For many of us, this week is a short week with Friday being a public holiday. This day is significant to people for different reasons and brings a mixture of emotions. For many people this day is one of sorrow and mourning, while for others, it is a celebration. We need to be aware, respectful and understanding of the different perspectives that exist amongst our CKW team and community towards this day, and show respect in actions for these differences. I encourage you to reflect on what the day means to you personally, taking to time to value your individuality and consider how others are feeling and why.

This brings me to the very important issue of values. Values sit at the centre of everything we do in health care and yesterday, this was recognised when we officially launched our CKW Caring Together: Living Our Values Charter.

The Metro North Values are respect, integrity, teamwork, high performance and compassion. The Values Charter is a way we can decide what the values mean to us here at CKW and look at how we can put them into practice in our everyday work. The Charter is a guide for all of CKW, and includes agreed principles to use in guiding how we act and treat each other. As part of the Charter, we have also developed a video about Courageous Conversations as a tool to support staff. View the video.

When I think about CKW and what we stand for, I ask staff to consider why we are all here. Why did we choose to work in health in the first place? CKW is a place of care and subsequently, it is an expectation from our patients and visitors that staff will demonstrate behaviours that show we are ‘Caring Together’ to provide a safe, high quality care experience for them. This should remain our guiding principle and the Values Charter is an excellent tool for helping us continue achieve this for our CKW community.

What a privilege to be involved in this launch and have this Charter as a guiding document as we head forward. What was amazing at the launch was to be able to see the journey that CKW staff took in building this document and its various stages of development and redevelopment.  It was interesting to speak to different staff about the working groups, how they will use the Charter in their local workplace and with their teams, and what aspects of the Charter resounded with them personally.

I would like to share some of the sentiments conveyed by staff at yesterday’s launch about what the values mean to them.

Patient Flow

As we focus on patient flow, I would like to remind everyone that this is about entry to our services through to exit from our services. It’s about seeing the patient in the right (and best) place at the right time and looking at improving our ability to achieve this.  Patient flow is an ongoing challenge and we are working on many aspects of this at present through outpatient access, theatre bookings, ED and the wards. In fact, it is area that we never stop focusing on as, I don’t know about you, but I have never worked in a perfect system.

We each have an area we work in and for many of us that is our area of expertise and choice. For example, ED staff generally do not want or aspire to work in a medical ward and medical specialists do not aspire to be ED specialists.  I was reminded of this recently when I was talking to two of the Nursing Directors both of whom shared stories of supporting patient movements to the other’s area, both acknowledging the business and different pressures of each other’s respective areas.  This conversation reminded me that we need to respect that all service areas have patient demand pressures and are very busy, but – busy looks very different in every space.

Our focus on moving patients is continuous, because we know that longer stays in hospital or in the wrong place in the hospital are not good for our patients or for community care. In considering this, we all have a role in actively focusing on moving the patients to the best place for them in the most efficient way.  This means that, for example:

• In emergency, the whole ED team works on making sure they free cubicles up as quickly as possible so that we can see the incoming patients in a timely way
• When a patient goes home on the ward, we advise of the bed space as a priority, so that the patient can move from ED, to be in the best place as soon as possible, and we can see more patients through the ED
• When a patient no longer needs hospital care, we do everything we can to get them home as quickly as possible, so they can finish their recovery at home
• We do everything to make sure our outpatient clinics run as scheduled to ensure patients get seen and hospital admission is avoided or planned, rather than due to acute exacerbation of illness.

This is a whole-of-system approach and every single one of us is part of it. Patient flow is actually why we come to work; it’s about caring for our patients and community.

I thank you all for your ongoing focus.

Cultural Support Pathways

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander People attending CKW for healthcare services have an option to receive cultural support during their health journey from an Indigenous Hospital Liaison Officer or Senior Health Worker from the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Services.

The Cultural Support Pathway focuses on three simple steps which support the health journey of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people through all service areas – outpatients, emergency department and wards: Identify, Offer Access and Refer. These simple steps demonstrate CKW Health Directorate’s whole-of-hospital approach in working together towards Health Equity and the Innovate Reconciliation Action Plan.

View the Cultural Support Pathway.

An example of the great value of offering access to cultural support was recently highlighted in the Audiology Clinic in CKW outpatients. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Services’ Senior Health Workers and Indigenous Hospital Liaison Officer assist with contacting patients, coordinating appointments and providing on-the-ground cultural support, greeting our little patients and their families. Great work Hayley Renouf for supporting the first Clinic!

Corporate Service Business Awards

Nominations are now open for Metro North’s inaugural Corporate Business Services (CBS) Awards 2024 which are an opportunity to recognise and celebrate the incredible talent and dedication within Corporate Business Services at Metro North.

Everyone within Metro North has the opportunity to nominate a CBS staff member or team (including those who work in facilities).

The Awards recognise staff who make a significant contribution to the organisation and who demonstrate a strong commitment to our values:

People Focus – “The Engagement Champion”
Putting people first through a commitment to excellence in service and focus on others.

Innovation – “The Guiding Light”
Driving ideas into action through innovative approaches.

Excellence in Performance – “The Hidden Gem”
Supporting a culture of excellence and unleashing the potential of people and organisations to provide outstanding performance.

Leadership – “The Compass”
Empowering people through excellence in leadership, collaboration and team development.

CFCO Award
This is awarded by discretion of the Chief Finance and Corporate Officer.

Nominations are open until midday Thursday 15 February 2024 with an awards ceremony to be held on 22 March 2024.

Submit nominations or use the QR code in the Nomination Guidelines.

Reminder: Expressions of interest are being sought for members of the CBS team to be involved in the judging panel for the awards. If you would like to volunteer please send your interest to MNF.CFCO@health.qld.gov.au by COB Wednesday 7 February.

Professional development workshops

Here at CKW, we recognise that investing in professional development is an investment in our hospital’s collective success and importantly, your individual career journey. Staff are encouraged to develop their professional knowledge and skills through Metro North’s virtual workshops which comprehensively address a diverse spectrum of topics.

For a detailed understanding of each workshop visit the Staff Development Workshops page.

If you have any queries or require more information please email the Metro North Capability, Leadership, and Learning team at MNTraining@health.qld.gov.au

Shout out

With the opening of the new building at Caboolture Hospital, we have been able to expand the incredible Palliative Care service that had been in place and establish our own Palliative Care Unit. Being able to support people and their families in their last moments is a privilege and I want to thank the Palliative Care team for the work they do. In sharing this comment (picture below) left on a whiteboard in a patient’s room, Jayne Henderson, CNC Palliative Care, said “It’s so encouraging to see the team developing towards a well-functioning specialist unit. Last week was a great week – the deaths on the unit were all really peaceful and we even managed to arrange for one patient to die at home (as this was her goal), which she did peacefully the day after discharge.”

Thank you to the entire Palliative Care team for providing such compassionate and patient and family-centred care.

The other shout out goes to our Dietetics and Food Services team for their outstanding efforts during Queensland Health’s recent internet connectivity issues which resulted in the temporary outage of our patient menu ordering system. The team quickly adapted, transitioning to a manual ordering process to ensure all of our patients successfully had their nutritional needs with minimal delay. Thanks to all staff across CKW for their efforts in
supporting the necesary downtime procedures during this period to ensure our patiens could continue to receive
safe, high quality care. Great effort everyone!

Important reminder

With weather events expected in Queensland this weekend, it is essential we are aware of our safety in and outside of the workplace. This means following normal processes if any of our facilities experience damage as a result of weather events and/or conditions. If you are at work during a weather event which results in damage to any infrastructure, please escalate to the Building and Engineering Service through your team leader or line manager as a matter of priority.

Reflection of the week

Well at Day 26 I remain in awe of the amazing people we have working with us and how we all pull together. During the launch of the CKW Living our Values Charter this week, it was such a privilege to meet so many of our team members, to hear about your journey to get to your current roles, and also your reasons for working here. I met Cody who started with us four years ago on the Deadly Start program and is now working in Patient Services, Amber who started in the School-based Trainee program and has since completed two degrees and is now working in the Engagement team. Kylie who runs the award-winning school-based trainee program, Gemma whose mum was the first DON at Caboolture Hospital and who has formed her own path to excellence as a nurse educator in clinical placements. Kath and Allyson who provide compassionate care in cardiology, and so many more people across professions and services. The thing that stood out with everyone I spoke to was how much you all care about your patients, your community and each other which makes coming to work worthwhile.

It really highlighted how different we all are but that we have a shared respect for each other. This is a fantastic thing and what makes CKW great.

Difference is such a great thing and provides such an opportunity to learn from each other:

“Respect doesn’t mean ignoring people’s differences, or simply tolerating them. Rather, it involves recognising differences, understanding their significance, and responding with interest, politeness and care.”

Regards,