Jane Hancock, A/Chief Operating Officer
Winter is well and truly here this week! I hope you’re all staying warm, especially those who have early or late starts or finishes.
This week Acting ED Clinical Services Glen Kennedy and I hosted a vidcast. There were a couple of questions I committed to following up about #innov8 and Metro North’s working from home guidelines.
We received a lot of submissions for #innov8 which was fantastic to see. They are currently being reviewed and will be streamed into different funding channels such as Connecting Care with Community. Thank you everyone who provided your great innovative ideas.
The working from home guidelines are still in development, taking into account feedback that came through the recent survey. Once the guidelines are finalised, I’ll let staff know.
I also need to remind staff that your two additional days of COVID response leave (announced in September 2020) will expire soon. Many of our staff have accessed some (if not all) of this entitlement however there is also a significant number of staff who have unused allocations. Those staff are strongly encouraged to work with your line manager to arrange a suitable time to access your entitlements before the expiry date of 9 September 2022. If you’re not sure if you’ve used it, you can check your payslip in Streamline.
Emeritus Professor Stuart Pegg AM
Queensland Great Awards
This week Emeritus Professor Stuart Pegg AM was recognised as one of Queensland’s Greats for his pioneering work in burns treatment. You may be aware that Dr Pegg was Director of Surgery at the Adult Burns Unit at RBWH and our burns unit is now named for him.
During his career, he was a constant advocate for burns patients and better training and facilities for staff and travelled around the world to gather information to treat patients in Queensland. He fostered and fought for equal opportunity allocations for female resident doctors into surgical specialities and demonstrated leadership and mentorship, humility, innate kindness and the deepest compassion.
Congratulations Stuey!
Truth be Told
No, for those familiar with the TV series you will be disappointed as this is not about a review of a Poppy Parnell podcast. This short read is about integrity. As we know INTEGRITY is one of the core values of Metro North.
For some it is difficult for them to understand and explain but the words of Spencer Johnson may assist:
“Integrity is telling myself the truth. And honesty is telling the truth to other people.”
Simply, integrity is about doing the right thing, and this is something that we should expect from our colleagues and our bosses. It is also something that our patients should expect from us.
I recall a doctor sharing with me after a busy day in a Sydney Emergency Department that he had a terrible feeling that he had made a mistake. It was toward the end of a busy shift and he saw a patient with cellulitis he wrote a prescription for dicloxacillin and gave the script to the patient – he returned to his documentation and shortly after realised that the patient had an allergy to penicillin. He rushed after the patient and found him leaving the hospital. He explained to the patient the situation and that he had made an error and offered his apology and alternative treatment. The patient was initially upset but was appreciative of the way in which my colleague had dealt with the situation.
The ability to demonstrate integrity requires positive and strong communication skills as telling the truth and being honest can be challenging. However, the consequence of not being honest and not having difficult conversations can lead to harm to your team members and harm to patients and consumers.
Truth be told, I have found as a leader and team member that when individuals behave with integrity, these actions and behaviours build trust and strength in a team. When team members trust in each other and there is the space to tell the truth respectfully this contributes to a positive work environment and to higher satisfaction within the team.
It is important to hold ourselves accountable for mistakes, even if we believe no one else knows. The challenge is to admit our errors or omissions and take the opportunity to learn from these as my colleague did.
Your call to action this week is to:
- Reflect on the ways that you demonstrate integrity in the workplace.
- Acknowledge when a colleague demonstrates integrity in a difficult situation and support them – you might even consider giving them a SHOUT OUT.
Warm regards,
Jane