Nursing & Midwifery News – August 2023

From Shane

July was a huge month at Western Health, with Stage 2.1 of the EMR successfully implemented and our new colleagues in the Mental Health & Wellbeing Division and at Dame Phyllis Frost Centre settling in to being part of the Western Health team.

These 3 changes are significant transformational reforms, which take a huge amount of hard work and dedication from everyone involved. My sincere thanks to you for the role that you have played in making these changes successful, and for your continued commitment to the provision of Best Care to our community.

During July I was also incredibly proud to be part of the team from Western Health sharing our success, learning, methodology and tools with the rest of the healthcare sector and beyond to decrease occupational violence and aggression. We have fantastic people here at Western Health – this was on show, palpable and it was remarkable!

I remain very focused on our nursing and midwifery workforce, as workforce shortages continue to be a significant threat across the health sector both now and into the future. The good news is that we are in a remarkably good position – and this has not happened by accident!

Despite our growth and it being the middle of winter, our vacancy rate for nursing and midwifery is currently 2.58% (52 EFT) which is incredibly low (it was 4.79% at the same time last year). At the moment we have:

• 265 graduate nurses and midwives in their first year. We have received over 700 applications for our graduate program next year. This is an increase on last year, which is great!
• 29 Enrolled Nurse early career program participants.
• 180 nurses and midwives undertaking post-graduate study. We have increased the number of nurses with specialist post-graduate skills and education by 300% over the past few years.
• decreased our attrition rate from 7.3% to 6.5%. This means that less nurses and midwives are leaving Western Health.

We are in a good position due to us taking a strategic and planned approach at Western Health through the implementation of the actions from our Nursing & Midwifery Workforce Plan 2022-26. Over the past 12 months we have:

• Developed and implemented an international and national recruitment relocation package.
• Evaluated, enhanced and embedded the RUSON and RUSOM programs.
• Increase in undergraduate student placement opportunities.
• Implemented a Transition to Acute Care program.
• Implemented actions to improve recruitment experience for candidate and managers.
• Expanded graduate employment models.
• Worked with universities to commence enhancing our secondary school relationships and explore pathways and employment models.
• Reviewed, updated and clarified Clinical Nurse Specialist / Clinical Midwife Specialist application process, including for Mental Health & Wellbeing.
• Significantly increased post graduate scholarships offered, across all areas including ED, ICU and an increased number of other specialties.
• Expanded clinical assessment learning opportunities, through the new Patient Assessment Program.
• Launched Lippincott to improve access to quality care provision resources.
• Launched the first tranche of meaningful Data Dashboards for all stakeholders.

A significant initiative coming out of our Workforce Plan is the Employee-centered Rostering Project, which aims to enhance retention and employee engagement through the use a co-design approach to increase the flexibility, transparency and satisfaction with nurse and midwife rostering. We are entering into the co-design phase of this project, so I encourage you to get actively involved!

Finally, the new Mental Health & Wellbeing Act will commence on 1 September 2024. I have provided more information below for our mental health and wellbeing nurses in the lead up to this legislative change.

Shane Crowe
Executive Director, Nursing & Midwifery

No more on the floor

Despite our best efforts, many dangerous germs lurk in hospitals. So how dirty are hospital floors?

According to an emerging body of research hospital floors are very dirty. A recent study found that floors in patient rooms were often contaminated with MRSA, VRE, and C. diff. The most frequently found pathogen was C. diff – in both the C. diff isolation rooms and non-C. diff isolation rooms. The results were very similar amongst each of the 5 hospitals in the study. The results are pretty disconcerting because the pathogens found can lead to hospital-acquired infections.

Even if people don’t directly touch the floors, other things that patients, visitors, and staff routinely touch are in contact with the floor. Unfortunately, it is not uncommon for high-touch objects such as medical devices, personal items, and linens to be in direct contact with the floor and demonstrates the potential for indirect transfer of pathogens to hands from fomites placed on the floor.

This is a timely reminder that hospital floors are an under-appreciated source for dissemination of pathogens and can be spread quite easily if we don’t minimise interactions with our floors.

There is a lot we can do to help reduce the risk of getting an infection from the pathogens on hospital floors like:

• not letting linen touch the floor,
• blow up air mattresses on a bed and never on the floor,
• keep indwelling catheter bags off the floor,
• always perform the 5 moments of hand hygiene and
• remember no more on the floor.

The month of August will see infection prevent and CEL relaunch the No More on the Floor campaign and looking forward to your support.

Employee-centered Rostering Project update

Rostering is an important process to enable efficient, effective and safe delivery of health care. However, shift work has been shown to be associated with several negative health outcomes for nurses and midwives including burnout, fatigue, headaches, social isolation, mental distress and sleep disorders. In particular, night shifts, early morning shifts, quick returns and requests to work on scheduled days off are known to cause significant sleep loss and contribute to fatigue. Nurses’ quality of professional life has also been shown to be significantly affected by shift duration, time and frequency.

As well as the negative health-related outcomes, shift work may also influence nurses’ and midwives’ career-related decisions including their intention to remain in their job or in the professions. Intention to leave an employer or the professions tends to be higher among nurses and midwives who are less satisfied with their jobs, experience conflict managing their paid work and family responsibilities, work night shifts or rotating shifts. Experienced nurses have identified that a lack of flexibility in their work schedules as an important factor in their decisions about retiring.

There is evidence to suggest that more flexible working/shift patterns and self-rostering/scheduling systems can improve nurses’ and midwives’ work-life balance, health and wellbeing, job satisfaction and retention.

Western Health is undertaking this important project using a co-design approach to identify the rostering concerns, needs and preferences of nurses and midwives. Based on the findings we want to implement and evaluate co-designed acceptable, equitable, transparent and feasible rostering guidelines.

Where are we up to?

Our nurses and midwives have now completed pre-implementation survey and participated in a pre-implementation focus group. The next phase is co-design.

Co-design process:

Western Health is committed to co-designing the way rostering will work in the future with our nurses and mdiwives.

All nurses and midwives will be invited to participate in a co-design workshop. Two workshops will be held – one for nurses and one for midwives using WhatsApp. The use of WhatsApp as the platform for the co-design workshops enables participation at times that suit participants. It is easy to access via personal computers, smartphones and tablets, removing the need for a physical venue, and is a space in which people are comfortable and open to discussing their ideas and opinions. WhatsApp is a highly secure messaging app which uses end-to-end encryption on all chats.

Nurses and midwives who are interested in participating in the study will be invited to join the study’s WhatsApp group. There will be guidelines about participating in the group such as respecting the privacy of other group members, not disclosing or sharing comments posted as part of the group discussion with those outside group and treating other members of the group with respect.

Participants will also be asked to undertake a demographic survey outside of WhatsApp.

Data from the pre-implementation survey and focus groups will be used by the research team to draft revised roster guidelines. The co-design workshops will discuss and evaluate the revised roster guidelines in terms of their comprehensibility, salience, and acceptability for nurses and midwives and refine the guidelines based on the findings. A discussion guide will be used to prompt and initiate discussion about the revised guidelines and whether changes are required before they can be used at Western Health.

Western Health leading the way with preventing OVA

There was a fantastic energy and engagement in the room during Western Health’s Occupational Violence and Aggression Conference in July.

We were joined by colleagues from across the health sector and government as well as representatives from other industries at higher risk of OVA to share our Predict, Prevent, Priority: Safety package and learning.

Highlights included keynote addresses from the Health Report’s Dr Norman Swan, Victoria Police’s Assistant Commissioner Luke Cornelius and futurist Alex Hagan as well as insights from Western Health staff who drove and championed our OVA program.

We also hosted panel discussions and practical sessions where we explored case studies, looked at impactful tools and training, and learned from the real-world experiences of our frontline workers.

MC Karen Percy in wrapping up the event had this to say: “OVA is too big to ignore. It’s critical in the healthcare sector but there are some universal issues across many sectors. We know there are solutions out there. It takes leadership and a shift in attitude to put one’s safety first. It takes mandatory changes in your practice and to evolve as needed.

“Today, we’ve heard statistics of how effective these changes have been at Western Health – fewer injuries, incidents handled in a controlled and planned way, and staff feeling supported. Change isn’t going to happen overnight but change is possible. When staff are safe, there are better outcomes for patients, organisations and for the staff themselves.”

Thank you to all our keynote speakers, presenters, MC Karen Percy, Uncle Tony Garvey for his Welcome to Country, and conference participants.

New Mental Health & Wellbeing Act commencing soon

The new Mental Health and Wellbeing Act 2022 (the Act) will commence 1 September 2023. On 17 July 2024 the Department of Health released a fact sheet on frequently asked questions regarding the new Act.

Foundations for a new mental health system:

The new Act resets the legislative foundations of Victoria’s mental health and wellbeing system. It establishes key entities in the new system architecture and includes broader regulation to support a safer, more inclusive system. The definition of Mental Health and Wellbeing Service Provider includes a wider range of service providers.

Support and education:

Western Health has an Implementation Lead employed, who is working closely with the Department of Health to develop consistent education packages for the new Act. These packages are expected to be implemented throughout August.

Additionally, the Department of Health is developing a series of e-learning modules to introduce the workforce to the new Act. This includes key changes from the Mental Health Act 2014. The introduction of training modules will be phased over time and include topics such as the new rights-based principles, protection of consumer and carer rights, and the role of key oversight bodies.

More information:

Some of the major changes in the new Act (found on the Department’s website) are summarised below:

Recognising the Grant Lodge team on Aged Care Employee Day

Aged Care Employee Day is a National Day of Significance for Australia’s aged and community care workforce held on 7 August each year.

A huge shout out to the amazing team at Grant Lodge and wishing them all a very happy Aged Care Employee Day! Thank you for everything that you do to deliver Best Care to our residents.

The day celebrates the more than 427,000 residential care, home care and retirement living staff who care for over 1.5 million older Australians.

The #ThanksforCaring campaign recognises all the varied roles involved the aged care workforce – from nurses to health care workers, allied health professionals to lifestyle coordinators, volunteers, hospitality teams, drivers, cooks, cleaners, administration staff and so many more. Everyone has a role to play in the delivery of Best Care, and the team at Grant Lodge do this incredibly well!

EMR 2.1 successfully done

It was a very busy month during July as Phase 2.1 of our EMR successfully went live across our Sunshine, Williamstown, Sunbury and Footscray Hospital sites!

The roll out has involved the Emergency Departments, Theatres, Newborn Services, Specialists Clinics, Cancer Services and Intensive Care Units transitioning to the EMR Phase 2.1 functionality to facilitate and document patient care. This project also involves continuing the rollout to Maternity and other important optimisation work over the next few months.

A huge thank you for the exceptional collaboration and enthusiasm we witnessed over the Go-Live period. Thank you to the thousands of staff who completed training and then practiced and prepared ahead of the Go-Live. The level of energy and commitment in the lead up to the Go-Live was extraordinary.

A super special thank you to the over 1,000 EMR Super Users who put their hands up to be upskilled to support their colleagues throughout the roll out and beyond! We’re so proud of this dedicated and talented group.

Finally, a very big thank you to the Digital Health Team who commenced the development of the EMR Phase 2.1 project four years ago. Many other teams from across Western Health also provided considerable support in the lead up to and throughout the Go-Live including Digital Technology Services, Biomed Engineering, Best Care Co-ordinators, Reporting and People Services.

The official EMR Go-Live support period recently finished and the rostering of Super Users who are focused on EMR support has concluded, with the exception of Specialists Clinics Medical Officer Super User support which will continue until Friday 11 August.

While the EMR Super Users are now undertaking their usual workloads, they remain the integral ‘Go-To’ support people as you continue to adapt to the new digital landscape. If you have a query, please seek out a Super User from your area and also please remember the availability of the Quick Reference Guides on the Digital Health information site.

To provide further support to the Super Users, the EMR Team’s dedicated support line will continue to operate from 7:00am to 5:00pm until this Friday 4 August at which point it will be reviewed. The EMR Team will also continue to monitor the EMR Go-Live Slack channel Monday to Friday from 8:00am to 5:00pm until mid-August.

Enterprise Agreement preparations underway

The Nurses and Midwives (Victorian Public Health Sector) (Single Interest Employers) Enterprise Agreement 2020-2024 will expire on 30 April 2024, and the Victorian Public Mental Health Services Enterprise Agreement 2020 -2024 will expire on 31 December 2024.

Processes are underway in readiness to negotiate the next nurses and midwives agreement and will be repeated again for the mental health agreement.

Logs of Claims:
We are up to this point at the moment. Both employers and unions are finalising their respective logs of claims. These documents are essentially the list of ‘asks’ for consideration as part of the negotiation.

Unions develop their log of claims through resolutions at delegates conferences and consultation with their members, as well as their knowledge and experiences over the past few years of the current agreement. Once finalised, unions publicise their log of claims to their members.

The employers, who are represented by the Victorian Hospital Industrial Association (VHIA) develop their log of claims through consultation with managers of health services through different meetings and forums. Again, the employers will call upon their knowledge and experience over the past few years of the current agreement. The Employer Log is informed by the State Government’s wage policy, and the Government (via the Department of Health) oversees and approves the strategy and negotiations for all major enterprise agreements.

Negotations:
Once the Logs of Claims are finalised, the parties come together to try to negotiate an outcome.

Invariably there will be some things in the Logs of Claims where the parties want a similar outcome, and others where there are differences.  The parties work through each other’s ‘asks’ to negotiate, compromise and work through details of how elements may be enacted within the enterprise agreement and how to decrease the likelihood of unintended consequences.

The success of these negotiations and how close the parties are in their positions influences whether or not the unions enact their right to take industrial action.

As this process progresses over the coming months, we will keep you informed.

Become a health and wellbeing champion

The Nursing & Midwifery Health Program Victoria (NMHPV) recently announce that registrations are now open for the ‘2023 NMHPV Champion Training’ program!

The training is planned as an in-person event. Each date is a separate, one-day experience identical in nature, being held in Melbourne and Ballarat.

The ‘NMHPV Champion’ initiative, is a peer engagement and training model. It is designed to raise awareness of NMHPV and how to promote the health and wellbeing of our colleagues and professions.

A small fee of $49.50 will apply, this gives the participant the training package, a tailored individual self-care program which is transferrable to the workplace or the home, a delicious morning tea, lunch and attracts 5 CPD points.

All nurses, midwives, students, health service leaders and human resource personnel from Melbourne and the Ballarat region are invited to participate in this interactive training.

For more information please click here.

Melbourne                             
ANMF Victoria Branch – Carson Centre
Friday 20th October 2023, 9.30am to 3.30pm
Registration opens at 9.00am                           
535 Elizabeth Street, Melbourne Victoria 3000
Melbourne Tickets: https://www.trybooking.com/CJWGP

Ballarat
Mercure Hotel Ballarat
Friday 27th October 2023, 9.30am to 3.30pm
Registration opens at 9.00am      
613 Main Rd, Ballarat VIC 3550
Ballarat Tickets: https://www.trybooking.com/CJWGN

Farewell Helen

Helen Sinnott, Director of Nursing & Midwifery, Sunshine recently announced that she is resigning from Western Health to take up a new position as the Clinical Health Executive at Oracle Health (Cerner).

Helen joined Western Health in February 2017 as the Chief Nursing and Midwifery Informatics Officer and was appointed as the Director of Nursing & Midwifery (Sunshine Hospital) in July 2021.

Helen’s leadership, passion and engaging approach has shaped nursing and midwifery informatics and professional practice at Western Health, and she has been integral to the implementation and adoption of both Phases 1 and 2.1 of the EMR across Western Health. Helen was also instrumental in our COVID-19 pandemic response, and she has been a strong and respected member of the nursing and midwifery executive team throughout her time at Western Health.

Well respected by colleague and stakeholders both within Western Health and beyond, Helen will be missed. A huge thank you to Helen for her commitment, leadership and her support throughout her time here at Western Health.

Helen will finish with us on 13 October 2023. I know you will join me in congratulating Helen on her new appointment and wish her every success.

Aboriginal nurse and midwife post-graduate scholarships close soon

Western Health and the Victorian Government is committed to supporting and strengthening the Aboriginal health workforce which will help to deliver improved health outcomes for Aboriginal people.

As part of this ongoing commitment, the Aboriginal Postgraduate Scholarship program for Aboriginal nurses and midwives will continue in 2023-24.

The expression of interest processes for Aboriginal nurse and midwife postgraduate scholarships for 2023-24 are now open.

For your information, please view the Expression of Interest and Guidelines for the Aboriginal Nursing and Midwifery Postgraduate Scholarship Program 2023-2024

Please send completed expression of interest forms to Debra.Broomfield@wh.org.au by 4 August 2023, to allow time for Western Health to review, endorse and submit to the Department of Health by the 11 August deadline.

Getting ready for Accreditation

Then any time between 1 July 2023 and 31 December 2023, a short-notice assessments will be undertaken for all of Western Health with 24 hours notice. Our mental health services will be included in our survey. We will be notified on a Thursday that a week long survey will commence on the next Monday.

We will have a team of approximately 11 accreditation surveyors visiting all of our campuses and over a week. The surveyors will spend up to 75% of survey time in clinical wards and departments.

Dame Phyllis Frost Centre will align with the new Primary & Community Health Accreditation Scheme that has a scheduled, separate accreditation survey.

What can I do to be ready?

To get ready, as you are working in your department try to look through a surveyor’s eyes:

• remove outdates or unnecessary posters and information on walls
• get rid of excessive clutter
• ensure WOW drawers are locked and are clean inside
• ensure linen trolleys are always covered
• ensure that equipment that has been cleaned has a green tag on it
• ensure cleaning schedules are visible
• ensure daily checks eg resuscitation trolley are recorded
• ensure you are able to confidently navigate the EMR in front of a surveyor
• make sure that medication and sterile stock rooms are always cleaned
• maintain a focus on the privacy of patient information

Over the coming months we will be focusing on ensuring consistency of practice across out departments, to ensure that we are all delivering Best Care everywhere, every time.

Riskman upgrade

In response to recommendations from the report, “Targeting zero, the review of hospital safety and quality assurance in Victoria” the Department of Health has implemented changes to the incident reporting requirements for public health services in Victoria.

An early warning reporting system aimed at identifying emerging risks for both patients and the healthcare workforce is being implemented  throughout the state. The system will contribute to enhancing safety and quality measures in healthcare delivery that relies on near real-time data submission.

To support the real-time data submission changes, the Western Health Riskman system will undergo an upgrade on Tuesday 1 August 2023. It is anticipated that the system will be unavailable for approximately 2 hours on this day.

Key changes for the reporting and upgrade are:

• ISR 1 and 2 notification alerts: All ISR 1 and 2 alerts will be sent to users immediately upon incident submission. Any changes to ISR will be communicated to the Divisional Director by the aligned divisional Best Care Coordinator. Please refer to the Determining ISR QRG for details on accurately assigning the ISR for clinical incidents.
• Incident review timelines:  Incidents will be considered valid for inclusion in reporting to the Department of Health 30 days from incident submission into Riskman. We will need to conduct timely reviews during incident investigations to ensure data accuracy and completeness with 30 days.
• Riskman appearance: There will be a change in the overall appearance of Riskman.
• Sexual behaviour incidents: Sexual behaviour incidents will no longer default to ISR 2 upon incident submission.
• Default selection removed for ‘Event relates to’ field:  Users will have to select the ‘Event type’ when entering an incident.
• Warning Messages when closing an incident:  To ensure data sent to the Department of Health is complete and accurate, users closing an incident will see a new warning message prompting them to check all mandatory fields prior to submission.

Further detail on the changes is available on the Live Best Care Microsite. The Best Care Governance and Support division will be available to support staff following the upgrade. If you have any queries, please contact the Riskman Help Desk via email or your Best Care Coordinator.

Baxter 0.9% Sodium Chloride bag shortage

There continues to be nationwide shortages of Baxter 0.9% Sodium Chloride 100 mL and 1000 mL IV bags.

Western Health will be using 100 mL and 1000 mL Baxter IV bags imported from the USA, as permitted under Section 19A of the Therapeutic Goods Act.

The S19A USA products are identical in active ingredient and strength to the TGA registered Australian products. Key differences are highlighted below.

Of significance is the pull off port protector (blue colour) on the S19A USA Baxter bags.

All staff must ensure that proper aseptic technique is followed when spiking the port.

Once the blue pull-off port protector has been removed, you can attach the giving set using a twisting motion to spike the port.

S19A Baxter USA 100 mL and 10000 mL IV bags will be supplied to all clinical areas in the coming days.

Once the shortage is resolved, all areas will return to TGA registered Baxter bags as usual.

Let's Talk Leadership

ACN's National Nursing Forum

Seeking frontline healthcare workers for the SCV Health Innovators Program

Safer Care Victoria is aware of the very significant challenges currently facing healthcare providers across the Victorian healthcare system.  In the face of these challenges there is a critical push and a growing interest in healthcare innovation across the sector.  With exponential advances in healthcare innovation and the high level of expertise in our healthcare workforce there is great potential for frontline healthcare workers to co-create solutions to persistent healthcare problems impacting on patient safety and health equity.

Healthcare innovation is about applying new or novel solutions to healthcare problems. It involves piloting and testing new solutions at a local level on a small scale before they are recommended for embedding scaling and spreading through a healthcare improvement model. It is distinctly different to healthcare improvement which is about improving existing systems, processes, and tools to solve problems in healthcare (using known best practice).

In collaboration with the Institute of Health Improvement, Safer Care Victoria has developed a Health Innovators to build innovation capability and support innovation across the healthcare sector. The program consists of 5 learning modules, along with fortnightly coaching and mentoring sessions from international experts in the health innovation sector. Participants will be supported to implement an innovation project throughout the program.  The project will focus on exploring a healthcare problem that is impacting on patient safety and health equity, and in finding innovative solutions to that problem. The program will run from September 2023 to February 2024.

Interested candidates are required to complete a short 3 minute ‘shark tank’ style video explaining what their healthcare problem is and why it needs an innovative solution. Candidates with successful videos, will be invited to submit a further short written brief to support your idea and inclusion in the Program. Further details of the program and the application process are available in the program’s flyer.

Candidates may submit their video EOI to innovation@safercare.vic.gov.au by 14 August 2023 to be considered for this program.

Still not Flu Vax'd?

A reminder that the annual Flu Vax is now legally mandatory for all Category A and B healthcare workers. Category A and B healthcare workers are those that:

• have direct physical contact with patients, clients, deceased persons or body parts, blood, body substances, infectious material or surfaces or equipment that might contain these; or
• have contact that might allow respiratory infections to be acquired or transmitted, which includes workers with prolonged face-to-face contact with patients or clients or where their normal work is in a clinical area​.

All these staff are required to receive the flu vaccine prior to 15 August 2023 to ensure that they meet their legal obligations and the requirements of their employment contract with Western Health.

As Western Health’s flu vaccination program has now finished, any unvaccinated Category A or B staff need to undertake one of the following 4 actions:

1. Yet to receive the flu vaccine in 2023: these staff are now responsible for getting the vaccine via their General Practitioner or local Pharmacy at their own expense. Once you have received the vaccine you must complete our Influenza Immunisation Survey and attach your vaccination certificate available through your Medicare webpage prior to 15 August 2023.
2. Already received the flu vaccine elsewhere in 2023: It is important that our records are updated to reflect every staff member’s vaccination status. To do this, you must complete our Influenza Immunisation Survey and attach your vaccination certificate available through your Medicare webpage prior to 15 August 2023.
3. Have valid medical reason to seek a medical exemption: The only reasons you may be able to get a medical exemption from having the flu vaccine are if you:

• • Had anaphylaxis after a previous dose of any influenza vaccine
  • Had anaphylaxis due to any vaccine component within the influenza vaccine
  • Have a history of Guillain-Barré syndrome within 6 weeks following a previous dose of influenza vaccine (unless an alternative cause has been clearly identified).

If you are seeking an exemption for the influenza vaccine, you must complete our Influenza Immunisation Survey prior to 15 August 2023.

4. Should not be classified as a Category A or B healthcare worker: If your role does not meet the above definition, please contact our Infection Prevention team via email Flushot@wh.org.au and outline the reasons why you believe this to be the case, and please copy in your manager.If you are a Category C staff who is refusing the vaccination, you still must complete your declaration via our Redcap survey Influenza Immunisation Survey. Western Health is required to report back to the Department of Health the number of Category C staff that have refused the vaccine.

Please be advised that if you have not met the requirements as outlined above by 15 August 2023, Western Health is legally obliged to undertake a Risk Assessment to review your role and the risks posed within the workplace whilst you are unvaccinated, and whether you will be able to meet the inherent requirements of your role at Western Health.

Benchmarking Best Care

The latest benchmark reports from the Health Roundtable that go up to March 2023 show how our delivery of Best Care compares to other health services across Australasia.

Let’s look at how we perform in the area of hospital acquired infections. Hospital acquired infections include urinary tract infections, surgical site infection, pneumonia, blood stream infection, central line and peripheral line associated bloodstream infection, multi-resistant organisms, infection associated with prosthetics/implantable devices, gastrointestinal infections and other high impact infections.

Hospital Acquired Infections:

The rates of hospital acquired infections at Western Health is in the green and has been trending downwards.

Well done everyone!

This means that our patients get far less hospital acquired infections that we do at peer hospitals. This is a wonderful result.

Remember, you can impact these results through:

• Gloves should always be clean: gloves should always be changed between patients, and clean gloves are always required when undertaking any procedure. Hand hygiene is required between changes of gloves, and alcoholic hand rub must never be applied to gloves.
• Hand Hygiene: ensure you undertake the 5 moments of hand hygiene and that there is alcoholic hand rub present at every bed side and point of care.
• Correct skin preparation: whenever an invasive device is being inserted, chlorhexidine skin preparation must be utilised. An alcohol wipe is never an appropriate skin preparation.
• Antiseptic non-touch technique (ANTT): when inserting, accessing, dressing or removing any invasive device, ANTT needs to be utilised. Also please ensure that you use a clean stainless steel dressing trolley, not a kidney dish, bedside table or the patient’s bed.
• Only insert a device if it is needed: Always ‘hesitate before you cannulate’. Does the patient really need that device inserted? Never insert a device ‘just in case’. Any invasive device is a potential source of infection, so let’s minimise them where we can.
• Remove the device as soon as it is not needed: As soon as a device is no longer needed, remove it as quickly as possible. Ask medical staff to change IV orders to oral orders where appropriate. The longer devices are in situ, the greater the risk of an infection occurring.

Educational Opportunities

Resuscitation Mandatory Competencies:
Sessions have recommenced. In the first instance, you can arrange an assessment with your local instructor or educator. Resus educators are contacting managers to arrange local sessions for individual teams. Dedicated sessions for Bank and Pool Staff along with sessions for Nursing and Medical staff are available on WeLearn. You can locate sessions by clicking on this link: Course: Basic Life Support (BLS) (wh.org.au)

Invasive Lines & Cannulation:
Dates for Bank-Pool Nursing staff, Ward Nursing staff, Radiology, and Medical staff available soon.

Adult Deteriorating Patient (non-obstetric):
Learning how to recognise and escalate patient deterioration is now here at Western Health. The Education and Learning Department have developed a new and improved WeLearn course, designed to guide and support early recognition and escalation for a patient deteriorating within Western Health.

Fisher and Paykel Respiratory Support training:
RSVP to: education.australia@fphcare.com.au

• Infant Respiratory Support: Friday 1 September 2023 – WCHRE Auditorium: 9.00am to 3.00pm
• Adult & Paediatric Respiratory Support: Wednesday 4 October 2023 – WCHRE Lecture Theatre: 9.00am to 1.00pm

Education and Learning upcoming events:

• 05/09/2023:  Cognitive Study Day
• 21/09/2023:   Infection Prevention Study Day
• 27/10/2023:   Mental Health First Aid
• 03/11/2023:   Mental Health First Aid

More courses click here: Courses and Inservices (westernhealth.org.au)

Course Enrolment/Inquiries:

• WeLearn Helpdesk Email: welearn@wh.org.au
• WeLearn Enrolment link: welearn@wh.org.au

Emerging Evidence

The Western Health Library Service is a great source for locating the latest nursing and midwifery related evidence-based practice and research.

Latest articles of interest:

• Preconception factors associated with postnatal mental health and suicidality among first-time fathers: results from an Australian Longitudinal Study of Men’s Health. Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology. 2023: August. Full Text Western Health Author
• The green maternity project: a midwife-led initiative to promote correct waste segregation on an Australian postnatal ward. Journal of Advanced Nursing. 2023: July Full Text Western Health Author
• Nurses’ work experiences in hospital wards with single rooms: an integrative review. Journal of Clinical Nursing. 2023: July Full Text Western Health Author
• Letter to editor. Journal of Advanced Nursing. 2023: July Full Text Western Health Author

Australian Library & Information Week 31 July – 6 August 2023

This week we celebrate Western Health Library’s information services and offer a range of useful information seeking tools. To help you get started on EndNote and Covidence, we have added two NEW group sessions for Library and Information Week.

New Nursing/Midwifery eBooks

• Clinical practice guidelines for midwifery & women’s health. 6^th ed. Jones & Bartlett Learning, 2022
  Clinical Practice Guidelines for Midwifery & Women’s Health, Sixth Edition remains an accessible and easy-to-use quick reference guide for midwives and women’s healthcare providers. Thoroughly updated and revised to reflect the changing clinical environment, it offers current evidence-based recommendations, updated approaches, and opportunities for midwifery leadership in every practice setting. The Sixth Edition features new information on diversity and inclusion, sexual health, opioid disorder and substance-exposed newborns, care for the individual who is transitioning and after transition, and more timely and relevant topics.

View all recently added print and eBook catalogue titles

Accessing the Library at Work:

All eligible staff can access electronic library resources from any networked PC or device connected to
Wi-Fi network without the need to login.

Accessing the Library Remotely (offsite access):

• When accessing electronic resources through the library website from offsite you will automatically be asked to enter your library membership number and surname.
• Library Membership is free and can be completed online. Please email the library if you experience issues when registering (e.g. error messages).

For more information please contact the Western Health library team.