Dale Dally-Watkins, Executive Director

I returned from five weeks leave last Monday and was delighted to see the beautiful Christmas tree on the Ground Floor, provided by RBWH Foundation. It is really in keeping with the wonderful surrounds of the STARS building.

I would like to thank Geoff Grima who took the reins as Acting Executive Director while I was on leave. Geoff’s work around short notice accreditation preparedness, in particular, will be of great benefit for when STARS goes through our assessment in the near future.

Acute Respiratory Infection increase and mask requirements

Following on from communications from the Chief Health Officer regarding the increase of COVID in the community and locally increasing staff sick leave related to respiratory illnesses, the STARS leadership team met on Wednesday morning. The consensus from the leadership team, following updates from our Infection Management and Prevention Service (IMPS) and clinical leads, is as follows:

• A decision to adopt surgical masks in clinical areas.
• Meetings to move to Teams where practicable, and if face-to- face meetings are required then masks should be worn.
• Encourage visitors to wear masks, practice good hand hygiene, and not to visit patients when unwell.
• Please do NOT come to work if you are feeling unwell, even if you have tested negative on a RAT.
• Review the current Covid-19 booster advice to check if you are due for a vaccine: ATAGI Update on the COVID-19 Vaccination Program | Australian Government Department of Health and Aged Care
• If you have reviewed the guidelines and require a Covid-19 booster, please contact IMPS and we can facilitate this.
• Ensure your Fit Testing for N95/P2 masks is up to date.

We are monitoring the situation closely, however, to prevent an outbreak situation, please stay vigilant with environmental cleaning, good hand hygiene, and wearing PPE.

Heatwave warning

South East Queensland is projected to have severe heatwave conditions with estimated maximum daytime temperatures of 34 to 36 degrees and night time temperatures above 20 degrees over the next four days.

What you can do:  

Visit the Queensland Health website for information on heatwave precautions and:

• Remember to stay hydrated by drinking 2-3L of water a day.
• Slip, slop, slap, seek and slide when outside, such as walking to and from your vehicle.
• Watch out for early signs of heat stress.

Staff who work outdoors or travel to support community-based care should keep outside activity to a minimum during the hottest part of the day, drink plenty of water, and be aware of heat related illness symptoms. There is a Heatwave workplace guideline for employees and a First Aid Fact Sheet – for Heat (non-clinical areas) to support staff wellness available on the staff extranet. 

If patients require bottled water, it is available from Food Services.

RBWH Foundation Grant Round recipients announced

Congratulations to STARS recipients of RBWH Foundation Grant Round funding, announced on Wednesday.

• Transforming person-centred care through quality consumer and community involvement in research: STARS Research Consumer Group
• Improving outcomes for people requiring upper limb neurorehabilitation using a new technology approach in hospital: STARS Occupational Therapy
• Return to work for people with aphasia: Experiences and outcomes at six months after stroke: STARS Speech Pathology
• From documents to digital: Co-designing nutrition videos to improve patient care: STARS Dietetics.

The Foundation has announced almost $500,000 in patient innovation and medical research projects across STARS, RBWH and Jamieson Trauma Institute, with nine of the 11 grants awarded to early career applicants. More information on each project can be found at https://www.rbwhfoundation.com.au/project-hub

The RBWH Foundation Christmas Appeal is currently raising money to support these important grant projects. Spread the word to family and friends that, if they have the ability, could they consider donating at www.rbwhfoundation.com.au.

Staff Excellence Awards finalists

A big congratulations to the STARS finalists in the Metro North Staff Excellence Awards. The Dietitian First Gastroenterology Clinic is nominated in the Excellence in Integrated Care category and Louise Preston is nominated in the Values in Action category. A large contingent of STARS staff are attending the Gala dinner tonight. It should be a wonderful night to celebrate all the hard work and accomplishments of 2023 and I look forward to celebrating with you.

Movember

A big congratulations to the MO’STARSCHED MO’MONIES, ours STARS nursing managers group who recently participated in Movember. You may have seen some of their excellent moustaches throughout the month. The group raised an impressive $860 in their efforts to raise awareness about mental health and suicide prevention, prostate cancer, and testicular cancer. Thank you to all the staff for supporting their fundraising efforts.

Staff breakfast

Last Wednesday we held the annual Christmas Staff Breakfast to thank staff for all your hard work throughout the year. Staff were very appreciative of the breakfast spread with many commenting on how many options there were, including catering for different dietary requirements. Thank you to members of the Executive Team and the Staff Council who helped serve on the day and everyone involved in the organisation of the event.

On Wednesday and Thursday you may have caught our Staff Psychologist, Allison Welch and Patient Support Officer Scott Gillies spreading holiday cheer as the Grinch and Santa. Alison and Scott were giving out candy canes and smiles and letting people know about the Peer Responder program at STARS. We would love to have more Peer Responders from different areas at STARS so if you would like more information contact Allison.welch@health.qld.gov.au

Grinch and Santa visit STARS

On Wednesday and Thursday you may have caught our Staff Psychologist, Allison Welch and Patient Support Officer Scott Gillies spreading holiday cheer as the Grinch and Santa. Alison and Scott were giving out candy canes and smiles and letting people know about the Peer Responder program at STARS. We would love to have more Peer Responders from different areas at STARS so if you would like more information contact Allison.welch@health.qld.gov.au

Christmas Decorating Competition winners

Thank you to everyone who participated in the Christmas decorating competition this year. Entrants came up with such creative, sustainable and on-theme decorations. We loved seeing everyone’s interpretations of the ‘tropical’ theme. There were plenty of palm trees, flamingos, pineapples and Santas wearing coconut bras and grass skirts.

This year’s winner is 5A who had a tropical, under the sea theme including jellyfish, a yellow submarine, a Santa tiki bar, and wonderful tree decorated with tropical flowers. They win a sweet treat hamper, a trophy designed and made by Rehabilitation Engineering and the chance to pick next year’s theme.

Highly Commended this year goes to Patient Support Services and Endoscopy / PACU. Patient Support Services’ decorations included an amazing palm tree and tropical fruit arch, an interactive tropical photo backdrop, a Grinch with a Hawaiian shirt and a tree with personalised, laser cut decorations with the names of all the team members.

Endoscopy / PACU decorations cleverly incorporated the tropical theme into their specialty including Santa’s bowel prep bar, complete with bowel prep mocktails. They also scored highly in sustainability, with palm tree decorations made completely from recycled materials, including saline bags.

Endoscopy / PACU decorations cleverly incorporated the tropical theme into their specialty including Santa’s bowel prep bar, complete with bowel prep mocktails. They also scored highly in sustainability, with palm tree decorations made completely from recycled materials, including saline bags.

A few special mentions:

• Ambulatory Care Outpatients for the best Christmas tree
• Pharmacy for sustainability (pineapples made from pharmacy packaging, tropical birds made from paper rolls)
• SERA for their efforts in decorating a large area (pineapples from pine cones, surfboard Christmas tree and palm trees)
• 4B for incorporating the theme into their pet wall, with the addition of tropical bucket hats!

See today’s Staff Council message for more photos of the Christmas Decorating efforts. Thank you to all the entrants and for bringing the festive cheer to STARS for your colleagues, patients and their families.

November Staff Shout Outs

There were a number of Staff Shout Outs for the month of November. Congratulations to the following staff/teams for demonstrating our Values in Action:

Margie Butnoris (Pharmacy), Katie Dally-Watkins (Outpatients), Rumer Dickinson (STARS Admin), Allie Clarke (STARS Digital Support), Kylie Short (STARS Allied Health), Russell Humphrey (Ward 6B), Karen Giuffrida (Endoscopy), Nicholas Conrad (Ambulatory Care), Benjamin Frost (Reception), Jayda Mapp (Gastroenterology Outpatients) and the PSO Team- Level 4 Ability Centre. A big congratulations also to Kayla Clements (Ambulatory Care Team – Ophthalmology) and Lauren McCormack (Ambulatory Care Team) who both received two Shout Outs this month.

If you would like to nominate a colleague this month you can do so here.

Holiday season

This will be my last message before the Christmas / New Year break. For those staff who are having time off in December or January, I hope you get the chance to have some rest and relaxation and to catch up with friends and family. To those of you who are working over the break – we are very grateful for the continued care you will provide to patients over this time.  

Kind regards

Dale.