Our annual Length of Service ceremony yesterday was such a wonderful event.

The CKW family really came together – including our mental health colleagues – to celebrate staff who have given their time, energy and commitment to Queensland Health for more than 10 years, with two staff – Karen Blake and Robyn Alexander – both reaching an impressive 45 years of service!

When you add up the years of service from all 386 CKW recipients yesterday, we celebrated about 6000 years of hard work and service to the health of our community. I was so pleased to see the Lecture Theatre full of happy, smiling faces from staff celebrating a personal milestone or supporting colleagues.

Don’t worry if you have reached a service milestone this year but couldn’t attend the event yesterday – we’re already working to ensure the remaining certificates and badges get to their deserving recipients as quickly as possible!

Follow up arrangements added to EDS

Our Enterprise Discharge Summary (EDS) now has “Follow Up Arrangements” as a mandatory field.

It requires a follow up plan to be filled in. If there are no follow up arrangements, you will need to tick a box to indicate this is the case. The EDS will not be able to be saved/completed until follow up criteria has either been acknowledged or filled in. Screenshot example below from The Viewer.

With this new enhancement, I expect we will see an increase of patients receiving follow up care as prescribed by the doctor.

Congratulations, Matthew!

Congratulations to Caboolture Hospital School-Based Trainee Matthew Siver, who was runner up for the Australian School-based Apprentice or Trainee of the Year in Adelaide last weekend, having previously won the North Coast and Queensland awards.

St Columban’s College student Matthew is completing a traineeship at Caboolture Hospital that will result in a Certificate III in Health Services Assistance. His on-site training with us has ignited a passion for the health care sector. He plans to continue his studies in the field after he graduates from high school with his ultimate career goal to become a paramedic.

Congratulations, Caitlin!

Caboolture Hospital Occupational Therapist Caitlin Garamy won the CKW Staff Excellence Award recently for her professional support and mentoring of an Occupational Therapy student who went through a challenging experience whilst on placement.  Feedback from the university said that it was one of the most impressive examples of clinical supervision they had seen in many years.

Caitlin has now also been awarded a Practice Education Commendation from the Occupational Therapy Practice Education Collaborative – Queensland (OTPEC-Q).

These awards highlight an Occupational Therapist (OT) who has made a significant impact on a student’s learning journey in Queensland.  There aren’t many of these awards available each year, which is indicative of the enormous and unwavering commitment that Caitlin and the Caboolture OT team continue to demonstrate to their next generation of colleagues.

Caitlin will receive a certificate from OTPEC-Q during an official ceremony later this year. Well done!

The Common Good Café

This week we reached another construction milestone with the demolition of the existing Common Good Café kitchen area (behind the hoarding in the main café). This will eventually become one of the main thoroughfares between the Clinical Services Building and the existing hospital.

It should go without saying, but I want to remind everyone of our Metro North Values during this time while the Common Good Café is operating in a different format than we’re used to. This includes being patient when ordering food through the Hey You app and being kind to the Common Good Café staff, who are doing a wonderful job of adjusting to the construction impacts.

Until the Clinical Services Building opens next year, the Common Good Main Café will continue to sell ready-made meals and snacks, as well as coffee and other refreshments. The full menu is available through the Hey You app and orders are collected from the Common Good Caravan on Education Lane.

Become a CKW Values Based Recruitment Coach

Nominations are now open for our next round of Values Based Recruitment Coaches (VBR).

VBRs are volunteer staff trained to assist hiring managers throughout the recruitment process to attract and select employees whose attitudes, values and behaviours align with those of Metro North.

Being a VBR coach is an extension of your role and you will require the support of your line manager for a period of 12 months. After 12 months, you will be offered to extend in the role or take a step back.

More details are available on this QHEPS page. To express your interest, complete the EOI here

Payroll and last pay details

A friendly reminder to ensure your payroll forms are submitted by 5pm Monday 12 December for the last pay day on Wednesday 21 December.

What a compliment!

Here’s another compliment received recently for the Caboolture Hospital Emergency Department:

“My daughter was struggling to breath in the middle of the night, so we rushed to hospital. Whilst in the bed waiting to see a doctor, my daughter begun getting really sad.

“The two nurses who were caring for her were absolutely amazing. They got her colouring in activities, cheese and crackers and blew bubbles. They even took her for a short walk and let her sit on their big chair in the nurse station.

“This helped her to feel safe through a scary time for her. When the doctor came, he diagnosed her with mild croup and was also amazing with her and myself. He explained everything clearly, and even let my daughter wear a stethoscope for a while. She now calls herself a doctor and roleplays what happened to her in hospital.

“I am very appreciative and thankful about the care and compassion given by every nurse, doctor and cleaners that we saw in our short visit.”

Finally,

I’m really looking forward to the inaugural Giving Day at Caboolture Hospital on Wednesday (30 November). The Common Good provides such great support to staff, patients and the community.

It will be a big day and funds raised have been earmarked to projects that will get Caboolture Hospital patients get home sooner.

There is more about Giving Day and how you can help here.

Take Care,

Angie.