Message from TPCH Executive Director

Today is Crazy Socks for Docs Day which aims to encourage conversations about mental health and help reduce the stigma for doctors experiencing mental health issues. Maintaining positive mental health and well-being is important for all staff who work in health care, especially with the very demanding
winter period ahead of us.

To mark Crazy Socks for Docs day, a special Grand Rounds session was held yesterday featuring a presentation by the Black Dog Institute focusing on the issue of burnout among health care workers. I was pleased to attend part of this session, and have the opportunity to join our doctors in wearing some
weird and wonderful socks for such an important cause.

As part of National Reconciliation Week, TPCH’s Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Services Team and Abstarr Consulting this week hosted a two-day workshop with over 60 participants from across Queensland. The workshop, offered face-to-face and virtually, focused on the co-design of services
with consumers, Aboriginal Medical Services, various Hospital and Health Services, and community partners. It provided an opportunity to listen, learn, and share ideas about how to

achieve the five key performance actions of the Health Equity Agenda in the delivery of the Indigenous Respiratory Outreach
Program and Indigenous Cardiac Outreach Program to 23 sites throughout Queensland. The workshop received an overwhelmingly positive response with participants excited about working with our First Nations leaders to grow services together.  A big thanks to Kirsty Leo for coordinating such a
valuable workshop.

Research Excellence Awards

Last night was Metro North’s annual Research Excellence Awards and I am proud to share that the following TPCH staff were recognised for their research endeavours:

• Assoc Prof Peter Lazzarini – Winner, Rising Star Award
• Prof Norm Morris – Highly Commended, Researcher Support Award

Congratulations Peter and Norm, a great achievement!

Executive update

This week, Director Medical Services, Dr Donna O’Sullivan; Director Allied Health Service, Ewan Kinnear; and I had the opportunity to tour our busy Medical Imaging Department which performs approximately 10,000 examinations every month. We also visited the operating theatres where we joined Dr
Peter Hopkins, Director of the Queensland Lung Transplant Service and his skilled surgical team to view part of a bronchoscopy procedure on a patient. It was great to see the staff in action!

Director of Nursing Cherie Franks and I also met with TPCH nurse leaders during our monthly catch up via Teams. This meeting provides an open forum for senior nurses to discuss issues and provide feedback about current activities and work processes.

I also met with the Nurse Unit Manager Ward 1E, Angela Coram to talk about current issues, quality improvement initiatives and future planning. Interestingly, one of the issues we discussed was that Ward 1E does not get many visitors these days despite having excellent infection control practices in
place for COVID and all other patients. Thanks also to the senior administration staff for inviting me to their meeting this week. It was good to touch base, even though I was only able to stay for a short time.

A reminder that starting today, I will be undertaking a four-week secondment as Metro North’s Acting Chief Operating Officer. During this period, Angie Dobbrick, Executive Director Caboolture Hospital will be the Acting Executive Director TPCH. We welcome Angie to TPCH from Monday 6 June. Before Angie
arrives, we thought it fitting to profile her in today’s message.

Staff Profile

Angie Dobbrick is currently the Executive Director of Caboolture, Kilcoy and Woodford Directorate. Originally trained as a speech pathologist, Angie has held a number of leadership roles within Metro North including Director of Workplace Culture and Engagement and Director of Patient Support Services.

As a leader, Angie enjoys the opportunity to make a difference, through working with and supporting an amazing and diverse range of people including staff, partners and consumers. Her approach to leadership is one of compassion, generosity and grace, and she strives to uphold integrity in all her interactions and decisions so her team follows and performs well. Angie values being able to help people at their most vulnerable moments by trying to make their experience as good as it can be.

While at TPCH, she is looking forward to getting to know the people and gaining an understanding and supporting the complex work of the teams where she can.

When not at work, Angie has a five year old who tends to occupy a lot of her time. For Angie, family comes first and she spends a lot of time with her immediate and extended family. She enjoys taking day hikes with her husband and little one, and interestingly, is a trained classical singer.  Welcome Angie!

COVID-19 update

Move to Tier 2

On Wednesday this week, Metro North moved to Tier 2 in its COVID response plan. This will allow us to increase planned care across our facilities. There is no change to PPE requirements. While this good news, staff need to remain diligent
with their social distancing, hand hygiene and correct PPE wearing.

Booster records

A reminder that if you have not recorded your booster yet, please do so as soon as practicable. According to our records, there are quite a number of staff at TPCH who have not uploaded evidence of their booster to date.

Upload evidence of your vaccine or booster

NAIDOC and Reconciliation Excellence Awards – Nominations close next Friday

Shout out

This week’s shout out goes to our Nurse Navigators. TPCH currently has 11 nurse navigator positions which work across various specialties improving patient outcomes through navigation, partnering patients in care, care coordination, service delivery and system improvements. The work of nurse navigators
has recently been highlighted in a Queensland Health report produced by the Office of the Chief Nursing and Midwifery Officer which outlines some of the key improvements made to patient outcomes as a result of these specialised nursing roles. Some key findings included:

• Patients identified improvement in the way they managed their condition after navigation
• Navigation supported the increase in patient’s engagement with their care providers
• Navigators were identified as executive leaders as a key contributor to the COVID response due to their skills and experience in designing adaptive models of care to deliver services to vulnerable clients.
• Patient length of stay reduced by 3.2 bed days per patient

Great job team!

Some of our nurse navigators

Today’s quote:

“Find a group of people who challenge and inspire you, spend a lot of time with them, and it will change your life” – Amy Poehler

Regards,

Tami Photinos
Executive Director