Prior to COVID-19, a busy day at Northern Pathology Victoria would be to register between 1200 to 1300 requests a day.

“However with the latest outbreak and lockdown, we have seen the volume of testing increase quite dramatically. At one stage, we were processing approximately 1500 swabs a day” says, Dr Frank Hong, Director, Northern Pathology Victoria.

“Every time we open a new fever clinic we have to decide if we are testing in-house or sending it out. The process we decide on today could change tomorrow or next week,” says Frank.

“Our staff have been on this journey with us and to their credit have accommodated the numerous changes that happens constantly as the COVID-19 situation evolved, helping to maintain the impressive turnaround time for COVID-19 tests,” he adds.

“When the specimens come we need to first time – stamp them, then data entry, scan the request form, take the samples to the lab… there is a lot of work. There is also the fact that health care workers and pre-operation patients need to be prioritised,” says Agnes Poczwardowska, second in charge for the Central Specimen Reception (CSR) at Northern Pathology Victoria.

“Our team bonds well, and I would like to thank them. They are the best team ever!” says Agnes.

CSR was also able to call on help from other departments, to provide additional resource. “We want to thank Health Information Service (HIS) and the Finance team. More recently we have also got medical students from the University of Melbourne, chipping in and helping us with registering the samples and to prepare samples in the molecular lab. It’s really a team effort,”says Frank.

“The team has been very resilient and adaptable to all the changes. Hats off to them for getting through all that work,”adds Frank.

Dr Prahlad Ho, Program Director of Diagnostic Services, says, “The Northern Pathology CSR team is a vital line of defence in our fight against the pandemic. Frank and the CSR Team are doing an amazing job and I would like to thank them for their tireless efforts.”

Featured pictures shows Agnes Poczwardowska on right in discussion with the CSR team.

Northern Health’s wellbeing team is announcing two initiatives to support staff wellbeing and health at this difficult time: “Sleepfit at Home” and “TREAT – 6 weeks online rest and recovery program”.

Created by Jo Gibbs, healthcare worker, Therapeutic Relaxation And Enhanced Awareness Training or ‘Treat’ is a unique self-care and self-awareness workplace program that has been evaluated extensively in public hospitals and has been shown to significantly reduce burnout in health professionals.

“The second COVID-19 wave in Melbourne has taken healthcare worker stress to a new high. Now is the time to take care of yourself with the Treat Rest and Recovery sessions. Calm your nervous system to help deal with this unprecedented event,” Jo said.

The 6 week Treat Rest and Recovery online sessions offer our staff an invitation to create a still point in life –  to feel grounded and steady. It helps to avoid getting caught up in old habits and the anxious spiralling of the mind and to enhance clarity, emotional calm and focus.

Alison O’Sullivan, Workforce Wellbeing Coordinator, explained that practising self-care to help cope with what life throws your way is now more important than ever. It also helps us to feel centred and calm and be proactive in looking after yourself and others.

“Regular Treat sessions have been in place for over a year now at Northern Health, and given current circumstances, delivering this program online ensures this great program can continue to support staff,” she said.

This free program for all staff will be available every Thursday – from Thursday, 23 July until Thursday, 27 August, 2 pm – 2.30 pm online via MS teams.

“Please email ohswb@nh.org.au to get the link to access the Microsoft teams sessions,” Alison said.

The “Sleepfit Home” is an online resource and one-stop-shop for everyone who would like to learn how to sleep better and healthier.

“It is a program especially developed for everyone finding their sleep patterns disrupted during the pandemic and in some instances may be working from home. There are personalised guidelines to optimise your schedule based on your natural biological rhythm – your circadian rhythm,” she said.

“Through guided meditation, soothing sounds, and numerous tools to manage sleep, stress and anxiety – it can be a very useful resource when we need some time out,” Alison explained.

For more information, please head to Sleepfit Home  or click here for more information about the TREAT 6 week program.

For the ongoing THRIVE staff wellbeing offerings at Northern Health and further details on the above, please visit the THRIVE intranet page.

Featured Image: Jo Gibbs hosting an online TREAT rest and recovery session with ED staff.

To celebrate the International Year of the Nurse and Midwife, we asked a selection of staff who exemplify the key qualities of a nurse/midwife to write a ‘postcard to their younger self’ and offer insight and advice. Andrew Nixon, Nurse Unit Manager, Ward 5, had this to say to his younger self:

“Be patient.

You will make many decisions throughout your life which will have far-reaching implications for you and the people you love. Some of those decisions will be mistakes. The mistakes will help make you who you are, even the couple of years you will spend in the Police Force in the UK will ultimately make you a better nurse.

Be kind.

Tell the people that you care about that you love them. Always remember family is everything. When you emigrate, phone your parents and your sisters more often than you may be inclined to. Believe me, you will regret not being in contact as often as you should when your parents die.

You and your wife will survive having premmie triplets on the other side of the world from your families, with the help and support of friends and volunteers. It will be exhausting and stressful and then, gradually, fulfilling and ultimately you will be the proud father of three kind, generous adults.

Your career will take a variety of twists and turns, in a number of settings, but you will always find fulfilment and enjoy the variety of challenges each role brings.

Also, you may want to plan your 30th wedding anniversary trip to Europe in 2020 a few months earlier. Trust me on that one!”

In the current times of a pandemic, various Northern Health departments had to change their work processes and quickly adapt to the new normal.

Pharmacy is one of our departments playing an instrumental role in managing our response to the pandemic, and it has been involved in a few different ways.

“One of our primary focuses is the supply of medication. In the first wave, we were expecting to see a high number of patients coming in with COVID-19, so one of the key things was making sure we don’t run out of medication,” Angela Given, Medical Team Leader explained.

Another key priority is making sure patients had a continuous supply of their medication and prompt and safe access.

“With our high risk patients, we have developed a system where instead of them coming to hospital, we are posting their medications and doing education over the phone to keep them in a safe environment,” she explained.

Taking some learning from the overseas experience, pharmacy was preparing to ensure patients that would need ventilators and ICU care had the proper medication.

“We needed to make sure we have enough medication that supports patients on ventilators while they are on their life-saving treatment. It was also important that staff had training in new treatments, and pharmacy plays a key role in developing protocols and educating staff,” she explained.

One of the biggest changes for the small pharmacy department was splitting into teams, to make sure the team always had enough pharmacists available.

“In terms of the workload, the pharmacists have been upskilling in some of the areas COVID-19 impacted, like ICU. We have trained some additional pharmacists in case numbers get higher, and made sure the team is educated about new treatments as well,” she said.

Like with many other departments, the biggest concern was not knowing what will happen in the future and what impact it will have on the health service.

“We had to change a lot of our day to day processes, like medication ordering and patient education. For our team, it has been a process of changing and adapting and the team has come up with some innovative ideas of how we can do things, whilst managing their standard daily workload,” she said.

Now in the second wave, the team feels they have learned a lot from the first one. With the pandemic processes now developed, the team more easily changed back to a COVID-19 way of working.

“Making sure we care for all of our patients, not just the ones with COVID-19 is also our priority. We do a lot of patient communication with local pharmacies to make sure the care is continuing and that patients have access to medication when they are in community,” she said.

The communication with other hospitals has been great and others have offered to share resources during the pandemic.

“Our professional body enables us to share experiences all over Australia,” she said.

Featured image (left to right): Jeff Khoshaba, Surgical Lead Pharmacist; Nivein Yenis, Clinical Trial Pharmacist; Angela Given, Medical Team Leader Pharmacist.

Our Northern Health volunteers, in collaboration with Northern Heath Foundation, raised funds to support the purchase of a bariatric wheelchair for the Broadmeadows Hospital Dialysis Unit.

Led by Nurse Unit Manager, Cheryl Rofe, the Broadmeadows Dialysis Unit were thrilled to receive the wheelchair to help support their patients.

Bariatric wheelchairs are designed to meet the needs of patients who are larger, and have a significant impact on helping patients to feel more comfortable, while supporting staff to move them safely between areas.

“Patients need appropriately-sized wheelchairs to support them when they come to Dialysis. For larger people, we didn’t have a bariatric wheelchair available in our unit, so we would borrow from Unit 2 and sometimes there was a delay in their care. By having a bariatric wheelchair, we are able to support our patients in our unit in a reasonable time frame,” Cheryl said.

“Patients are now able to feel more comfortable in a chair that is more accepting of their size. Patients don’t feel left out or feel that our hospital is unable to cope with their condition, as we have the equipment to care for them appropriately, which makes them feel safe,” Cheryl added.

Along with supporting Dialysis patients, the wheelchair has also been used to assist patients in other units at Broadmeadows Hospital.

“The chair gets borrowed to assist our patients and theirs, so it’s become a shared responsibility between all of us – a good team approach from the hospital. It’s made such a difference for our patients,” Cheryl said.

Together with Northern Health Foundation, our wonderful Northern Health volunteers made it all possible.

Northern Health Foundation work closely with the volunteer services team to allocate funds to wishlist items. Last year, a new bariatric wheelchair was identified as a much-needed item. To raise funds, volunteers held stalls selling donated new and pre-loved items at Broadmeadows Hospital, as well as facilitated the annual Volunteer Easter Raffle. Through their efforts, a total of $3,000 from volunteer fundraising was used to purchase the chair.

Last year, Northern Health volunteers raised over $14,000 through their various raffles and fundraising stalls.

“It’s so wonderful that the volunteers can see the impact their fundraising efforts make. Thank you to our amazing volunteer team and to everyone that supports our volunteer raffles and stalls,” said Henni Wade, Engagement Manager, who oversees our volunteer program.

“I would like to say a big thank you to the volunteers and Northern Health Foundation – they’ve just made such a large impact for not only the staff but the patients themselves – they feel safe and they feel we are accommodating their needs,” Cheryl added.

Featured Image: Patient, Mr Brian Powell with Cheryl Rofe, Broadmeadows/Craigieburn Dialysis Nurse Unit Manager (left) and Naveeni Natkunarajah, Unit 1 Nurse Unit Manager (right) 

Twenty-seven Queensland Health nurses have come to Melbourne to help out with the virus outbreak.

Expressions of interest were sent out to nurses in the Sunshine State on whether they would like to be deployed to Melbourne to help with the COVID-19 response.

“From the twenty-seven nurses, Northern Health now has nine nurses, who are at this stage assisting with our offsite COVID-19 testing and screening. The team are from six different health services in Queensland and have started working with us in our testing clinics located at Northern Hospital Epping, Meadow Heights and Oak Park,” explained Roslyn Payne, Director of Nursing and Midwifery.

The nurses started helping out at Northern on 6 July and will be with us for a month.

“Our team is very grateful for the help we have and the additional resources. They have quickly adapted and have become part of the team, as the whole Fever Clinic team works really well together,” Roslyn added.

Two Queensland nurses (pictured above) were helping out at Northern Hospital’s Fever Clinic on Thursday afternoon.

Danilo Derain, a recent graduate nurse from Queensland, said he was happy to come and help out, even though it meant swapping sunshine for winter chills.

“The opportunity doesn’t knock on your door twice, and this is a good opportunity,” he said.

Unsurprisingly, Danilo finds Melbourne cold and adds – “I even have to wear socks here!”

Featured image (left to right): Danilo Derain and his colleague, Jordan Soueidan

We are extremely proud and appreciative of all of our dedicated staff and the amazing work they have been doing over the last four months to fight COVID-19 together and protect our community.

Our hard work and commitment hasn’t gone unnoticed and we have received many comments and words of appreciation on our social media channels from community members. Read some of them below:

“Thank you and all of your colleagues for all of your hard work! You did my test for me a few days ago and was absolutely lovely and very reassuring, wonderful bedside manner! Really appreciated it!” – Catherine 

“Thank you for the support and dedication you have shown to our community!” – Julie 

“Now I know why I’m a volunteer at Northern Health, I’m very proud to be in your team. At the moment I’m home but I’m on board in spirit, shout out loud and be proud it’s a beautiful thing, go Northern Health ❤❤❤” – Brian 

“ED staff = true heroes.” – Stella

“Each and every one of you are doing a great job. It takes great teamwork, well done.” – Julie 

“Thank you and your staff, God Bless you and keep you all safe.” – Mary 

“l would like to send a VERY BIG THANK YOU to all our wonderful cleaners, what would we do without you – you all do such an amazing job.” – Mandy

“Thank you for all your hard work. We have a family member in the UK, a doctor, working every shift with Covid patients in ICU. What an amazing job you do!” – Sharon

“The team at Northern Oncology are brilliant! You do a terrific job and should be so proud of the hard work you do!!” – Alf

“Happy International Nurse Day, you are all angels, where would we be without all the dedicated, loving & patient nurses.” – Pat

Like us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn to read some of these comments for yourself! We are sharing daily tips to help reduce the spread of COVID-19, our achievements and latest information to keep our community informed.

The High Reliability Organisation (HRO) and Project Management team have been working on a number of initiatives, both in the quality and safety space, and in finding new ways and initiatives for the organisation to adapt to the new normal.

Quantum is one of those projects that the team has been working on, with Brooke Williams leading the way in its development.

“This is a brand new Northern Health project management tool and the HRO team is excited in its staged roll out across the organisation in the coming period. The software is designed to manage projects, accreditation and committee file management on a SharePoint platform. Quantum will provide a central repository to record project activity across the organisation, demonstrating how the project aligns with strategic values, objectives and accreditation standards,” Brooke explained.

“In the beginning, we plan to use the software for our HRO projects as well as sustainability projects. Over time, the software will used in various areas across the organisation – watch this space,” added Ariana Carrodus, Project Manager.

“The software was always something that we knew we needed to do, we just needed to make sure we did it right,” explained Sophie Argiriou, Director HRO and Project Management Office.

“This new software will be hugely important for the organisation. Our HRO transformation has been a catalyst in ensuring we have visibility for both HRO activities as well as other process improvement and project work across Northern Health,” explained Sophie.

Northern Health’s HRO transformation has been fully active for two full years now and is entering the third year, called “Horizon 3”. In Horizon 2, we have seen numerous initiatives and projects implemented throughout the health service, such as the increasing roll out of Comprehensive Unit-based Safety Programs (CUSPs), with nine active CUSPs across Epping and Broadmeadows sites.

Another successful HRO initiative is the Daily Safety Brief.

“The Daily Safety Brief is a meeting that occurs every day at 9.45 am – it’s a chance for the organisation to come together and report out on any quality and safety issues. Since COVID-19, the Daily Safety Brief has transitioned to MS Teams with great success,” Ariana said.

“There are numerous projects still happening, like the Patient Experience project relating to assisted meals and packs for vulnerable patients, with a trial currently under way in Bundoora Centre. There are also projects in the maternity space which are ongoing,” Ariana added.

Every project under our HRO transformation is sponsored by a member of the Executive team.

“Whenever we consider our projects, we are looking at which project can make a real difference in various health service areas. From an Operational Efficiency perspective, we have the “Sprints” Ariana has been working on with Ed Savill, Anthony Gust and Penelope Grellet,” Sophie said.

“Sprints” started when we realised that, as an organisation, we needed to find new ways of working in the COVID and post-COVID world.

“Twelve people pitched their ideas of their models of care and from there we chose six pieces of work aimed at being completed in eight to ten weeks, with the support of our team. This is new for Northern Health, as we haven’t done short, sharp and targeted projects before,” Ariana explained.

Our staff can still get involved in our transformation work, by joining the “HRO Champions” group or sending ideas through. HRO projects can be related to quality, safety, operational efficiency and patient experience. Please email hro@nh.org.au and the HRO team is happy to answer any questions.