Louise Oriti, Executive Director
Thank you for continuing to go above and beyond to ensure our community receives the care they require. Please know how appreciative I am of your work and commitment to RBWH.
Building a psychologically safe Executive team
Last Wednesday 12 July, the RBWH Executive Leadership team attended an offsite workshop focused on professional development and fostering high performance. There were a number of important takeaways from the workshop, however, creating psychologically safe teams stood out as a key focus. In this context, psychological safety is when all team members feel safe to speak up about their ideas, questions, concerns or mistakes without fear of being humiliated or punished for doing so. It was revealed that building psychological safety is harder than we think, but has a bigger impact on performance than we realise. The notion of developing good psychological safety can be applied to all teams throughout RBWH, and the Executive team look forward to implementing the skills learnt in the workshop to their Executive Leadership Meetings.
Winter Warmer
I spent some time serving hot soup to RBWH staff at the Winter Warmer last Thursday. The Winter Warmer is a small token of appreciation from the RBWH Executive team to our staff, as we navigate this busy winter period. It was fantastic to see so many of you coming up to get your soup, and I enjoyed meeting many new faces.
Making RBWH more inclusive
Last Friday, 14 July was International Non-Binary People’s Day – a day to celebrate those who are non-binary and spread awareness of the rich diversity of gender. It is a day to educate the community about the importance of using a person’s correct pronouns and other issues facing the non-binary community. At RBWH, myself and other members of the Executive team have been working with members of the non-binary community to make RBWH more inclusive, such as ensuring our bathroom facilities are suitable for non-binary people. Stay tuned for more information.
Recognising and responding to acute deterioration
This week, I would like to focus on Standard Eight of the NSQHS standards.
To help keep yourself and your patients safe, remember:
- Know where to find policies and procedures associated with acute deterioration.
- Know your patient and what their typical mental and physical condition is.
- Know how to recognise, understand and interpret abnormal vital signs and other observations.
- Listen to patients, carers and family members and ensure they know how to directly escalate their concerns about care, either via the clinical team, or Ryan’s Rule.
- Do not be reluctant to escalate care or ask for another opinion.
- Document actions taken and the outcomes following deterioration.
- Identify and report incidents, near misses and risks via RiskMan.
- Complete your annual Basic or Advanced Life Support (BLS/ALS) Training.
Please speak to your local educator or contact Redi@health.qld.gov.au to arrange BLS/ALS departmental training.
I also encourage you to keep an eye out for the new procedure and education for ‘Recognising and responding to acute mental state deterioration in the health care setting’ – coming soon.
Indigenous Hospital Liaison Officer (IHLO) conversations
During a meeting with some Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander colleagues, I was offered some insights on respectful interactions. An IHLO advised that they are often abruptly interrupted when they are meeting with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander patients, without so much as an “excuse me”. This interruption can break a seriously important conversation thread that cannot easily be picked up again. I would like to request that we respect all deep conversations and interrupt carefully, only when urgently required.
Thank you for the work you’re doing to support our community.
Kind regards,
Louise.