Dale Dally-Watkins, Executive Director
Last week, I received my staff flu vaccination from our wonderful Infection Control Team. If you still haven’t had your flu vaccination, there is still plenty of time with vaccinations available until Wednesday 15 May. Flu vaccinations are available on Level 1 at STARS in the Education Centre. You can find out more information about those dates and times here. If you would like to read more about the flu vaccination this year, check out the article in the Metro North newsroom, Four very good reasons to get your flu vaccination – Metro North Health.
Brief the Boss
On Thursday, I held my first Brief the Boss event at STARS. I have introduced this new initiative to provide staff with an informal opportunity to come and speak to me about new initiatives they might have or ideas for improvements. Brief the Boss will be held on the first Thursday of every month.
At the first Brief the Boss, I was pleased to be joined by Ben Hackwood, who answered queries about the Metro North Spinal Injury Services Project.
The next Brief the Boss event will be held on 6 June 2024 at 11 am.
Brief the Boss is just one way you can provide your feedback or suggestions. We hold our regular Staff Forums and our Staff Council also have a feedback form.
Administrative Professionals’ Day
Today is Administrative Professionals’ Day, where we recognise the important role that admin professionals play here at STARS. This includes our ESO/ASOs, administration officers, receptionists, bookings staff, ward clerks, trust officers, revenue officers and SAOs. Much of their work is behind the scenes, and sometimes goes unrecognised and even underappreciated. I would like to thank all the admin staff for everything they do to ensure that STARS runs smoothly for our executive team, clinicians and patients.
International Nurses Day 12 May
International Nurses Day celebrates the profession of nursing and is an opportunity to publicly acknowledge the hard work and dedication of our nurses. The 2024 theme, ‘The economic power of care’ aims to illustrate the significant economic and societal benefits that come from strategic investments in nursing.
This year, International Nurses Day falls on a Sunday so we will be holding our celebrations on Friday 10 May.
Our annual trivia competition will be a face-to-face event, with Ben Hackwood reprising his role as Trivia Master. Anyone can join in the trivia competition and there is still time to register a team of two to four members.
Metro North’s Chief Nursing and Midwifery Officer Alanna Geary will be visiting our STARS nurses on Friday 10 May (after 1pm) along with our Director of Nursing Ben Ballard.
A big thank you to all our wonderful nurses at STARS who do an amazing job delivering high-quality care every day.
Metro North Spinal Injury Services Project update
Metro North Spinal Injury Services Project Oversight Committee had its second meeting this week and welcomed consumer representative David Liddell who provided some very useful considerations. The committee was updated on recent stakeholder meetings including different teams at the RBWH (allied health, IMS, surgery, critical care) and further meetings are planned with other Metro North facilities next week.
Over the next two weeks, the project team will be working with service leads to finalise what funding is required for the service and to draft the business case. The business case will then be reviewed by the committee, and once endorsed, submitted to the Metro North Executive.
Reconciliation Week date claimer
This year’s STARS Reconciliation Week event will take place on Tuesday 28 May from 11am. The event will include a Welcome to Country and didgeridoo performance, morning tea and yarning circle, with members of the community invited. Please pencil the date into your diaries and look out for more details in the Staff Bulletin.
Patient Olive’s 103rd birthday
On Wednesday one of our 5B patients, Olive celebrated her 103rd birthday! Olive’s son brought in a birthday cake and shared memories of Olive’s long and happy life. Thank you to the team on Ward 5B for organising such a lovely celebration for Olive’s big day.
Patient compliment
I would like to share with you all a compliment that came from one of our recent surgical patients.
“These days we hear the odd bad news story about hospitals, well let me tell you mine is a good news story. I would like to give a thumbs up to all the staff at STARS. They went out of their way making me feel comfortable and giving me the care and attention that my issue required. Even the facility itself is 5 star honestly. Job well done”
Kind regards,
Dale.