2015 Awards – Round 2

Medical Imaging Technologist – Medical Imaging (Radiology), Williamstown Hospital

Although Anne-Marie is a highly skilled Medical Imaging Technologist with some 30-plus years of experience under her belt, she often goes above and beyond the call of duty to make her patients’ experience in the department a positive one. She frequently demonstrates compassion for her patients by escorting them back to the hospital entrance and into the care of an awaiting friend or relative, or by escorting them back to the Emergency Department. This helps to alleviate any prolonged periods of time that patients might otherwise experience in the Medical Imaging department following the completion of their examination(s). She is a real asset to Western Health!

Team leader of Specialist Services – Drug Health Services Footscray

I am nominating Brad for excellence. Brad is a highly qualified and passionate Social Worker. He is dedicated not only to helping students learn & improve, but he is also committed to generously sharing his knowledge and expertize, supporting his colleagues to become even better clinicians. Brads clinical practice is certainly underpinned by a strong evidence base and this is the cornerstone of everything Brad does. He has an inquisitive mind and is always seeking new and improved ways to raise the standards of service and improve the experience of others. I am Brad’s Manager and always find it a pleasure to work with Brad as he continues to think outside the box and is a key player in the momentum of our service.

Food Services Assistant – Footscray Food Services

A key Member who is Valuable & Contributes to the Success of the Team. She is Responsible, takes Ownership & Performs her Duties with a Smile & has Fun doing it. Also a Good & Supportive Trainer to the New Team Members who come on Board.

Security Team Leader – Sunshine Hospital

Darren consistently delivers outstanding service to Western Health in his role as a Team Leader in our Security Team. He regularly demonstrates his commitment to the Western Health values of Compassion, Respect and Safety. He goes to extraordinary lengths to resolve potentially volatile situations in a way that maintains the dignity of those involved and ensures the safety of patients, staff and visitors. Darren’s interaction with stakeholders is characterised by his ability to show empathy and respect. Please see below extract from email feedback relating to support provided by the team that Darren was leading.

Business Systems Manager – Specialist Clinics, Sunshine and Footscray

Emily (alongside the ICT Applications Group) was instrumental in assisting Allied Health transition to the use of a new function in iPM that would allow Allied Health Specialist Clinics to not only meet their statutory reporting obligations, but improve the delivery of care to Allied Health Specialist Clinics (Outpatients).In particular, Emily demonstrated excellence in her capacity to provide mentorship, and models passion and purpose in the high calibre of work she achieves in Specialist Clinics. Emily was pivotal in driving the formation of the Specialist Clinics Outpatients – Clinical Leads group – which since its inception has provided a forum for the dissemination of critical information to ensure the smooth operation of the Specialist Clinics, but also provides support and leadership to clinical areas like Allied Health. Emily is an innovator and her attention and detail to her work is inspirational.

Practice Manager – Drug Health Services

Fiona is always very respectful and helpful to staff and clients of this service. She is very knowledgable and what she doesn’t know she will try to find out to make our clinical role easier. She is always very happy and approachable.

Food Services Assistant – Sunshine Food Services

Excellence work ethics, helping others and working as a team. Respects and values the patients and staff. High standard of service and a positive member of the team. Goes over and above her duties and is very positive in all situations.

Security Officer – Sunshine

Glen demonstrated the values of compassion, respect and safety through his extensive work with a young adult patient with complex communication needs on Ward 3E. He went above and beyond the call of duty to improve this patient’s experience during his hospital admission. Glen took the time to get to know this patient, treated him with the utmost respect and took an interest and active role in ensuring the best care was provided. Glen always showed that he had this patient’s wellbeing and safety in the forefront of his mind.

Clinical Services Director – Clinical Support & Specialist Clinics

I was one of the very first patients in Melbourne to have trials of Interferon for Hepatitis C. We tried two different trials, however with no luck. Dr Kronborgs compassion and after care is beyond compare. He has left me with a better attitude of life. I respect him so much and I don’t think people know how much of himself he sacrifices.

Volunteer – Sunshine Auxiliary

Josie has been actively assisting the Auxiliary in having a more professional approach in the shop. She has done this in a respectful way but I saw her show her sense of compassion and can do attitude when the Breastcare nurses requested some material bags to hold drainage bags after surgery for breast cancer patients. Josie went straight into actin, got support from others on the other side of Melbourne, donated material, redesigned the pattern to better suit the needs of the patient, engaged other volunteers and the request was filled within 2 weeks for over 100 bags.

Patient Services Assistant – Emergency Department Sunshine Hospital

Jovan cheerfully and professionally engages with staff and patients to provide timely and compassionate care to patients in our busy ED. Nothing is too much trouble for him and he actively engages with fellow staff members to improve the flow of patients at every opportunity. On Friday night whilst conducting observations in ED I witnessed Jovan identify an elderly patient who was Macedonian. Jovan asked me if it would be okay to speak with this person in Macedonian as he didn’t want to offend me by speaking in a language I didn’t understand. He then proceeded to speak with the patient in a very caring way and provided some reassurance to them in their own language and explained to them what was taking place. I believe that the empathy Jovan displayed with his efforts to make the patient feel more comfortable was admirable and exemplifies our core values of Compassion and respect.

Clinical Nurse Educator – Western Clinical School

Breast Care Nurse – Footscray and Sunshine

With one colleague on annual leave and another on compassionate leave, she provided exceptional care to patients and staff. She dealt with an enormous and stressful workload with grace and kindness, with no thought for herself and the time involved.

Revenue Services Officer – Finance

Leah has demonstrated excellence within Revenue Services and has assisted and helped her fellow team mates with learning. She has demonstrated high standards of work including taking the initiative to further improve processes within Revenue Services to assist the team in being able to conduct private health billing efficiently and accurately. She developed a private billing template to assist with the process and she did this out of her own initiative and was happy to share this with her team. This new template is instrumental in ensuring that revenue services reduce the number of rejections from health funds.

Administrative Support – Maternity Connect

Working in a shared environment Lil has brought the whole floor together by introducing a shared morning tea once a week. The whole floor has embraced it and everyone is now communicating and networking bringing a real vibe to the area. Lil has also been amazing for the project with her wonderful interpersonal skills bringing new clients on board. She is a true asset to our team.

Midwife – Maternity Services

Lorraine was instrumental in starting up the Innovative Midwifery Care Group which helps women to be able to have home births. It was such an innovation at the time and I’m sure has led to so many women having such lovely home birth experiences. To create such institutional change, I’ve no doubt that Lorraine and her colleagues had to fight hard and probably went unrecognised at the time. It’s time to rectify that and give them their overdue thanks and kudos that they deserve. Brilliant Innovation!

Director – Quality, Safety and the Patient Experience

Louise, is absolutely a deserving recipient of the inspire award. Until recently she was our Director of Education and Learning and was a true inspiration to everyone on her team. She leads by example and with respect and compassion. Louise has the ability to bring out the best in us all and enables us to work to our full potential. Although she has moved onto bigger and better things she still has a genuine interest in us all. She is an inspirational leader.

Clerk – Admissions

Grade 4 Occupational Therapist; Allied Health Lead – Sub Acute – Sunshine Rehabilitation Unit

Matt constantly demonstrates the CARES values in his daily practice as Grade 4 Occupational Therapist and Allied Health Lead for Subacute. He demonstrates a high level of accountability, works respectfully with staff and patients and has a strong work ethic focussed on providing effective and efficient services that have a positive impact on patient care. Since commencing in the role in March this year Matt has had a significant positive impact on the performance of the Sunshine Rehabilitation Unit with improvement seen in team processes resulting in a decrease in length of stay and the provision of more timely care for our patients requiring access to rehabilitation services. Matt not only provides exceptional service but goes above and beyond his role working collaboratively with the clinical teams and the Subacute & Aged Care Services senior leadership team to ensure length of stay and activity targets are achieved whilst also ensuring that patients receive safe and appropriate care. More recently Matt has played a pivotal role in the It’s About Time Subacute Workstream and has taken a leadership role in working through improved ward processes across the Divison.

Supervisor – Williamstown Food Services

Megan has Always led from the front as a Leader. Has an Exceptional follow up, and as a true leader, takes ownership & accountability for the Task. On one occasion stepped up & vouched on her own to cover up a shift (when no alternative could be found) to do a double when a staff member called in sick.

Coordinator of Volunteers Footscray & Williamstown Hospitals and Hazeldean Transition Care Unit – Community Engagement & Volunteers

Michelle is a Team Leader that has confidence and respect for all of her Volunteers. Her best achievement is her support for all Volunteers to experience different types of work. Every now and then she organises courses for Volunteers to attend to help and understand cultural diversity. Her understanding and compassion towards others in our field of work helps us to cope and feel positive about ourselves and what we do.

Consultant – Surgery

Nezor is a very enthusiastic and highly skilled surgeon who is always keen to teach. Spends extended periods of his time with patients and junior staff. Always available and easy to approach. He deals with the public patients exactly in the same way as private. I have greatly enjoyed working with him and have learnt a lot. He is highly respected among juniors, colleagues and superiors. He is always happy to help and give advice even when not on call or at work.

Ward Clerk – Day Procedure Unit

Natalie is always extremely patient with all of the patients. It is a busy environment but she always treats the patients with the utmost respect and empathy. She always has a friendly smile and is accommodating to all staff. She never shows that anything is too much trouble. I believe she puts the patients at ease when they are most probably stressed before their procedure. She has a very caring nature.

Social Workers – Western Health

Nicole and Sharon were both recognised by the Social Work Department as having leadership qualities which prompted them to be nominated and subsequently chosen as candidates for the Health Social Work Leadership Program ‘Reaching for the Stars 2015’ that is coordinated by the Health Social Work Directors Group of the Australian Association of Social Workers (AASW). This project has inspired and challenged them to develop independent projects that relate to gaps they identified in their work. Nicole has chosen to focus on a trauma informed model of psychosocial care in ED and ICU for maternity and paediatric patients – a significant opportunity for early intervention to improve health and mental health outcomes into adulthood based on ground-breaking research into adverse childhood experiences – the ACE Study. Sharon has chosen to focus on establishing a lead Social Work role in ICU based on a recognised gap in social work coverage and role at WH and literature that supports a comprehensive lead role for social work in this field. Thus far, Nicole’s work has been recognised and validated by patients, their families and ED staff who have valued her knowledge and skill in dealing with patients who have experienced significant trauma in their lives. So much so, that paediatric staff in ED believe that this service should be available 24/7. Sharon’s work in ICU has been recognised as filling a substantial gap that supports and enhances multidisciplinary care in this highly stressful setting for patients and their families. Both Nicole and Sharon developed their projects in an area of professional interest. They have been motivated and inspired in their work through dedication to their project topics, enthusiasm for learning and through challenging themselves to go that extra step to achieve their goals. I have had the privilege to mentor both of them over the last six months and watched them grow as clinicians and as leaders in their chosen areas. This award is an opportunity for their dedication to recognising and responding to particular gaps in health care, to be recognised in Social Work and more broadly at Western Health.

Business Analyst – Finance

As an analyst his experience and skills are exceptional. He has changed several ways in which the divisional of EMC process MBS revenue. He always ensured that the hospital gets the best advantage from every aspect of current or new projects. For example, when reviewing the financial aspects of any business case he is immaculate in assessing it from the patients, division and hospitals as a whole. If there is no advantage to the hospital he would give advise and suggestion. He is an exceptional analyst and I believe that we are very lucky to have him working for us. Due to this, I would like to nominate him for this award. He inspires me to look beyond my little corner and work harder for the organisation.

Senior Pharmacist – Pharmacy Sunshine Hospital

The Day Chemotherapy Unit is highly dependent on the safe and efficient provision of curative and palliative chemotherapy products. Ray has been instrumental and constant in supporting the Day Chemotherapy Unit in the lead up to the relocation from Footscray to Sunshine Hospital, and ever since. Whilst this transition has been extraordinarily challenging for Pharmacy, Ray has gone out of his way to minimise the impact on the Chemotherapy Unit and the patients they serve. Ray has demonstrated great compassion and accountability in dealing with the day-to-day challenges, with patient safety underpinning his work ethic. He has supported both junior and senior colleagues during a time of transition in a new and complex environment. His leadership has traversed craft groups with support of both medical and nursing personnel in the day oncology environment ultimately allowing patients to be treated seamlessly despite the logistical challenges. Ray is a quiet achiever who never seeks praise and attention, and so we feel it is appropriate that his contribution to Western Health be formally recognised through this nomination for an inspire award.

Grade 3 Physiotherapist – Sunshine Women’s Health

Rebeccca demonstrates excellence by improving women’s health pre and post partum as well as preventing any complications. She is a hard working physiotherapy senior and provides a high level of education and care to antenatal and postnatal women daily. She was recently involved in creating the better bladder care project to prevent bladder injury in the post partum period. Furthermore the project recently won a Best Care award. Within the physiotherapy team, she is also heavily involved in a Women’s Health project. Rebecca is also a very supportive and organised colleague.

Senior Women’s Health Physiotherapist – Maternity Inpatients and Outpatients

Rebecca (Bec) is the inspiring leader of the women’s health physiotherapy team. Bec’s advocacy for the women’s health physiotherapy profession within the health service and beyond is inspiring. Her passion is highly motivating and creates a really positive and supportive work environment. Her ‘can do’ attitude has resulted in the women’s health team being involved in multiple successful funding applications for quality improvement activities in the past year amongst other things. We nominate Bec for the Inspire Awards for the following reasons:

Compassion: Rebecca consistently puts her patient care first and has been called “A saviour” and “An angel” by thankful patients. Her demeanour ensures that otherwise painful and distressing complications following birth such as third degree tears are well managed and patients attribute their recovery to her skills and ability to help them through their rehabilitation. Rebecca is one of the best motivators of patients that I have ever observed in the clinical setting.

Accountability: Bec has a diligence to her clinical and non-clinical duties managing her overwhelming workload without any complaint. Her patient centred approach means that she will often be providing support to staff from home or attending late calls to the wards to ensure a patients is managed optimally. Her commitment to evidence based practice is outstanding and she is a pioneer in bridging the evidence-practice gap in healthcare by always implementing and redesigning services based on the best available evidence. We have seen the women’s health physiotherapy service change from having a 4 month plus waiting list prior to Bec joining the organisation to now having no waitilst at all. Previously where patients in need could regularly not access physiotherapy services before the duration of their pregnancy was complete, patients can be seen immediately. This is in-part due to Bec’s skilful and evidence based re-prioritisation in service delivery. Bec is actively involved with improving standards of inpatient care by working to promote ‘better bladder care’ with the hospital midwifery and medical teams. This was demonstrated through her tireless work during bladder week (in June 2015) when she provided (in-kind) educations sessions for day and night midwifery staff regarding changes in post-partum bladder management. Rebecca worked tirelessly to educate over 140 midwives and 20+medical staff during this week alone. This work was the beginning of a change in practice which will mean that 50% more of our post-natal patients will receive high quality post-partum bladder management.

Respect: Women’s Health in Western Health is a culturally diverse patient cohort and Rebecca works hard to ensure that all women have access to our service regardless of their barriers to attending care. In coordination with our urogynaecologist Oliver Daly, Rebecca was the instigator of the We-Help APP which has attracted significant funding to develop an ‘app’ that involves the cultural department of Melbourne University to ensure the information provided to our women is relevant and accessible by our most common languages including Vietnamese and Burmese. – Excellence: Rebecca has pioneered a number of other successful quality improvement projects in the Women’s and Children’s division at Sunshine Hospital with more to come in the works. Many in-kind hours have been dedicated to these patient care projects and having witnessed many intense discussions around process development it is well demonstrated how she is so driven and passionate about achieving the best possible outcomes for patients while minimising impact on staff workload. The ‘better bladder care’ project which won the ‘Best Care Award’ in the women’s and children’s division was led by Rebecca and she managed to coordinate and drive a multidisciplinary team to make this project a success so far. Rebecca is currently providing ongoing education sessions and planning the next phase of the Better Bladder Project. Clinically, her excellence has already been recognised by not only her team and Western Health but also external organisations – she has been selected as a tutor for the Univeristy of Melbourne Women’s Health Post Graduate course which is the leading course of its kind. She has also been recognised for her excellence within the health department and has gained funding to commence Advanced Practice Clinics in Women’s Health, a service previously not offered at Western Health. Safety: As previously mentioned Rebecca has mobilised support from within the Women’s Health team including midwifery, obstetrics and gynaecology to devise and implement a protocol to prevent permanent bladder damage in post natal women. This project required dedication, in-depth knowledge and practical understanding and a huge educational provision component and as previously mentioned was awarded a Best Care award this year.

Ward Clerk – Ward 1A, Sunshine

Rhonda is an extremely valued member of Ward 1A. She performs her role and responsibilities as a ward clerk to an exceptional level and goes above and beyond the expectations. For example she is able to multi task her ward clerk responsibilities and assist the ward with daily duties at the same time such as stock ordering (FMIS), patient transport bookings, update diet codes, pegasus mattress requests, KCI requests and even BEIMS/Engineering requests. She is helpful not only to staff but also to patients and visitors to the ward. She has been frequently complimented by members of the multidisciplinary team for her willingness to help and particularly with patients/visitors for her excellent customer service. She plays an integral role in the efficiency of the ward and the high standard of patient care delivered.

Registered Nurse Grade 2 – Day Chemotherapy Ward, Sunshine

I just wish to commend the excellent care my mother received from Sarah in the Chemo Ward over the last 4 months. She is so caring, empathetic and always explains to mum what she is about to do. This helps a lot as she is very anxious about her diagnosis of breast cancer. Thanks to both Western Health and Sarah.

Team leader of Adolescent Community Programs – Drug Health Services

I am nominating Stana for displaying the Western Health values, in particular, accountability. Stana leads our Adolescent Community Programs and is an energetic and passionate Clincian and leader. Stana has the respect of her team and is positive & productive and is always seeking to improve the standards of care for young people and their families. Stanas passion is infectious and her role modelling of excellence and accountability inspires others. Stana actively engages community organisations to improve relationships and subsequent referral pathways, all in an effort to improve the treatment experience of and improve continuity of care for young people and their families. Stana is a real asset to our organisation.

Administrative Support – Centre for Education

Suzana is a true inspiration to the education team at Sunshine. She is always available to assist everyone in the department and is always the first to welcome new members to the team. Her kindness and support of others is invaluable. Suzana is deserving of this award.

Midwifery Educator – Centre for Education

Val is passionate about midwifery education and is able motivate those around her to promote a high level of midwifery care at Western Health. She is a true inspiration to her whole team.

Enrolled Nurse – Theatre Footscray Hospital

Verity has worked on the front desk in theatre for a number of years. I have never once seen her unhappy, rude or unwelcoming in all of that time. She consistently displays a welcoming and warm approach to patients who are often scared, vulnerable and stressed at the time they come into theatre. She smiles, she sympathises and she listens, and I have seen patients visibly relax as they interact with her. Verity is unfailingly professional, and can always be relied upon to communicate important clinical information to the team in theatre who will be caring for the patient. Even at the busiest and most stressful times in theatre, nothing is too much trouble; Verity performs all her work with a smile and a can-do attitude. I once came into and asked Verity if I could use her printer because our one was jammed and I couldn’t fix it. She printed what I needed, then followed me back to my department to fix our printer!

Ward Clerk – 2B

Yvonne is an absolute pleasure to work with. Each day that she comes to work, she has a smile on her face. She goes out of her way to introduce herself and welcome new staff to the ward, no matter if it is nursing staff, allied health, medical students, doctors, whoever. She welcomes them and introduces herself and her role and offers them support for whatever their needs may be. As someone who has worked with Yvonne for almost 7 years, she is a highlight of my working week. She is there to not only assist in the day to day tasks of a busy ward, but she also looks out for my wellbeing, by being there to listen and help out with any problems that occur. In my nursing career I have never come across a more efficient ward clerk. Yvonne puts in 110% effort into all of her work. Her time management and initiative is outstanding, for lack of a better word. Yvonne is also famous on the ward for and punch and her biscuits and dip. She makes these on an almost daily basis and ensures that all staff that come to the ward, have some so that they stay hydrated and nourished.Yvonne’s kindness and attention also extends to patient’s and their families. Yvonne goes out of her way, on a regular basis, to ease any concerns or answer any questions that occur from patients and their families, or helps them in guiding them to who can answer their concerns. Being a ward that is in an ajoining corridor, we get many queries about patients who are not actually on ward 2B. However Yvonne does not let this deter her and still goes out of her way, to point people in the right direction, and always with a kind word and a smile on her face. I often ask Yvonne how she’s stays upbeat and her answer is always that she loves her job. I just want Yvonne to be acknowledged for what she does for Western Health. She’s one of those people that makes each working day just that little bit better.