Glynis Schultz, Executive Director
Welcome to the fourth quarterly newsletter for 2024, with a focus on our amazing Community and Oral Health Staff Excellence Awards Winners.
This year we had more than 90 nominations, with 17 staff and teams celebrating success as a winner or highly commended recipient of an award.
Thank you to everyone who took the time to nominate your fellow peers. This newsletter provides more detail about each of our deserving winners.
People Focus
Highly Commended – Kim Gordon, Senior Finance Officer,
Metro North Oral Health Service
“Kim has successfully built the Oral Health budget with engagement and enthusiasm.
“She is a finance leader who actively participates in leadership meetings and provides insights into financial performance and forecasts future trends.
“Kim has developed reporting focussing on oral health needs and has engaged clinicians and Metro North finance to build dashboards which are providing great business insights.”
Winner – Bright ‘N’ Sparks Dementia Choir
“The Bright N’ Sparks Dementia Choir was created to support people living with dementia and their loved ones/carers to come together to sing and socialise. The benefits of such a choir are many and seen in the progress of those attending each week.
“The choir is led by two trained music teachers with an interest and passion in supporting our community, particularly those with cognitive conditions.
“Both have lived experience of supporting loved ones with dementia and recognise the significant impact of singing in a group, on the health, memory and social connections of those involved.”
Excellence in Performance
Highly Commended – Andrea Keating, Clinical Nurse Consultant, Hospital in the Home (HITH)
“Andrea is integral to managing the clinical component of our large HITH service with 94 multidisciplinary staff.
“Andrea is a high achiever and is an inspiration to us all. She has such a passion and drive for high performance and improving her own knowledge and skills that she is currently nearing the completion of her Nurse Practitioner qualification.
“Andrea’s commitment to high-quality patient care and supporting evidence-based practice is beyond measure. She is currently leading a project to introduce ultrasound-guided peripheral cannulation to the HITH service for our population of patients with difficult intravenous access.
“This will benefit this patient cohort by improving the success rate of first cannulation attempts, thus improving the patient experience.”
Highly Commended – Lina Hunter, Business Improvement and Planning Manager
Metro North Oral Health Services
“Lina is able to demonstrate strong leadership and excellence in performance in Metro North Oral Health Services by her skilled communication where she is able to convey ideas, expectations and feedback clearly and persuasively.
“She listens actively to the team’s input and concerns. She is a great leader that empowers a team of professionals by entrusting them with responsibilities and decision-making authority.
“Lina’s skills are the embodiment of vision, integrity, empathy, communication and resilience. Her effective leadership and excellent performance work to bring positive changes, inspire people around her and create a sense of purpose and direction in the team and organisation.”
Winner – Samantha Creed, Registered Nurse,
General Practice Oral Health Services
“Samantha deserves recognition for her efforts in co-ordinating inpatient and outpatient follow up care, especially for the Prince Charles Hospital Cardiac Care Co-Ordinator and numerous rotating Registrars.
“She has built inroads with mental health services which is an area often neglected for this cohort. With Samantha’s direct help we have provided overdue dental care for two long-term SMHU patients for extensive treatment under general anaesthetics via the Caboolture Hospital.
“Samantha works closely with the Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital Maxillo Facial Outpatient Clinic and supports urgent treatment for our Stafford general dental patients and the Cardiac Clearance patients.
“We would be a great loss without her.”
Improving First Nations Health
Winner – Aboriginal and Torres Strait Health team
“The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Health team were commended for the dashboard they have in place so that people accessing COH services who identify as Aboriginal and Torres Strait islander can be contacted within 24 hours of acceptance into the service.
“At that point of contact, an offer of cultural support is made and if accepted, the team leans in to support people to appointments or while they are in bedded services.
“In addition, the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Health team were commended for their approach to engage with elders on a regular basis through the yarning circle and health equity committee.”
Leadership
Highly Commended – Eleanor Thompson, Clinical Nurse Consultant, Rapid Access to Community Care (RACC)
“Through her steadfast leadership, vast clinical knowledge and endless compassion, Elly has provided the highest quality and rapid care to the most vulnerable members of our community.
“Elly’s dedication to nursing and ongoing enthusiasm for her role, demonstrates her position as a pivotal member of the RACC Team. Through her commitment and drive, and through leading by example and setting the highest of standards, she inspires every member of the team to always provide the utmost level of care.
“Elly’s lateral thinking, communication skills, vision for the service, and utmost integrity, has cemented confidence with GP’s, Non-Government Service Providers and QAS to name but a few.
“The trusting partnerships Elly has established, and her capability within her role, is evidenced further through the Service data – since Elly’s commencement, the RACC referral rate has increased by 600%, and continues to build.”
Dual Winner – Jung (Michelle) Reynolds, A/Advanced Oral Health Therapist, Children and Adolescent Oral Health Service
“Michelle is a leader who displays integrity, self-awareness, courage, respect, compassion and resilience in her management of staff and patients.
“She is able to set clear goals and expectations, monitoring progress and holding herself and her team accountable for results. Michelle is always willing to listen and strive to improve the service and outcomes for patients.
“Michelle has a leadership style where she walks side by side with her team and supports her team through changes or where they require assistance.
“Her willingness to help others and to consider their perspectives and make her team feel valued while navigating decisions, is the reason why staff from across the service in all streams value her as a leader.”
Dual Winner – Kym Murphy, Program Manager,
Queensland Ambulance Service Falls Co-Responder Program
“Kym has displayed exceptional leadership skills in establishing, progressing and evaluating a high value community Falls Response service in partnership with the QAS. The service has achieved key health outcomes, contributing to hospital avoidance and improved safety and quality of residents in the community.
“Under Kym’s leadership the service has been the recipient of many state and local awards and is approved for state-wide expansion across seven health services.
“The staff she leads and colleagues continuously report the positive contributions and proactive leadership she provides. Kym is truly an asset to COH and Queensland Health.”
Supporting Excellence in Care
Winner – Sarah Scott, Business Practice Improvement Officer
“Sarah has been an incredible asset to COH particularly with her expertise within the outpatient and ambulatory care environment.
“Sarah played a lead role for COH in the implementation of ESM and continues to work with clinical teams to implement structured processes that align with SOSIS guidelines to ensure we provide timely access to care for patients and optimises our use of ieMR.
“She collaborates effectively to ensure efficiencies are implemented and sustained.
“Sarah has excellent attention to detail and provides oversight and input to data quality activities, ensuring quality improvements are implemented to improve workflows and ensure data accuracy.”
Excellence in Clinical Improvement
Winner – Dr Bill Lukin, Clinical Director,
Community Palliative Care Service
“Dr Lukin is an exemplary clinician with a sophisticated ability to think broadly and creatively. He has conceptualised and implemented innovative models of care including SPACE, working across boundaries to develop effective solutions to optimise patient care.
“His contributions to the health system as a committed and compassionate clinician and medical leader, and his dedication to his patients are an inspiration to his colleagues.”
Values in Action
Highly Commended – Pascale Goldburg, Senior Physiotherapist, HAART
“Pascale has consistently exemplified all of the Metro North Values, particularly teamwork and high performance. Pascale played a central role in establishing the high-quality HAART physiotherapy service and worked collaboratively with the team to embed new processes.
“Pascale led the development of the evidence-based Falls Free Fitness group which involves a tailored exercise program as well as team education. The program is client-centred, provides much needed falls interventions for the local community, and has received lots of positive consumer feedback.
“Pascale is an effective communicator and is able to negotiate respectfully, advocate appropriately and foster a positive work environment. Pascale is solutions-focussed and has worked with the team to problem solve and address the challenges that arise in a new service.
“Pascale has demonstrated a commitment to continuous improvement and optimising efficiency, while keeping shared goals and service aims front of mind. She is a motivated clinician who positively influences team dynamics and engagement. She is an asset to COH.”
Winner – Mishmy Joseph, Associate Nurse Unit Manager, Gannet House
“Mishmy lives the COH core values, she is respectful of everyone in every situation, she is the first to jump in and offer assistance to any member of the team.
“She consistently shows compassion towards residents, visitors and staff, her performance is above expectations, and her integrity is beyond question.
“Mishmy comes to work each day to make the lives of the aged residents of Gannet House comfortable and as full as we can possibly make them.
“Mishmy is a joyful soul and a credit to the Gannet Team.”
Annual Shining Star Award
Dual Winner – Andrea Hudson, Nurse Unit Manager,
Cooinda House
“I nominate Andrea for her positive impact as a colleague and leader of our multi-disciplinary team at Cooinda House. Andrea role models compassion in the way she interacts with both residents and staff through empathy and care.
“Andrea is a hands-on professional who supports her team promoting respect and accountability.
“As Andrea has received valuable leadership tools and training I find she is keen to support us through delivering a session on the 60 Second Farewell and supporting staff to recognise their personal values and those required in our work setting.
“I am so grateful to be a member of the Cooinda House team.”
Dual Winner – Dr Katherine Pugh, Rehabilitation Physician, COH
“Over the course of 30 years Dr Pugh has dedicated herself to the practice of Rehabilitation Medicine particularly in the area of Brain Injury rehabilitation.
“Through her clinical extensive experience and passionate advocacy, she has supported the evolution and growth of Rehabilitation Services at COH into its current mature state.
“Her compassion, empathy and supportive communication style has touched many lives, bringing hope and optimism to patients and their families in sometimes incredibly difficult circumstances.
“Her personal impact to COH, Metro North and beyond is that of a lasting legacy in Rehabilitation Medicine.”
Dual Winner – Justin Vandermaat, Principal Data Analysis and Sandra Hurst, Principal Data Analysis, Data and Reporting Team (DART)
“The Shining Stars of the DART Team are Sandra and Justin as all of COH can attest to no request for assistance goes unanswered or unsolved.
“The high-performance skills and details of the data and reporting provided to the Community and Oral Health teams is state of the art.
“Business activity and achievement is measured by the team for a multitude of requests requirements and needs. Sandra and Justin are always ready to share learnings and knowledge.”
Special commendations
As part of the 2024 Community and Oral Health Staff Excellence Awards a number of commendations were also given to service lines and individuals for outstanding performance or achievements.
These commendations included the:
- Brighton GEM service
- Metro North Nurse-led Walk-in Clinic.
Through the nomination process, a most committed leader was also identified.
Thanks to Jamie Lawnton for identifying the good work of others and taking the time to nominate so many of his colleagues and team members.
Glynis.