I am delighted to see so many staff being nominated each month for the Monthly Shining Star award. It is important that we take the time to reflect on how our colleagues are making such a difference.

There were six nominees for the January award, including two great teams:

Dr Mario de Silva, Director of Operations, MNOHS 

“Mario has been described as a ‘Top Bloke’, ‘Smart Man’ and a ‘Nice Person’ by those who knew him in the past. Though countless post-nominals follow his name, stories surface of an unassuming man, known to be hardworking and helpful in many ways.

“Polite and quietly spoken, Dr de Silva has brought back calm and a sense of trust in our service. Kudos, Dr de Silva!”

Reannan Bradbury, Infection Control Clinical Nurse Consultant, COH 

“Reannan is well known across Community and Oral Health, for the job that she does keeping our patients, residents and staff safe during our current global pandemic, and we all appreciate her work.

“Personally, I am proud to have a staff member who is passionate about infection control safety, who repeatedly goes above and beyond the expectations of the role in challenging times.

“She consistently delivers information in a calm, respectful and informative way, prioritising all infection control portfolios to minimise the risk of harm to us all.”

Rina Waller, Clinical Nurse, Complex Chronic Disease Team 

“Rina works between our North Lakes and Nundah base. She brings a smile to clinicians and clients with her bubbly personality, caring attitude and goes above and beyond to ensure that all her clients receive the best possible care.

“She ensures that staff moral is kept high by her amusing stories, and her constant need to feed the team with her home-made curries, etc. She flies under the radar as she is always busy ensuring that her work is completed in a timely manner.

“She is a quiet achiever and we are privileged to have her working for our team.”

Jamie Taylor, A/Team Leader, Brighton Rehabilitation Allied Health 

“We have nominated Jamie for the endless leadership and care he has provided to the Allied Health Staff at Brighton. Jamie brings a wonderful mix of collaboration and team problem solving, with his calm and caring nature providing support to not only the Allied Health staff but the wider MDT and rehabilitation patients.

“Jamie continually embodies the Queensland Health and MN Values and is regularly involved with the team on the ward and in clinical areas, providing a supportive hands-on approach.”

Metro North Aged Care Assessment Team

“Over the past several months they have demonstrated all of the MN Core values of Respect, Integrity, Compassion, High Performance and Teamwork.

“Specifically, the Aged Care Assessment Team have shown:

• A positive and co-operative response to the ACAP remediation plan resulting in significant monthly improvements in meeting KPI’s as evidenced in our monthly reports.
• Resilience when faced with ongoing challenges including the recent relocation of North Lakes office to Nundah.
• They are proactive workforce willing to volunteer for recall, overtime and working public holidays to help meet KPI’s.
• An ongoing compassion and client-centred care. Care for our vulnerable clients has always been a key focus of ACAT. This is one of the things I love about this team.
• An increasing engagement in ways to improve our service and improve staff morale. Staff have also developed motivational activities to keep morale high and interactions positive.”

Tim Moran and the Service Operation and Performance team (Evon Greener, Terry Whalley, Justin Vandermaat, Kelly Lemke and Karen Wellings) 

“The Service Operation and Performance team have been amazing in supporting the start-up and ongoing operation of the COVID Care @ Home Service and developing a dashboard system to support the model-of-care.

“They undertook endless hours working alongside Metro North Digital in getting the system off the ground and functioning.

“As the numbers in COVID Care@Home (Virtual Ward) climbed rapidly, and the service struggled with large numbers, Tim and members of his team stepped up to assist. The team worked extended hours and weekend overtime to train and support staff to work virtually.

“These figures do not include the building of processes / training programs and the amazing work that Evon has done in building the VCS – VW Dashboard system. They trained more than 200 staff and now more than 300 staff now have access to VCS and Dashboards.

“We could not have done it without this team who have been so committed to delivering an operational system.”

January Shining Star Award Winners! 

As a result of the great nominees we have decided to announce dual winners. Congratulations to the Shining Star Award winners for January:

• Tim Moran and the Service Operation and Performance team (Evon Greener, Terry Whalley, Justin Vandermaat, Kelly Lemke and Karen Wellings)
• Reannan Bradbury, Infection Control Clinical Nurse Consultant, COH

Please remember, that all of the winners of the monthly Shining Star Awards will be considered for the 2022 COH Staff Excellence Awards – Shining Star category. So, keep those nominations coming.

Tutu style @ Kippa

This week our Kippa Ring Clinic celebrated International Tutu Day and the birthday of Registered Nurse Mary and took a photo of all the staff wearing their tutus.

It was very popular with the children coming for vaccination and also a way to bring fun into the workplace!

How to avoid the heat

To say that it hasn’t been a swelter the last few days is an understatement and our ‘out and about’ staff have been doing it tough.

Thinking outside the box, our North West Community Centre team got some goodies together for our staff to stay hydrated and COOL!

Quote to ponder

Bill Watterson said: “We’re so busy watching out for what’s just ahead of us that we don’t take time to enjoy where we are.”  

Glynis Schultz
A/Executive Director
Community and Oral Health