It has been another challenging week, but one mixed with some great highlights.

We hosted our last Community and Oral Health Staff Excellence Awards with a visit to Aspley Community Health Centre.
There we acknowledged another deserving recipient of one of our annual Shining Star awards.

2022 COH Staff Excellence Awards Shining Star – Highly Commended

Paramjit Kaur, Nurse Navigator, Frail and Older Person

This is why Param won a highly commended award amongst 60 other nominees:

“Param is the most compassionate, patient, knowledgeable, team-focused and patient-centred person I have ever worked with.

“Param works to assist these vulnerable clients reduce their hospital presentations and admissions, connect with services to improve both their health and quality of life and when possible the ability to stay healthy in their own homes.

“The outcomes that Param achieves through her dedication and commitment to her role is outstanding yet she never looks for recognition and is one of COH’s most quiet valuable hidden gems and a definite shining star.”

But, as Param put it so eloquently, it wasn’t about her but more the team and support she has around her to do her job.

Importantly, she emphasised the valuable learnings and connections she takes away from her patient experiences.

Congratulations Param – A well-deserved Shining Star Award!

Nominate now for the December Shining Star Award

Now the Excellence Awards Roadshow has been finalised it is time to restart our monthly Shining Star awards – and find our December 2022 Shining Star winner.

Please take the time to nominate the staff or teams who excel at their job and who are doing great things to support the care we provide.

Those staff who are compassionate, look out for others, who go above and beyond, and play an important role in our great teams.

The Shining Star award is primarily for peers to nominate their colleagues or other teams and are for the quiet achievers who excel, but don’t ask for recognition but usually they deserve it.

Nominations for the December Shining Star Award are open until the first week of December by sending to coh-communications@health.qld.gov.au a short written submission of 100-200 words about why the nominee shines.

Shout outs!

Now continuing the theme of shining stars, I tend to provide shout outs about our staff and teams, however today’s acknowledgement involves a very helpful and patient-focused registrar at Redcliffe Hospital, Dr Matthew (Matt) Eustace.

“Just want to  give you the heads up that Dr Matthew (Matt) Eustace, a Registrar from the infectious disease team, was so helpful to ensure a patient from our Residential Transition Care Service at Zillmere was kept out of hospital over the weekend.

“This patient had been seen in the OPD clinic and required a prescription for an uncommon and expensive therapy.

“When I spoke to Matt, he was extremely helpful, took the patient’s details, acknowledged his awareness of the case and when I explained that the patient was not an inpatient (but a bedded outpatient) and that we would need a prescription and an Individual Patient Approval, he explained that he was on a ward round but that I would have the necessary documentation within the hour after the ward round had completed. 

“This exactly happened as Matt had stated, which allowed us to order, transport and dispense the medication in a timely fashion. 

“I can’t thank Matt enough for his attention to detail and helpfulness and thought it should not go unacknowledged as a wonderful outcome was achieved for this patient.” 

Great celebrations for COH Connect Week

COH Connect was a great week led by your staff council which culminated at a celebration at the Brighton Wellness Hub.

Thank you to Kate Schultz and council members for their work to make the week successful.

We are keen to continue to receive your feedback and your staff council is keen to hear from you if you would like to be involved in the council.

Yesterday, there were suggestions about greater visibility of COH leaders and more equitable distribution of events.

In response, the Community Operational Leadership Team meeting will rotate across locations and time will be made available for staff to connect with the leadership team.

In discussion with Kate Schultz, the chair of your staff council, we will look at opportunities to align events with those meetings in future.

A quote to ponder

Gary Ryan Blair said: “Going the extra mile is one true way to add significant, lasting, and memorable value to your customers, and could very well be your most important competitive strength.”

Glynis Schultz
Executive Director
Community and Oral Health