{"id":7629,"date":"2023-11-30T12:48:26","date_gmt":"2023-11-30T02:48:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/metronorth.health.qld.gov.au\/community\/uncategorized\/coh-changing-young-patients-lives"},"modified":"2023-11-30T12:48:26","modified_gmt":"2023-11-30T02:48:26","slug":"coh-changing-young-patients-lives","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/metronorth.health.qld.gov.au\/community\/news\/coh-changing-young-patients-lives","title":{"rendered":"Changing the lives of young oral health patients"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"fusion-fullwidth fullwidth-box fusion-builder-row-1 fusion-flex-container nonhundred-percent-fullwidth non-hundred-percent-height-scrolling\" style=\"--awb-border-radius-top-left:0px;--awb-border-radius-top-right:0px;--awb-border-radius-bottom-right:0px;--awb-border-radius-bottom-left:0px;--awb-flex-wrap:wrap;\" ><div class=\"fusion-builder-row fusion-row fusion-flex-align-items-flex-start fusion-flex-content-wrap\" style=\"max-width:89.44rem;margin-left: calc(-4% \/ 2 );margin-right: calc(-4% \/ 2 );\"><div class=\"fusion-layout-column fusion_builder_column fusion-builder-column-0 fusion_builder_column_1_1 1_1 fusion-flex-column\" style=\"--awb-bg-size:cover;--awb-width-large:100%;--awb-margin-top-large:0px;--awb-spacing-right-large:1.92%;--awb-margin-bottom-large:20px;--awb-spacing-left-large:1.92%;--awb-width-medium:100%;--awb-order-medium:0;--awb-spacing-right-medium:1.92%;--awb-spacing-left-medium:1.92%;--awb-width-small:100%;--awb-order-small:0;--awb-spacing-right-small:1.92%;--awb-spacing-left-small:1.92%;\"><div class=\"fusion-column-wrapper fusion-column-has-shadow fusion-flex-justify-content-flex-start fusion-content-layout-column\"><div class=\"fusion-text fusion-text-1\"><h1>Changing the lives of young oral health patients<\/h1>\n<div id=\"attachment_7630\" style=\"width: 610px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-7630\" class=\"size-full wp-image-7630\" src=\"https:\/\/metronorth.health.qld.gov.au\/community\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2023\/12\/samantha-and-hiedi.jpg\" alt=\"Samantha Wacker and Heidi Virtanen \" width=\"600\" height=\"400\" srcset=\"https:\/\/metronorth.health.qld.gov.au\/community\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2023\/12\/samantha-and-hiedi-200x133.jpg 200w, https:\/\/metronorth.health.qld.gov.au\/community\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2023\/12\/samantha-and-hiedi-225x150.jpg 225w, https:\/\/metronorth.health.qld.gov.au\/community\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2023\/12\/samantha-and-hiedi-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/metronorth.health.qld.gov.au\/community\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2023\/12\/samantha-and-hiedi-400x267.jpg 400w, https:\/\/metronorth.health.qld.gov.au\/community\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2023\/12\/samantha-and-hiedi.jpg 600w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-7630\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">While they work behind the scenes Children&#8217;s Oral Health Nurses Samantha Wacker and Heidi Virtanen are making a significant difference to young people&#8217;s lives<\/p><\/div>\n<h4>Metro North Child and Adolescent Oral Health Services and Specialist Services nursing team Samantha Wacker and Heidi Virtanen are part of a highly specialised and dedicated oral health team for children.<\/h4>\n<p>The team is made up of highly trained orthodontists, specialist dentists and dental assistants at Queensland Children\u2019s Hospital in partnership with Metro North Health.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe care for some of the most medically complex, critically unwell and often challenging to manage children,\u201d Samantha said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe only place these children can be seen and cared for is in the Children\u2019s Hospital under general anaesthetic.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe see how important the treatment is \u2013 see how much their oral health condition is impacting their lives, health and wellbeing.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Each year, more than 4,500 children require corrective dental care for cleft lip conditions, for treatment for cranial facial trauma and other complex conditions through the Metro North Oral Health Service.<\/p>\n<p>As part of their roles, Samantha and Heidi also coordinate the theatre lists and access for children and help families navigate hospital and community oral health, and broader care settings.<\/p>\n<p>Both nurses clearly love their jobs caring for young people but highlight the need to gain as much experiences as possible and to focus on work life balance.<\/p>\n<p>Samantha Wacker and Heidi Virtanen were recently recognised for their ability to deliver excellent patient centred care as the Values in Action winner of the Community and Oral Staff Excellence Awards.<\/p>\n<p>In addition, each year the Metro North Oral Health Service 15,156 children received treatment across our Child and Adolescent Oral Health Services and Specialist services.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>They work behind the scenes caring for the most vulnerable young patients who require highly complex oral health care and treatment under general anaesthetic.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":77,"featured_media":7630,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_searchwp_excluded":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2,563,564],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7629","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-community","category-staff-profiles"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/metronorth.health.qld.gov.au\/community\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7629","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/metronorth.health.qld.gov.au\/community\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/metronorth.health.qld.gov.au\/community\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/metronorth.health.qld.gov.au\/community\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/77"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/metronorth.health.qld.gov.au\/community\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7629"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/metronorth.health.qld.gov.au\/community\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7629\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7631,"href":"https:\/\/metronorth.health.qld.gov.au\/community\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7629\/revisions\/7631"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/metronorth.health.qld.gov.au\/community\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7630"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/metronorth.health.qld.gov.au\/community\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7629"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/metronorth.health.qld.gov.au\/community\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7629"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/metronorth.health.qld.gov.au\/community\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7629"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}