This February, Northern Health are partnering with local organisations to celebrate Pride in the North!

Along with DPV Health, Hume Whittlesea Primary Care Partnership, Nexus Community Health and The Kilmore and District Hospital, all staff, friends and family are invited to march together as part of Pride March Melbourne on Sunday 2 February.

The first Melbourne Pride March was held in 1996, in St Kilda, with the aim to celebrate LGBTQIA+ in the community in a local and free event. This year the March will celebrate its 25th Anniversary.

As part of the event, buses will provide free transport to St Kilda, where the Pride March takes place as part of Midsumma Festival.

One bus will leave from Northern Hospital Epping, travelling via Bundoora Centre, and the other bus will leave from Broadmeadows Hospital.

Seats are limited, so click here to book your place as soon as possible to avoid disappointment!

Co-chairs of the Northern Health LGBTQIA+ Working Group, Electra Ulrich and Chrissy Nicolaidis, said, “It is the first time Northern Health are marching, and it’s great to be marching with our healthcare partners in the north. This will send a positive message to our consumers and staff who identify as LGBTQIA+.”

One of our Northern Health consumers, Barry McKay, knows firsthand the importance of supporting the event, having been part of the the March 23 times!

“I was at the first one and have marched under different banners – PFLAG (Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays), VAC (Victorian Aids Council) and VAC volunteers,” he said.

“I think it’s important we’re visible, we’re no different, we’re a community. There are families, kids, straight people there – it forms a community. It lets people know we are here and we are staying.”

“In the North, I’d like to see more involvement. This is a huge boost for the North – it will help people feel part of a community – give a sense of pride. For Northern Health to be involved is very important to me. I think all health services should be involved,” he added.

The Rainbow Flag represents LGBTQIA+ pride. It was created by an American gay activist and artist, Gilbert Baker, in the late 70s.
Part of its purpose was to replace the ‘Pink Triangle’ which was considered homophobic. During the Second World War, the Pink Triangle was used to identify gay male prisoners in concentration camps. The Rainbow Flag has 6 colours; the Red symbolising Life; Orange symbolising Healing; Yellow symbolising Sunlight; Green symbolising Nature; Blue symbolising Harmony; and Purple symbolising Spirit. Given the LGBTQIA+ community is diverse, other flags are used to represent and celebrate their community which you may notice at Pride March.

For more information about Pride March 2020, email PrideintheNorth@nh.org.au or head to Pride In The North Eventbrite.

“The best way to not feel hopeless is to get up and do something. If you go out and make some good things happen, you will fill the world with hope, you will fill yourself with hope.”
– Barack Obama

Bushfires continue to threaten large areas of the Victorian community, with months of the bushfire season still ahead.

Northern Health is proud of the number of staff helping out in the frontline, (see story here), and there are many others also keen to contribute in other ways to the affected communities.

One key initiative was a morning tea fundraiser held on Friday, 10 January, at Northern Hospital Epping, with staff and local businesses coming together to raise funds for the Victorian Bushfire Appeal and Wildlife Victoria.

With the generous support of Henry’s Café, ISS Facility Services, Costco, Coffee Hit Epping and Woolworths Epping, along with our Allied Health physiotherapy department, there was plenty of food to go around, as staff turned up in high numbers to support the appeal.  In the space of a few hours, $1,700 was raised, with 50 per cent of donations going towards the Victorian Bushfire Appeal and 50 per cent going towards Wildlife Victoria.

This is in addition to a number of other fundraising efforts from our staff, including:

• a donation of $5,000 from the Junior Medical Staff Association;
• a bake off by the Emergency Department and Short Stay Unit which raised $933.90;
• over $1500 raised by Ward 14 towards Wildlife Victoria and Gippsland Emergency Relief Fund;
• ISS Facility Services raising $275;
• other fundraisers including Ward 13 and the Surgical Centre.

Across Northern Health, Nurse Unit Managers have also been collecting out of date stock to help care for injured wildlife in the Gippsland region.

Northern Health is also providing staff with the opportunity to make a pre-tax salary deduction to the official Victorian Bushfire Appeal or Wildfire Victoria – available until the end of February 2020, with almost $6000 donated thus far. Click here to download the form.

This week, 40 new junior doctors commenced as medical interns at Northern Health.

Dr John Ferguson, Chief Medical Officer, who warmly welcomed our new interns, said, “We are delighted to have them join us – they bring a wide range of backgrounds and the passion and commitment we are already seeing. We are very excited with this intake and we look forward to making them feel part of Northern Health.”

Dr Carol Chong, Intern Training Supervisor, said she is very happy to welcome the interns.

“The interns come from various clinical schools, including our own at Northern Health. The interns will be with us for a year, and will go through different areas of the hospital – General Medicine, General Surgery and Emergency Department and other specialities,” she said.

Dr Brandon Lui, one of the new interns said Northern Hospital has played a significant part in his life.

“I have spent the last three years studying here as a medical student, and during this time I have also dedicated half a year towards research that will improve the way we treat our patients with blood clots. I am incredibly excited and privileged to be able to continue my story at this hospital as one of the next cohort of doctors – a 2020 intern,” he said.

We welcome all of our new interns and wish you the very best in your career at Northern Health.

With 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.

Many of our staff have generously donated their time to help the bushfire communities in the best way they can.

Here are three of their stories.

Jason Amos, Manager, Emergency Management

Jason joined the CFA when he was only 16, initially with the Macedon Fire Brigade. Since then he has held a number of roles, from firefighter to Lieutenant. He has assisted in many incidents ranging from car accidents, aircraft accidents, house fires and bushfires including the Black Saturday Fires in February 2009.

“In nearly 14 years of being a volunteer firefighter, I have attended many incidents. While I haven’t been to the East Gippsland fires in the last few weeks, on New Year’s day I was part of the strike team with my local brigade to put out the grass fire that affected Sunbury. If the call for Gippsland comes to my brigade, I would look into how I can help,” he said.

Jason says every year is a bad fire year, and this year is even more difficult, due to a long period of drought and the limited rain during winter. “Our forests are dry, the simplest of mistakes including not fully extinguishing a campfire can result in a major bushfire”.

“For Victoria, these big fires usually occur in February or March, while this year, they started a lot earlier and the message there is – we still have a long way to go,” Jason said.

“The message from me to staff is to be aware of your surroundings at all times, whether you are doing home visits during working hours in the bushfire prone areas, or you are traveling to and from work every day, even when you are on holidays. Have access to the Vic Emergency App and keep an eye on the weather forecast.”

“Having previously worked in fire recovery sector I know how hard it can be for not just the residents of fire affected areas but the businesses as well. If you’re looking for somewhere to go for your next holiday, once the fires are out and the area is safe, please consider holidaying in these fire affected areas. The businesses need our support to survive, the tourism and farming industries in particular have taken a hard hit this summer season and need our ongoing support to recover,” Jason added.

Dr Anthony Sutherland, Medical Registrar

Anthony is a medical registrar at Northern Health and a medical officer with the Australian Army. He will be deployed to East Gippsland this weekend as part of the health support team to provide help to army members, but also to civilians.

“My team and I can provide things like primary level health care to full resus and emergency management. Our plan is to deploy this Sunday and will stay until required,” he said.

Anthony has been in the army for 18 years, and was deployed last year on another operation. In 2009, he helped with the Black Saturday bushfires as a medical professional. He is committed to helping those affected by the fires using the skills that he has, which keeps him going back to help time and time again.

“Providing support as a part of the larger organisation is the most effective way. In times of national disasters, people usually want to get out and help, but there is always a question where someone can help the best,” he explained.

“I do this because it allows me to help in a way that I wouldn’t be otherwise able to do, and I would like to thank Northern Health for giving me the opportunity not only to work here but also to provide assistance to bushfire communities,” he added.

Tracey Wyllie, Nurse Unit Manager, Surgical Services

Tracey Wyllie is a CFA volunteer and she went up to New South Wales as one the strike teams and has spent five days there. She is now in Melbourne, but is being deployed next week to Gippsland.

“I’ve been volunteering for six years and my husband is also a volunteer. This year, the fires started a lot earlier and even Victorian crews were sent off to NSW. Now, we are back to Victoria to fight our own fires,” she said.

Tracey says the fires in previous years were mostly small bursts of fires, while these fires now a bit like a marathon.

“Even Black Saturday was like a sprint, in its intensity and atrocity. It came and created a lot of devastation and then went out really quickly and was contained. The fires this year keep going on and on, and are causing a lot of destruction along the way,” she said.

To help support the bushfire communities and injured animals, Northern Hospital Epping will be holding Fundraising morning tea on Friday, 10 January, upstairs at Henry’s at 10.30 am.

All staff and volunteers are encouraged to participate.

Victorian Bushfire Appeal – How to make a donation through your pay

Northern Health is providing staff with the opportunity to make a pre-tax salary deduction to the official Victorian Bushfire Appeal or Wildfire Victoria – available to staff until the end of February 2020.    Please consider this convenient way of making a pre-tax donation to one or both of these reputable funds.

The Payroll deduction form is available to download here.

(Featured image: Tracey fighting the fires in NSW)

The year for 2019 Interns ended well with a valedictory celebration, where everyone received a chocolate rose in recognition for their amazing year. This year they return as HMO2s at various health services.

Awards were handed out for:

• Intern of the Year, Overall / Intern of the Year, Medical: Jack Anstey;
• Intern of the Year, Surgical: Tie – Shubham Joshi, Margaret Shi and Danielle Sabella
• Intern of Year, ED: Tie – Margaret Shi and Gavin Wayne
• Intern of the Year, Subspecialty/Psychiatry: Tie – Yasmin Shah and Elisabeth Clinch
• Intern of the Year, Allied Health/Nursing: Kate Shearer
• Intern Choice: Tie – Priyanka Chhugani, Sharon Lee and Elisabeth Clinch​.

Seventy five percent of our 2019 interns are coming back to continue their careers at Northern Health – an impressive change to past years where Northern Health saw fewer than 25 per cent of the cohort return.

Wanda Stelmach, Divisional Director Surgery, speaking at the event said, “ Northern Health clinical staff are proud to have worked with the 2019 intern group. The dedication and diligence the group has shown through-out the year has been amazing!”

Elisabeth Clinch,  organiser of intern activities, said, “It has been a privilege to work alongside such talented, kind and hardworking colleagues this year. The intern valedictory was a lovely night to celebrate our achievements, large and small, before we begin our careers as HMOs. Good luck to those of us moving on from Northern Health, and for those staying I look forward to seeing you around the wards!”

Dr John Ferguson, Chief Medical Officer, said, “This is a fantastic reflection on the entire Intern team and we are delighted so many are staying with us for 2020. We want to make this event a hospital event and celebrate more widely.”

Northern Health wishes the 2019 Interns safe and happy holidays and an amazing 2020!

 

Monica Dowling, ICU Liason Nurse and Organ Donation Nurse Specialist, won the Innovation Award at the latest Staff Recognition Awards. She was nominated by two of her colleagues – Ashley Shea and Bridget Walters, who said it was difficult to choose which award category Monica belongs to, as she has elements of each category in her workplace.

“Monica continually finds new ways to improve and build upon our current practices to ensure that patients have good end of life care as we only have one opportunity to make it right”, Bridget said.

“She identified that end of life care in ICU needed to be focused on and has worked tirelessly for the last two and a half years identifying key issues,” she added.

Ashley said that from mid 2017, Monica came up with an innovative way of improving patient and consumer experience at the point of end of life.

“The results of each of these cases have provided robust discussion within the ICU medical group and led to significant improvements in symptom management of patients and the increase in early communication and updates with their families,” he said.

Monica has been working at Northern Health for nearly 17 years.

“This is the longest I have ever worked in the same organisation. I have a dual role at Northern Health. In my first role, I work as an ICU Liaison Nurse following patient’s journey through ICU and I am also a member of the Medical Emergency Team (MET) answering the medical emergency calls around the hospital,” she explains.

In her second role, Monica has been a Nurse Donation Specialist of Organ and Tissue Donation at Northern Health for the past 10 years.

“I am passionate about accommodating patients’ wishes whether it is through the patients’ own advanced directives or goals of care at a MET call or ensuring that the patients’ end of life care is based on their expressed wishes – pain free, organ donation, loved ones present, pet dog visiting, favourite music playing etc,” she said.

Monica works a lot with patients and their families at end of life and through organ donation. Families going through one of the worst times of their lives when their loved one is dying never cease to amaze her with their generosity in consenting for their loved one to become an organ donor.

‘”Their ability to think of others at a time like this is a testament to the beauty within some people,” she said.

She was honoured to receive the Innovation award.

“I love what I do and to be recognised like this is very humbling,” she said.

In the future, she sees herself continuing with her current roles. She enjoys the diversity and also enjoys being a resource and mentor to staff, as she as 40 + years of experience in nursing to share and sees Northern Health as “growing, growing and growing”.

“The demand for the services at Northern Health is always growing and despite limited resources, Northern Health is very creative in its efforts to meet these demands.  Everyone works hard and the leadership is to be applauded,” she said.

“Northern Health is a responsive and dynamic health service that is, and will continue to be, a force to be reckoned with,” Monica added.

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.

Northern Health’s Employee Assistance Program (EAP) provides staff with free and confidential psychological support, and I encourage you to contact this service if you feel impacted by the bushfires.

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.

I hope you have good week ahead.

Siva Sivarajah

Chief Executive

 

 

 

 

 

 

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.”