I returned from leave on the 1st of February after having a very welcome break over Christmas and New Year. It was an exciting time for my family. While COVID had kept us apart, my Melbourne based sister was able to travel in one of the brief windows of non-lockdown and we were able to have a wonderful family Christmas, full of fun and festivity. In addition, the wedding of my son and his wonderful fiancé which had been postponed in November was able to go ahead in January, a week after the unexpected 72-hour lockdown!
Needless to say, I have now returned to work and, like all of you, I am as busy as ever. I would highly recommend to everyone that they have regular and appropriate time away from the workplace. I did not realise how tired I was until I stopped. As nurses and midwives, regardless of where we work, our roles involve significant pressure on us as individuals. Please look after yourself. It is virtually impossible to sustain this level of activity and workload without appropriate rest and relaxation. Time away to recharge your batteries and some time with loved ones is one of the most important things you can do for your health and wellbeing. You, as our nurses and midwives, comprise nearly half of the workforce in Metro North and so it is important to enable us to deliver the care we need to provide to our patients. Whether you provide direct patient care or are in a support role, your requirement to deliver remains imperative to the safe and effective management of the patients we look after and the functioning of our wonderful Hospital and Health Service.
Welcome to our nursing and midwifery new starters and graduates to Metro North. Every year Metro North takes significant numbers of new nurses and midwives to our facilities and directorates. Thank you so much for choosing MN as your place of employment. Please know that you are most welcome and we are excited that you have come to work with us. We have significant work to do over coming months and beyond. Some off which will be COVID-19 related but also just making sure that we meet expectations of care that is required by our community, so the addition of these wonderful staff will help us achieve this.
I would like to take this opportunity to thank each and every nurse and midwife for the wonderful work in 2020, in what was Year of the Nurse and Midwife. As I have said before it was not quite what we thought but please know how very proud the Nursing and Midwifery executive leadership group are of the incredible work that was undertaken under difficult circumstances by nurses and midwives HHS wide. As we move into 2021 please know that your hard work is evident, your commitment is obvious and most valued.
Congratulations to STARS on the successful commencement of services of our wonderful facility at Herston. What an incredible journey to get there, and what an amazing team. Not only did the move happen but they went through the accreditation process with outstanding results. Well done to everyone, not only the nurses but interdisciplinary team more broadly! An incredible effort.
Bruce Sullivan, Chief Wellbeing Officer, and I are providing sessions at facilities on wellness, largely focussed at nurses and midwives, but if any of your colleagues in other disciplines would like to attend, they are certainly not exclusive. If you can attend, please register for a session and join us. We recently went to Caboolture and, although the group was small, we had a wonderful afternoon. The sessions are very informative, we are happy to take questions and suggestions and I do believe that you will get a great deal from taking the time to attend.
Until next time, I want to remind you all to be kind to yourself and be kind to each other. Our roles are tough, and it can sometimes mean that we lose sight of why we chose our wonderful professions. Please live by our values of respect, integrity, compassion, high performance and teamwork. If we all do this, we will continue to be the biggest, the best and the nicest HHS.
Alanna
“Life is Short, Work Somewhere Awesome”
#proudtobeChiefNurseandMidwiferyOfficerMN