Published on 2 September 2022

Edition 58: September 2022

  • Helpful contacts

    Employee Assistance Program: 1800 099 444

    Nurse & Midwife Support: 1800 667 877

    Nurse & Midwife Health Program:
    03 9415 7551 or 1800 888 236

  • Upcoming dates

    September 2022:

    2           Victorian Nurses and Midwives Trust Major Grant applications close
    5           ACN National Roadshow in Melbourne
    12         Research Week (Nursing & Midwifery) abstract submissions close
    30        Nursing & Midwifery Research Grant applications close
    30        Mavis Mitchell Scholarship applications close

  • Nursing & Midwifery Executive

    Adjunct Professor Shane Crowe
    Executive Director of Nursing & Midwifery
    Phone: 8345 1463
    Email: shane.crowe@wh.org.au

    Professor Bodil Rasmussen
    Chair of Nursing, Deakin University/Western Health
    Phone: 8395 8163
    Email: bodil.rasmussen@wh.org.au

    Doug Mill
    Director of Nursing & Midwifery
    Division: Drug Health Services
    Phone: 8345 1916
    Email: douglas.mill@wh.orh.au

    Helen Sinnott
    Director of Nursing & Midwifery, Sunshine
    Divisions: Women’s & Children’s
    Phone: 0435 962 716
    Email: helen.sinnott@wh.org.au

    Jo Mapes
    Director of Nursing & Midwifery, Footscray
    Division: Perioperative and Critical Care
    Phone: 0423  302 337
    Email: joanne.mapes@wh.org.au

    Kate Renzenbrink
    Director of Nursing & Midwifery Informatics (CNMIO)
    Phone: 0425 772 324
    Email: kate.renzenbrink@wh.org.au

    Professor Linda Sweet
    Chair of Midwifery, Deakin University/Western Health
    Phone: 8395  1178
    Email:  linda.sweet@wh.org.au

    Lisa Gatzonis
    Director of Nursing & Midwifery Workforce
    Phone: 9393 0127
    Email: lisa.gatzonis@wh.org.au

    Monique Sammut
    Director of Nursing & Midwifery, Sunbury
    Divisions: WPHU and Clinical Support & Specialist Clinics
    Phone: 0412 769 423
    Email: monique.sammut@wh.org.au

    Nicole Davies
    Director of Nursing & Midwifery, Williamstown
    Division: Emergency, Medicine & Access
    Phone: 9732 8630
    Email: nicole.davies@wh.org.au

    Rohan Vaughan
    Director of Nursing & Midwifery, Melton
    Division: Chronic & Complex Care
    Phone: 0434 365 769
    Email: rohan.vaughan@wh.org.au

    Associate Professor Tony McGillion
    Director of Nursing & Midwifery (Inspiring Innovation)
    Phone: 0466 925 108
    Email: tony.mcgillion@wh.org.au

    Wendy Giddings
    Director of Nursing & Midwifery, Bacchus Marsh
    Division: Aged, Cancer & Continuing Care and Bacchus Marsh & Melton
    Phone: 0458 603 897
    Email: wendy.giddings@wh.org.au

From Shane

As well as football finals season (go Pies!), importantly it is also grants and scholarship season – particularly for nurses and midwives that are interested in research or higher education. There are a number of opportunities now open, with the closing dates for most of these opportunities in September, so please don’t miss out. I’m really excited that this includes our inaugural PhD Scholarship. This generous new scholarship is offered in collaboration with Deakin University and is exclusively available to a Western Health nurse or midwife. The opportunity to offer a paid sabbatical to allow one of our nurses or midwives to undertake full-time study for 3 years is just fantastic.

I was recently delighted to join the Plenary Health team on the new Footscray Hospital site where they announced that they will be partnering with the Western Health Foundation to increase opportunities our nurses through ICU post-graduate scholarships. The partnership is worth more than $300,000 over five years, with a good proportion of that money going towards supporting our nurses – what an amazing commitment from one of our key partners!

The new Footscray Hospital prototype rooms were great to see last month, with all the planning and work undertaken by a huge number of people coming to life. There have been so many of our nurses involved, and it was a wonderful opportunity to see key elements of the design that have been included to support the delivery of excellent nursing care in place. I also allowed for feedback on areas that need to be tweaked or changed to ensure that we get it right.

It is pleasing to see COVID demand and workforce largely return to normal.  Whilst we still have occasional shifts where things continue to be challenging, the vast majority of our clinical wards and departments are looking very much improved. I am so pleased to see our overtime utilisation significantly dropping, and I am so grateful to all our nurses and midwives that have worked these additional hours when it was needed. Your commitment to Best Care and your colleagues is remarkable.

We aim to continue to optimise our workforce position over the coming months, with a new Transition to Acute Care program being run in October for the first time. We also have the new Westwards team that has recently commenced within the Nursing & Midwifery Workforce Unit, who are working on actively growing the nursing and midwifery workforce over the coming 6 years in readiness for our significant planned growth.  This is an innovative initiative, and I will share more details as the team gets established. These are only a couple of the new strategies that are included in the new Nursing & Midwifery Workforce Plan 2022-26 that will be released shortly.

Finally, we now have three interactive high quality learning modules to support the delivery of Comprehensive Care – falls, delirium and now pressure injuries on WeLearn. These focus areas are fundamental to the provision of safe, person centered care and are highly recommended for all our nurses. Make sure that your knowledge is up to date and that you are delivering best practice care – if you haven’t done them already, please try to complete the modules this month.

Recognising excellence

Western Health was recently named a finalist in 4 categories for the upcoming Victorian Public Healthcare Awards 2022.

We are finalists in the following categories:

  • Improving healthcare through clinical research: The McMonty – finding safe air.(Western Health)
  • Improving integration of care for patients with chronic and complex conditions: Western Health’s Integrated COVID-19 Care at Home (Western Health)
  • Improving workforce wellbeing and safety: ‘Predict, Prevent, Priority: Safety’ – an approach to OVA Management (Western Health)
  • Improving Aboriginal health: Connected, Caring and Culturally Safe (Western Health)

Congratulations to all staff involved in these great pieces of work.

Winners will be announced at Awards Gala Night on 13 October 2022 at Marvel Stadium in Melbourne as a hybrid in-person and virtual event.

Preventing Pressure Injuries

Hospital Acquired Pressure Injuries (HAPI) are recognised worldwide as one of the top causes of harm to patients. Most HAPI’s are preventable if appropriate evidence-based measures are implemented quickly, including ongoing comprehensive risk assessments, skin care, regular re-positioning, use of appropriate support surfaces and targeted patient education.

Western Health’s new Pressure Injury Prevention and Management online learning module is now available on the WeLearn portal.  It’s a fantastic, interactive module that covers skin assessment, risk factors, staging of pressure injuries, Incontinence Associated Dermatitis, pressure injury prevention equipment and EMR documentation requirements.

The new module takes approximately 45 minutes to complete as it contains a number of short videos that amount to approximately 20 minutes.

This is the third module in the Western Health’s Comprehensive Care WeLearn program, and complements the previous modules on Falls and Delirium.

Recognising Research

Research Week is held each October at Western Health, to celebrate the great research undertaken at the health service and to learn more about our future initiatives and innovations.

As part of this important week Nursing & Midwifery holds a session which focuses on celebrating the work and projects undertaken by nurse and midwife researchers. During this week we also bestow Research Grants and the Mavis Mitchell Scholarship to support nursing and midwifery led research at Western Health.

In 2022 this session is being held on Thursday 27 October between 2-4pm.

Presenting during Research Week:

The Executive Director of Nursing and Midwifery is seeking applications from Western Health nursing and midwifery staff to present research and/or clinical audits that foster Best Care at Western Health. This year we have two types of presentations available, oral or poster presentations.

As an incentive, this year we are delighted to announce there will be a $250 prize for the best oral presentation and $250 for the best poster presentation. Abstract submissions close on 12 September 2022. For more information please go to the Research Week page.

Nursing & Midwifery Research Grants:

The Executive Director of Nursing and Midwifery is also seeking applications from Western Health nursing and midwifery staff for grant funding to undertake dedicated nursing and/or midwifery research. There are two Nursing & Midwifery Research Grants to be awarded this year:

  • one for nursing related projects – $15,000
  • one for midwifery related projects  $15,000.

There is also one Denise Paterson Research Grant of $10,000 open to a nurse or midwife. These are exciting opportunities for nurses and midwifes to be innovative, lead research and contribute to an improvement in practice and better patient outcomes.

Applications close on 30 September 2022. For more information on how to apply please go to the Research Week page.

Mavis Mitchell Scholarship:

The Mavis Mitchell Memorial Scholarship provides funding to enable and assist eligible Registered Nurses/Midwives to undertake a service improvement/quality project or research in any activity approved by the Selection Committee.

If you are currently undertaking a research project or service improvement to benefit our patients/women or the community, or have a great idea and need some funding support, then consider applying for the $5,000 Mavis Mitchell Memorial Scholarship Grant which can provide financial assistance to help further your endeavours.

This project or research can be by an individual or group.

Applications close on 30 September 2022.

Guidelines and further information is available and can be found  here and on the Nursing & Midwifery microsite.

Victorian Nurses and Midwives Trust Grant applications open

Applications are now open for the Victorian Nurses and Midwives Trust Grants. Major and minor grants are on offer:

Major grants:

  • Major Grant –  up to $100,000: The purpose of this grant is to provide funding to health services to undertake dedicated nursing and/or midwifery research and education. Health Services are invited to apply for up to $100,000 for disbursement in 2023.
    Applications close Friday, 2 September 2022 
  • VNMT PhD Scholarship – up to $120,000 over 3 years of full time study: This prestigious scholarship is designed to support a suitably qualified nurse or midwife to undertake a research degree i.e. PhD.
    Applications close Friday, 7 October 2022 
  • PhD Completion Support Grant – up to $40,000: To support a nurse or midwife currently undertaking a PhD in an area of nursing/midwife practice. Applicants must have completed the ethics approval process and confirmation of candidature or equivalent process. Funding is available for 2023 calendar only.
    Applications close Friday, 7 October 2022 

Minor grants:
Applications for all minor grants close on Friday, 7 October 2022.

  • Midwifery Grant – up to $20,000: Available for an EN or RN to obtain a midwifery qualification
  • Post Graduate Qualification (Masters/Grad Dip/Grad Cert) – up to $10,000: For nurses and midwives in the final year of study in an approved full fee paying postgraduate course in the speciality areas: emergency, critical care or aged care.
  • Diploma/Certificate IV/ Short Courses – up to $5,000: To enable nurses and midwives with a minimum of 2 years in the workforce post degree to undertake post graduate short courses or activities that will enhance their practice.
  • Enrolled Nurse – up to $5,000: For enrolled nurses to undertake professional development activities that enhance their practice as an EN. Please note this funding is not available to ENs wishing to transition from EN to RN.
  • William Cooper – $5,000:  The purpose of this grant is to enable nurses, involved in caring for patients with cancer in Victoria to undertake activities that will enhance nursing practice and improve patient outcomes. Applicants are invited to apply for funding to the value of $5,000.
  • Rosemary Kelley Foundation – $5,000: The purpose of this grant is to enable nurses who are directly or indirectly involved with the care of patients with haematological malignancies and other forms of cancer, to undertake activities that will enhance nursing practice and improve patient outcomes. Applicants are invited to apply for funding to the value of $5,000.

To get more information and to apply, please visit the Victorian Nurses and Midwives Trust website.

Please contact Professor Bodil Rasmussen (bodil.rasmussen@wh.org.au) if you would like to discuss your research ideas or would like assistance submitting an application.

Inaugural Nursing & Midwifery PhD Scholarship

The Executive Director of Nursing and Midwifery in conjunction with the Faculty of Health at Deakin University are delighted to offer our inaugural co-funded PhD scholarship to undertake dedicated nursing and/or midwifery research. The scholarship will consist of:

  • a tax exempt stipend of $43,900 per annum. Standard scholarships are usually to the value of $28,900 per annum, so this is an excellent opportunity for a Western Health nurse or midwife
  • free tuition at Deakin University to study full time for 3 years to achieve your PhD

Employment arrangements during the sabbatical:

During the 3 year period whilst the successful candidate undertakes full-time study to achieve their PhD, Western Health will:

  • Maintain their substantive position for the 3 year period,
  • Temporarily vary their hours to 8 hours a fortnight and put them on our Pool. This will give the candidate flexibility to be able to work an additional shift each week/fortnight to supplement the stipend. If the candidate cannot work a shift in a given fortnight due to study commitments, Western Health will give them paid leave (utilising the candidate’s accumulated leave entitlements) or unpaid leave for that pay period.
  • The classification used for Pool will be assessed on a case by case basis, taking into consideration the candidate’s experience and skills.
  • If the candidate decides that they’d like to return to their substantive position prior to completion of their PhD (earlier than the expected 3 years), then they’d need to inform us in writing giving us 4 weeks notice. We will then put arrangements in place to allow that to occur.
  • There will be an expectation that the successful candidate will return to their substantive position after the 3 year sabbatical period. If their intentions change during this period, they will be required to inform us in writing providing a 4 week notice period.

Terms of grant:

The successful candidate must be eligible to apply for candidature through Deakin University School of Nursing and Midwifery. The successful candidate will work with staff in the Western Health Deakin University partnership.

All research must comply with Western Health and Deakin University’s Research ethics and governance policies, and with the National Health and Medical Research Council statement. Ethics approval must be gained before the commencement of any research.

Support:

Nurses and midwives interested in this opportunity are strongly encouraged to seek support and advice from the Chair of Nursing, Professor Bodil Rasmussen or the Chair of Midwifery, Professor Linda Sweet. They will assist in confirming eligibility, and in preparing a research proposal.

For more information and to apply please go to the PhD Scholarship page on the Nursing & Midwifery microsite.

New Transition to Acute Care program

As part of our Nursing & Midwifery Workforce Plan, we are offering a new entry to practice program titled “Transition to Acute Care”.

The aim of this program is to facilitate the upskilling of nurses who have either not recently worked in an acute environment or only have experience in non-acute settings.

The program will be 8 weeks in length and facilitated by the Education team commencing on 3 October 2022.

The program participants will be employed into Nurse Pool and allocated to a ward for the full 8 weeks, on successful completion of the program they will be offered ongoing employment either into a ward vacancy or within Nurse Pool.

The allocation to the wards will be as following:

Recruitment to this program is currently underway and it has been popular! Once finalised Unit Managers will be notified of the staff member(s) coming to each ward. Not all areas will be allocated a participant – the decision on location allocated will be based on participant numbers, previous experience and preferences. the participating wards will assign preceptors to support these staff through the 8 week program.

Their roster will be generated by the NMWU team and will consist of Monday to Friday AM & PM shifts during the 8 weeks.

Evaluating the Clinicians Health Channel

The Clinicians Health Channel (CHC) is an online information portal that is currently funded by the Victorian Department of Health.

It provides Victorian public healthcare professionals access to high-quality Australian and international clinical decision-making tools and evidence-based publications and journals to support patient care.

You may access the CHC Portal directly through the website www.clinicians.vic.gov.au or access individual resources via your intranet or library service. Here is the resource list provided by the CHC.

The CHC is currently being evaluated to inform planning for the future. To do this, users are invited to complete a short survey.

The survey will take approximately 15 minutes, and your participation is voluntary.

Further information about the evaluation is available via the survey link. Please note that the survey closes on 10 September 2022.

Plenary Health supporting our nurses

Plenary Health has partnered with Western Health Foundation to increase opportunities for clinical staff through ICU nursing scholarships and important health research programs.

The partnership is worth more than $300,000 over five years and aligns with Plenary Health’s delivery of the New Footscray Hospital Project. It includes more than $100,000 towards postgraduate nursing scholarships in key clinical services, research awards for Western Health staff and additional support for events and other in-kind activities.

Western Health Chief Executive Adj. Prof Russell Harrison said the foundation was thrilled to be announcing this partnership with Plenary Health.

“Western Health has already developed a fantastic relationship with Plenary Health as we work together towards the opening of the new Footscray Hospital in 2025, which will be an incredible new facility for Melbourne’s west,” Harrison said.

Plenary Health New Footscray Hospital Project Chair Kelvyn Lavelle said, “With ICU being a huge growth area, this partnership will support nurses by providing them with more opportunities through funded scholarships, assist with important health research, and events fundraising support to deliver better health outcomes for the west.”

Western Health Foundation is the fundraising entity of Western Health, which provides healthcare services to more than one million people across Melbourne’s west.

Western Health Foundation raises funds for the purchase of equipment and certain facilities, funds medical research, provides scholarships for staff and helps deliver patient support for those in need.

Details of how to apply for a scholarship supported by Plenary Health will follow.

New Footscray Hospital prototype rooms on display

Last month all Western Health staff had an opportunity to view and feedback on the room prototypes for the new Footscray Hospital which had been constructed in a warehouse in Sunshine North.

Included in the room prototypes was:

  • a generic general inpatient bedroom (pictured right above) and bathroom
  • a mental health bedroom and bathroom
  • an Emergency Department cubicle
  • an Operating Room, and anaesthetic induction room
  • an Intensive Care room
  • a staff station
  • a procedure room (pictured right below)
  • hand wash bays.

NFH user and reference group members visited the prototypes over the period of a fortnight, providing great feedback about how we can refine the design of the rooms. There was also an Open Day held for all staff om August 29.

The prototypes are close replicas of the ‘real thing’ and are fitted out with furniture and equipment.

Staff were able to make comment and feedback on all elements of the rooms to ensure that we get them right. There was also a lot of testing of fittings and finishes – including our mental health team doing their best to break things!

It is great to see the designs on paper come to life, and also to refine things before the are built in the new facility.

Policies and procedures are on the move

The PROMPT document management system currently used by Bacchus Marsh & Melton staff will soon be the new home for all Western Health Policies, Procedures and Guidelines (PPGs).

The PROMPT system was developed by Barwon Health and supports a significant number of health services with their PPG access and management requirements. The PROMPT platform has a well-developed search function which should make it easier for staff to find and utilise PPGs.

The PPGs currently on the Western Health Intranet are currently being copied and moved across to the WH PROMPT site. We are aiming for the first week in October 2022 for all Western Health PPGs to be on the PROMPT site. To ensure staff do not need to work across two PPG systems, WH-wide staff access to the PROMPT system will not commence until all PPGs have been moved across. In the interim, the content of the WH PPG intranet site is still being kept up-to-date, even if documents have already been copied to PROMPT.

Training materials on the centralised PROMPT system are currently under development, noting the PROMPT system is very user friendly. We have also taken the opportunity to integrate Western Health and Bacchus Marsh/Melton PPG templates and submission forms, so these will look a little different for new and reviewed PPGs from October.

Look out for further information on the movement of WH PPGs which will be regularly distributed in the lead up to a go-live for the WH PROMPT system in October. Information will also be accessible through the WH Live Best Care site.

New Aboriginal Cultural Safety Plan launched

Western Health’s Aboriginal Health Cultural Safety Plan 2022-25 has recently been launched, after it was developed in consultation with our staff, stakeholders and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community and will guide our actions and priorities over the next four years. We would like to thank and acknowledge all those involved for their invaluable expertise in developing this Plan.

The Plan outlines our commitment to building on the efforts and progress we have made through the successful implementation of our past Aboriginal Health Cultural Safety Plans and Employment Plans. As a health service, we believe that cultural safety is everyone’s business. We committed to joining the Cultural Safety Plan and Employment Plan into one as it better embodies our Strategic Direction – Together, we deliver healthcare of the future.

The new Plan articulates how we will attract Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander candidates to our growing health service and support Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander employees to thrive in their roles. We recognise that providing meaningful employment has the potential to transform the lives of Aboriginal people, their families and the community. We are also aware that employing Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander staff will support our patients through their health journey. Our goal is for Western Health to be an employer of choice for the Aboriginal community.

Western Health is committed to delivering culturally safe care to our Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander patients and families. The Wilim Berrbang team will support the implementation of the Plan, under the guidance of our Aboriginal Health Steering Committee. We look forward to bringing the initiatives in the Plan to life. We encourage all Western Health staff, volunteers, patients, families and communities to embrace this plan and consider the role they can play in ensuring its success.

Click here to view the more concise Plan-on-a-Page.

Medication Security & S8/S11 Register Book Compliance

The annual Pharmacy led Medication Security audit conducted in June showed an overall 82% compliance across Western Health.

Key areas for improvement:

  • Schedule 8 & 11 documentation – drug details (name, form, and strength), discards and error amendments. To help with compliance, Unit Managers are to complete the Monthly S8/S11 Register Checks. Electronic copy available on the Nursing & Midwifery intranet page under Resources.
  • Locked Medication Drawers – ensure these are locked when not in use, such as when you leave the patient’s bedside. These include Medical WoWs, bedside drawers and medication cupboards. For replacement keys, please order from Security by submitting a Western Health Key Requisition Form. Further information can be found in the procedure Key and Lock Management.

Please refer to your Pharmacist or the procedure Medication Prescription, Supply, Storage and Administration if you require further information.

Update to the EMR Adult Observation Chart

In September, an update to the EMR Adult Observation Chart will improve the visibility and ease of access to vital observation information for all nurses and midwives.

While the observation chart will function like the current version, you will see some new features and it will look a bit different

What’s new:

  • Freq./ACC/NRR has been divided into two buttons (Frequency and ACC/NRR)
  • Addition of the Chronic Altered Call Criteria to allow longer changes in calling criteria for known chronic conditions
  • Orthostatic blood pressures will now display on the observation chart

This update meets the clinical requirements of the planned transition of paper paediatric VICTOR charts on to the EMR (coming in late 2022), and the EMR Phase 2 project for custom observation charts (coming in 2023).

Further details regarding the update timing will be communicated shortly. For queries, please contact the EMR team via Min.Goh@wh.org.au or Adrian.Sukri@wh.org.au

Benchmarking Best Care

The latest benchmark reports from the Health Roundtable that go up to March 2022 have recently been released, that 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 pressure injuries. The following data looks at Western Health’s rate of Stage III, Stage IV, unspecified and unstageable pressure injuries, and suspected deep tissue injury.

Pressure Injuries:

Footscray Hospital

There had been continued significant improvement in the Footscray Hospital rate of serious pressure injuries.

However unfortunately over the past quarter there was a significant increase putting us up in the red.

 

 

 

 

 

Sunshine Hospital

The rate of serious pressure injuries at Sunshine Hospital continues to be quite steady, but positively this is at the lower end of amber when compared to our peers.

The last quarter there has been a continuing drop, and we now green. This is really positive and means that we are within the top 25th percentile of all Australasian comparable hospitals in terms of our rate of serious pressure injuries.

Keep up the great work Sunshine. We are so proud of our nurse’s commitment to continual improvement and providing our patients with Best Care.

Bacchus Marsh Hospital:

The rates of pressure injuries at Bacchus Marsh Hospital is in the green when compared to our peers, and keeping consistently low (zero for the latest quarter). This is a fantastic result.

Well done to our Bacchus Marsh Hospital teams.

 

 

 

 

Pathology Health Information Exchange (HIE) Platform Workshops

The Department of Health is in the final stages of procuring a pathology Health Information Exchange (HIE) platform. This platform will be a centrally managed system to simplify sharing of health information between Victorian public health services. This is a key technology investment by the Department to support Victoria’s digital health roadmap strategy to improve the safety and quality of health care.

The Department, in partnership with KPMG, is engaging with clinicians and consumers to inform the development of the first iteration of the HIE Privacy Management Framework.

Privacy Management Framework background
The Privacy Management Framework will set out guidelines to manage access to specific information to designated health service staff who require access to health information for the purposes of patient care and treatment.

It supports maintaining consumer trust and safeguarding patient privacy and confidentiality and providing clarity and transparency to Victorian public health services and staff. The Privacy Management Framework will include high-level principles to provide guidance to health service providers in the form of detailed guidelines for general conditions of access and categories of restricted access for highly sensitive health information which recognises heightened patient expectations for confidentiality for such types of information.

Workshop Details
A series of workshops will be held with clinicians and consumers to:

  1. test the draft framework
  2. finalising the governance approach
  3. agree the protections required for the pathology data contained in the Health Information Exchange platform.

Workshops are expected to run between 90-120 mins Monday, Wednesday and Friday, commencing Monday 26 September through to Friday 28 October. Workshops will focus on different elements of health information and how they should be considered in the context of the privacy management framework, so the need to attend all workshops is not required.

Next Steps
Please register your interest to participate in the workshops with Deborah Groen via email Deborah.groen@health.vic.gov.au. The Department will be in contact as soon as the dates, times and agendas of the workshops are finalised to allow you to indicate which workshops you are able to participate in.