Get to know RBWH’s new Executive Director Louise

We get to know RBWH’s new Executive Director Louise!

Tell us a little about yourself?

I grew up in North Queensland on a cane farm in Proserpine. I’m a qualified nurse and midwife, but I also have a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Politics and Anthropology. For the first 30 years of my career I worked in Townsville, then moved to the Northern Territory for two and a half years before relocating to Brisbane and commencing at Metro North Health. I have two children and am a grandmother to four beautiful grandchildren who range in age from six months to six years.

What do you do to stay on top of your physical and mental health?

I attend a bootcamp several times a week at Suttons Beach which is great for both my physical and mental health. The sky before the sunrise is my favourite time of day. Speaking regularly with family and friends and spending time with my grandchildren also keeps me happy.

What are some of your daily habits for productivity and success?

For me, it’s important to have a routine including regular start early times. I find that having the discipline to do the things I don’t want to do is vital to achieving my goals.

Since I work at a desk, I make an effort to regularly get up and talk to people. I’ve noticed my daily step count has almost quadrupled since I started at RBWH!

This isn’t a daily habit, but I’ve recently enrolled in a course called Leading Through Disruption. This will provide me with some new frameworks and ideas to use. It’s important to always keep learning, especially in an industry like health that is constantly evolving.

What aspects of your profession do you enjoy the most?

My favourite parts of my role are working with health professionals, evolving models of care, improving infrastructure and hearing about excellent care from patients.

What do you think as an industry we do well, what can we do better and what do you hope the future looks like?

I believe we cope with extreme complexity very well and are highly adaptive to our situations. I think we could do a better job of listening to our consumers and patients more consistently to better understand what they need from us. In the future, I hope to see a stronger emphasis on health equity, greater collaboration across services, greater innovation in our models of care and more opportunities to use technology.