I personally reflected on SERVICE and PRIDE.  These attributes are a key part of healthcare, what we provide to our community; and why we come to work. I am extremely proud to be a healthcare worker and Registered Nurse, and recognise that in choosing this career my privilege is to serve our community and those who need our help.

As I watched the brave men and women who have and continue to serve to protect our country and our freedom march yesterday – the pride in their service is evident and I reflected on how in health we also need to reembrace this in our workforce and ourselves. Our community trusts us and embraces us to manage and change their lives and with that comes a responsibility. I was reminded of this in Liz Jazwiec’s book “Eat that Cookie”:

Customer Service + Job Satisfaction = Pride

Our jobs are never going to not be busy… it is about how we approach them that changes.

When we are polite, compassionate, caring and focus on service, our patients and community will repay this with kindness and gratefulness in return. We are in privileged positions where we are welcomed into the most stressful times of people’s lives. What you can change in your day is how you approach this.

Circuit breaker wrap-up

On Monday morning, we had a short dark moment as we had an unexpected cut to power in the new clinical services building just before 9am.

We immediately initiated a Code Yellow and had all parties working on the fault that had caused this.

We monitored the fix and are now comfortable that the circuit breaker switch that was replaced has addressed the issue.

It was so great to watch the CKW clinical teams work through this power outage managing the safety of our patients without missing a beat and the broader teams come together to quickly find a solution to a complex problem.

Again, in the afternoon, I was proud to see our teams all lean in as we implemented the solution which required a planned outage all within a matter of hours.

Many thanks to you all for your focus on the safe care of our community.

A comprehensive independent review of the issue is progressing to ensure we avoid similar experiences.

Out and About

This week I had the opportunity to visit the Caboolture Young Mothers for Young Women (CYMYW) Service in Caboolture South and meet Midwife Extraordinaire Deb Sutherland. This is a service that supports pregnant, high-risk women and their children to the age of six years old.

The service is a collaboration between MICAH Projects (a not-for-profit organisation), Children’s Health Queensland and Caboolture Hospital.

CYMYW provides a safety net for high-risk women and families regarding antenatal care; postnatal care; housing; healthy relationships including domestic violence support; early childhood care; child safety advocacy; drug and alcohol supports and peer support.

The model ties directly in with current focus Metro North and Statewide priorities, including the Adolescent and Young Adult (AYA) space, Syphilis Surveillance within vulnerable groups in the context of rising cases and the First 2000 Days Strategy.

What a fantastic service for our community!

Deb is the Queensland Health (CKW) team member and has been a driving force in both the establishment and embedding of the service and it was truly a privilege to spend time and chat with Deb.

In fact, in keeping with my theme today about SERVICE and PRIDE, Deb spoke about serving those most in need in our community and working in a trauma-informed way with those who have the least support and the most adversity, those who live in situations that many of us can only imagine, those who do not have access to the supports they need.

Deb is always focused on finding ways to bridge the gap between community NGOs and acute government services to improve health outcomes for the families we serve.

Impressively, as a result of this program, fail to attend rates for antenatal appointments have reduced from 26 per cent to 0.3 per cent, alongside more than double the antenatal appointments.

Additionally, Child Health now shares the passion of our team and has embedded a Child Health Nurse within the program.

Childrens Health Queensland has shown a strong commitment to this model of care and provide extensive support to the child health nurse within the program.

Deb spends much of her own time thinking about how she can further support the community and I have to say it was lovely to hear her say “I have the best job” but more impressively as I got to meet some of the amazing women in the program, one of them on being introduced to me stated “Deb is the best Midwife ever”, this was then echoed by every woman in the group.

Thanks to a grant from The Common Good, Deb is nearing completion of a research paper which highlights pregnancy outcomes, engagement and health screening in pregnancy. I look forward to sharing this further with you all as it is a truly amazing piece of work.

The most important result is really that our community is growing to trust the service allowing them to reach out for help and build connections with the team and health services.

Administrative Professionals Day

Talking about SERVICE and PRIDE, Administrative Professionals Day will be celebrated on Friday 3 May. This day is to recognise the invaluable contributions that our administrative professionals make as a partner in the delivery of patient focused care.

I welcome and encourage you to nominate those you feel deserve recognition for their outstanding work for the SERVICE they provide our community and YOU.

To nominate a colleague or team, please complete this nomination form by Monday (29 April).

Categories are:

• Outstanding Patient Service Award
• Future Thinker Award
• Bright Spark Award
• Values In Action Award
• Ultimate Teamwork Award
• Helping Hand Award
• Consider It Done Award
• Employee Advocate Award
• Exceptional Listener Award

The awards will be presented on Friday 3 May in the Caboolture Education Centre.

I hope that you will be able to join us to celebrate the achievements of our colleagues.

Temporary ward moves delayed to early May

I recently included a message about Ward 2A and Ward 3A being temporarily relocated to the former Ward 4A so we can undertake much-needed air-conditioning repairs in these areas.

However, we have temporarily paused these moves following concerns with Lift 1, which access Wards 2A, 3A and the former 4A.

We’re now looking to start the move of Ward 3A to the former Ward 4A on Wednesday 8 May.

For more information, contact CKW A/Director Operations David Thompson.

Staff Shout Outs!

Congratulations to the individual CKW Staff Shout Out recipients for March. Our individual recipients were:

• Maddison Kennedy – Maternity
• Amber Quelch – Ward 4D
• Corina Deigan – Maternity
• Gilbert Stead – ICT
• Lachlan Paterson – Ward 3C
• Samantha Masters – Occupational Therapist
• Di Davenport – Nurse Navigator
• Mikayla Absalom – Ward 4D
• Kamlesh Kumar – Ward 4D
• Bree Wilkie– Ward 2A
• Judy Benfer – Social Worker Geriatric Oncology Team
• Andrew Nicola – Special Care Nursery
• Angelique Ferreira – Midwives and Me MGP
• Christine Ha Thai – CKW Safety and Quality Unit
• Elana Lyons – Operational Services
• Sunil Patel – Ward 3B
• Katrina Stevens – Ward 3B
• Chen Bothwell – Ward 3B
• Annette Alvarez – Ward 3A
• Ariel Lamadrid – Operational Services
• Shanni Letts – Ward 3A
• Russell Watson – Ward 3A
• Ryan Fraser – Maternity Services

Congratulations to the team recipients:

• Caboolture Hospital Pharmacy Team
• Ward 3C Clinical Nurses team
• Ward 2A nursing team

This newsletter, I thought I would showcase Amber Muller, who received an individual Shout Out!

Amber (pictured) started her career with us as a school based trainee. Amber worked as an Assistant In Nursing (AIN) at Caboolture Hospital but changed her focus and recently worked as Executive Support Officer to our Culture and Engagement Manager Parker Michaels.

Amber continues to chase her passion and now has an exciting role in the Metro North People and Culture Team at Herston.

Her Shout Out nomination said Amber was always super pleasant and went to all lengths to ensure all our consumer events run efficiently.

“From organising food to rubbish bins and tables, we could not run such successful events without your help.”

Well done, Amber! Good luck in your new role, learn lots and then return to your home at Caboolture!

What a fantastic way to recognise your colleagues or a team. For more details and to submit a Shout Out, visit this QHEPS page.

Staff flu vaccination reminder

Vaccination is not only about protecting yourself, it is about protecting your patients, our community, and your colleagues as well.

This week, we ensured that our CKW leadership team led by example having their flu vax… there were queues to get this, which was great to see. And I am happy to say that I am now vaccinated and want you to join me in this club. Let’s see if we can get the highest percentage of staff vaccinated for a clinical directorate across Metro North.

If there are challenges for your teams attendance, please let Infection Control or myself know so we can work with you.

The annual staff flu vaccination program continues next week, where you will find the team at the following locations:

Monday 29 April – Wednesday 1 May

• 8am-10am, 11am-1pm, 2pm-3.30pm | Ward 3A – former Cardiac Sciences Room (just inside ward doors).

Thursday 2 May

• 8am-10am | Ward 3A – former Cardiac Sciences Room (just inside ward doors).
• 11.30am – 3.30pm | Caboolture Satellite Hospital (for Satellite Hospital staff only).

Cultural Share

I love seeing our Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island art and it is of great privilege that we have this art for us to learn about and even to wear.

I wonder how many of us as we pull those beautiful shirts on think and reflect on that privilege. Do you think about the obligation of wearing that shirt?

At the Health Equity day we were talking about how when we wear our shirt, we, in action, sign up to the obligation. The obligation to stop and yarn about what it means – both the artwork and the strategy or team it reflects, to anyone that asks.

We should wear it with PRIDE but know that you are now a reflection of our community and must be ready to share both its meaning and the qualities and values of our organisation while you are in it.

Today I thought I would share the Kilcoy art and its meaning. The artwork was developed by artist Elaine Chambers-Hegarty.

It represents the land around Kilcoy Hospital and people of the area. Kilcoy and the Brisbane River Valley is the region for the Jinibara people, which is traditional home for five clans.

The circles lead to the main gathering circle in the centre which represents the hospital. Markings and symbols are the kangaroo and bunya nuts, which were food sources. Other markings represent the hilly areas around Kilcoy. The markings in the wood are bora rings nearby.

The artwork is only to be used for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander specific services, programs and initiatives at Kilcoy Hospital. Contact the Metro North Design for further guidance.

It reminds me of the PRIDE of our uniform and the SERVICE it indicates to our community.

Reflection

Did you know that City of Moreton Bay data shows approximately 240 new residents move to the Moreton Bay region each week?

That’s an extra 12,480 people each year who call on Caboolture and Redcliffe hospitals to care for them, their families and their community.

Caboolture Hospital continues to see many more patients presenting to our Emergency Department than was forecast, which puts pressure on staff.

We’re making changes across the facility to accommodate this extra demand but I would also like to hear your ideas on how we could improve flow which improves the care we can provide to patients on several fronts.

I know many of you will say more staff. I’m working on that. I would like to hear other ideas that we could implement today and little or no cost.

One of our nursing team recently sent me an ‘Ask Karlene’ message suggesting a dedicated Patient Flow Clinical Nurse responsible for moving patients to the ward, rather than waiting on a nurse from the ward to become available to collect the patient.

A good idea that’s gone on my list. What’s your idea? Send details via the ‘Ask Karlene’ link below.

As I close, I wanted to remind you all that you are SUPERHEROES!

Nothing epitomises my reflections this week more than the Banksy from COVID times that I recently saw at the Banksy exhibition.

Every day you make a difference – to your patients, to our community, to your colleagues, to other staff… what do you want their memory of you to be… each day, remember we do great work, you should feel proud of what you do and who you are!

Quotes

“Don’t dim your light to make others comfortable. Be Proud of who you are and shine brightly.”  Michelle Obama.

“Everybody can be great because everybody can serve.”  Martin Luther King.

Karlene.