This week marked the official start of winter which represents an extremely challenging period for our hospital. The entire hospital is busy and has been operating at full capacity with all services working together to ensure we can prioritise care for our patients and maintain good patient flow. Along with increased activity, we have seen a rise in staff absences due to illness and are working through the impacts of this.

With so much going on at present, I would like to remind everyone about the importance of taking care of our health and well-being.

Today is Crazy Socks for Docs Day which is a good opportunity to raise awareness of mental health in doctors and in health care workers more broadly. This day reminds us that it is okay not to be okay, and we need to start a conversation with someone if we find ourselves struggling. We all experience pressure in our lives, and it is normal to feel overwhelmed at times. So I encourage you to think about how you and your colleagues are travelling, and reach out if you need to share the load. Here are some photos from Crazysocks4docs Day including from yesterday’s special Grand Rounds session which focused on ‘life outside medicine.’

Executive update

National Reconciliation Week

This week we celebrated National Reconciliation Week which was launched at TPCH last Friday with a Flag Raising ceremony attended by staff from the Reconciliation Action Plan (RAP) Working Group, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Services and TPCH Executive team.

Other activities included a Yarning Circle in the healing garden; inaugural Reconciliation Yarning Table attended by special guest, Aunty Deb Nagas, a local Elder and TPCH consumer; and a Virtual Yarning Circle. These activities provided staff with the opportunity to come together and talk about their commitment to health equity and journey towards reconciliation.

A number of the Executive also took the time to visit a special Reconciliation Week information stand in the Café, where we joined members of TPCH’s Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Service team, led Assistant Nursing Director, Kirsty Leo. It was great to meet with the team and show our support. A big thanks to Acting Cultural Capability Officer, Rebeckah Mooney for coordinating Reconciliation Week activities and to the broader RAP Working Group for their support of these events.

Ward 2C visit

Director of Operations, Surgery and Critical Care, Melanie Dubbelde and I also visited Ward 2C where we chatted with acting Nurse Unit Manager, Emily Campbell about the ward’s current activity and her role. Thanks for your time Emily, you’re doing a stellar job!

Staff appreciation breakfast

A reminder that next Thursday 8 June, 7am – 8am, our Executive team is hosting a second free staff breakfast in the Common Good Café. We looking forward to seeing you there!

TPCH staff forum – TPCH expansion

TPCH will hold a Staff Forum next Thursday 8 June, 11am – 12 noon, to discuss TPCH Expansion project.  This will be the first of a number of staff forums throughout the year to discuss upcoming developments on TPCH campus.

The forum will be hosted by Executive Director, Tami Photinos and Director of Operations EPIC, Karlene Willocks. It will be via Teams, and staff will have the opportunity to submit any questions via the Teams chat function.

Join staff forum.

Have your Say survey

The Have your Say survey is open until 9 June 2023. Currently, TPCH is sitting at a 25% response rate, which is an improvement on last week. But we’ve still got some work to do until we reach our previous survey response rate of 45%. Complete the Have your Say survey.

Accreditation update

To help everyone prepare for short notice accreditation assessment which could commence at any time from July 1, we will start distributing a weekly Accreditation Update from next week. This will highlight areas for improvement with regard to specific standards, and provide advice on what staff can do to support compliance with those standards.

Education centre AV system upgrade

From the week beginning Monday 19 June, the Education Centre will undergo a major upgrade of its audio visual (AV) system. This upgrade will equip the Centre with a fully functional state-of-the-art AV system. To support the installation of the new system, training rooms will be temporarily closed for varying periods. All room users have been notified via the normal room booking confirmation email channel if room bookings have been cancelled or modified to accommodate the installation of the new AV system.

We appreciate these closures will result in some disruption, and the Education Centre team is currently working with staff to reschedule impacted bookings. We thank everyone for their support with this process. For any queries, please contact Steven Sutherland, Senior Advisor – Learning and Development on 3139 5071.

FAST FACTS

This week we will profile the Adult Intensive Care Service.

Did you know?

• The Adult Intensive Care Service (AICS) is a tertiary level intensive care unit which supports approximately 1,800 admissions annually.
• Each year, the Service manages around 1,100 cardiothoracic cases, the highest number across Australia and New Zealand. It also looks after approximately 35 to 40 heart and lung transplant cases annually.
• The Unit is a major Extra Corporeal Membrane Oxygenation (ECMO) centre, caring for 35 to 40 patients each year. It is one of three centres that form the statewide ECMO retrieval service
• The AICS team consists of 14 intensive care specialists, 225 nurses, four administration officers,
  two program support officers, two social workers, and six patient support staff members. Multiple allied heath team members from dietetics, physiotherapy, speech and occupational therapy are also part of the team.
• The department provides a registrar, senior registrar and a clinical nurse to the MET/arrest service which attended about 1,950 calls last year.
• Medical and nursing staff from the service run the only ELSO endorsed ECMO course in the country each year.
• The Unit is involved in numerous national and international research projects and has a close collaboration with the Critical Care Research Group.
• The Unit hosts the world first ICU of the Future which is a reconfigured ICU model to help minimise the risk of delirium and provide a more patient-centred care experience.

Staff profile

Today we will profile Principal Research Fellow (Podiatry), Allied Health Research Collaborative, TPCH, Associate Professor Peter Lazzarini.

Peter holds a conjoint research position with QUT and his research focuses on diabetes-related foot disease. This includes coordinating studies investigating disease burdens, identifying novel risk factors, and developing new treatments.

For Peter, one of the best parts about being a researcher is discovering new knowledge to help improve patient, practice, and policy outcomes. His passion is to help end amputations as a treatment for diabetes-related foot disease by his retirement in 2040. His dedication to addressing this global issue has been acknowledged with his research team recently awarded the top study and international rising star at the International Symposium on the Diabetic Foot, the largest and most prestigious diabetes-related foot disease meeting worldwide held every four years in the Netherlands.

Outside of work, Peter enjoys family, holidays and football. One of his favourite things is to wander down to his local football club on a Saturday afternoon, sit on the hill and watch footy.

Shout out

Today’s shout out goes to our Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Services team who are presenting at various forums in Cairns and Brisbane this week. Bruce Martin, CNC for Connecting Care to Country, is presenting to the Respiratory and Sleep Clinical Network in Cairns and Kirsty Leo, Vikrant Kalke and Carl Francia are presenting at the Queensland Clinical Senate Research and AI forum on First Nation led research in the AI space. A special thanks to Dr Paul Lane for his support in creating and sustaining space for First Nation leadership.

Today’s quote

“Just because no one else can heal or do inner work for you, doesn’t mean you can, should, or need to do it alone.” – Lisa Olivera

Tami.