderly population in the northern suburbs,” she said.
“The Nurse Unit Manager (NUM) role has been both very challenging and rewarding in so many ways. My day consists of juggling my time to ensure that both staff and patients feel supported and heard; along with ensuring that there is safe, quality and high standards of care on Ward 4,” she added.
Thi truly enjoys the team work aspect of her job, knowing that all the pieces of work, put together helped in the patient’s recovery journey. She feels blessed to have a team that not only supports her, but also shares a common goal and have created such a positive culture.
Thi is modest when she talks about the award and what it means to her.
“I can’t take credit for this award, I’m still not sure I deserve it. Truly, the credit and recognition should go to my team and the wonderful people I meet at Northern Health every day. I feel very proud and humble at the same time to know that my peers have nominated me for this award. It has also inspired me to continue following my passion to create positive change in nursing and to continue connecting with people on a bigger scale,” Thi added.
In the future, Thi hopes to be still working and contributing to Northern Health and the northern community, knowing that her work has helped someone in some way.
“I hope to be a manager that could inspire and foster new nurses into strong leaders and strive to make changes and contribute to the nursing profession in a positive way. I’ve been very fortunate to have amazing mentors and managers, so I’d like to be able to provide similar guidance and motivation to others,” she said.
“Northern Health is a progressive organisation and the opportunities are endless,” she added.
See the video below to hear what colleagues say about Thi and why they nominated her:
Featured image (left to right): Tim Bond, Maxxia; Jennifer Williams, Northern Health Board Chair; Thi Nguyen; Daniella Ghiri, Maxxia.
The children at Northern Hospital were not allowed to forget it is Christmas, with presents and visits from Santa facilitated by a host of kind hearted individuals and community – minded organisations.
This year too ISS Facility Services held their annual Christmas Appeal for presents for those children spending time at Northern Hospital over the Christmas season. The response from staff was overwhelming, and brought a smile to many a child when they got their presents with the assistance of Santa who paid them a visit curtesy Epping Plaza last Friday.
Snez Poposka, Facilities Service Manager ISS and key organiser of the Christmas Appeal, said, “I was thrilled seeing the look of happiness on the face of the kids. It makes it all worthwhile – especially to me as a mum,” she added.
The Commonwealth Bank, Mobile Unit, also paid the kids a visit with soft toys for the children and cupcakes for the staff yesterday.
The Commbank Mobile Unit, in association with La Manna Supermarket, visited Northern Hospital to share Christmas gifts with the kids in both the Childrens Unit and Emergency Department.
Connie Gauci, Manager Mobile Banking, said, “We were pleased to have touched the hearts of the children warded at Northern Hospital. It was also an opportunity to say a big ‘thank you’ to all the wonderful staff and nurses. On a personal note, I have had a lot to do with Northern and they have always looked after my family very well!” she added.
Courtney Lowry, Nurse Unit Manager Childrens Unit, said “It is so lovely to see the generosity and care that people have for one another. The lovely acts of kindness for our patients on the Children’s Ward from ISS, the Commonwealth Bank and Epping Plaza have brought so many smiles to their faces and their families this Christmas during what is a stressful time while they are in hospital.”
Courtney Lowry, Nurse Unit Manager Childrens Unit with Snez Poposka Facilities Service Manager ISS and the ISS team
The Commbank Mobile Banking Unit had presents for staff too.
