Nursing & Midwifery News – November 2022

From Shane

I was delighted to see so many nurses and midwives recently receive an Inspire Award at the annual event. The stories of these individuals and teams truly were inspirational and it is wonderful to be able to recognise some of our people that go above and beyond in delivering exceptional care to our patients/women in a compassionate, accountable, respectful way whilst maintaining excellence and safety.

It was also a privilege to be present at the Victorian Public Healthcare Awards where Western Health’s McMonty Hood, Aboriginal Cultural Safety program and OVA Prevention and Management program took our the awards in their categories. There was remarkable pieces of work on display that evening across the public health sector, and I was incredibly proud to be part of Western Health as some our fantastic people were recognised as we took out the most awards of any organisation.

During this month Western Health is holding our Advancing Best Care week, which is an opportunity to reflect and celebrate the amazing contributions of our people delivering Best Care to our community. This week contains events and some great launches that will help everyone to continue to improve the quality and safety of the care delivered at Western Health.

The inaugural Best Care Awards will be bestowed during this week, with an award for the best initiatives for Person Centered Care, Safe Care, Coordinated Care and Right Care. There will be a webinar event to hear more about these initiatives and meet the people who led this work.

We will also be recommencing our Auditing Best Care program, where we audit our practice via a series of questions directly to the patient (or carer), bedside checks and reviewing documentation entered into the EMR/medical record.

A number of new initiatives will be also launched, including:

• PROMPT our new policy, procedure and guideline system,
• our new Live Best Care microsite,
• the new Feedback module in Riskman, to manage and record compliments, enquiries and complaints.

If you have been thinking about undertaking any type of study, I would strongly encourage you to look at the scholarship opportunities available for 2023. A significant obstacle to nurses and midwifes studying has always been the cost, however in 2023 this is no longer an issue! There are packages for our Enrolled Nurses who would like to become a Registered Nurse, for Nurse Practitioners, Refresher programs for nurses and midwives and full scholarships for all of our post-graduate clinical programs! However please get in quick, and make sure you liaise with either your Director of Nursing & Midwifery or the Center for Education & Learning.

I am pleased to report that we have been able to fill 100% of our nursing Grad+ and midwifery Grad+ positions for 2023. This is particularly good news as our programs are growing next year to plan for a growing Western Health. The efforts of everyone at Western Health in nurturing our positive culture and our commitment to Best Care has helped us to continue to be a popular employer of choice for nurses and midwives. All of these new graduates will enter into our 2 year Grad+ program, which is designed to give broader experiences and formal learning in their early career years. Our current Grad+ participants have completed their free post-graduate leadership subject and are commencing the free post-graduate clinical assessment subject.

It was awe-inspiring to recently see our nurses and midwives present their nurse-led and midwife-led research at Research Week. The scope and quality of the research being undertaken at Western Health is remarkable, and it was fantastic to have this on show. Do you know that on average each month Western Health nurses and midwives publish 5-7 journal articles, sharing our research with the world and influencing practice. That is incredible! I was delighted during Research Week to award a number of grants to support our future nursing and midwifery researchers – I cannot wait to see their findings in the future.

Finally, a huge thank you to the Western Health nurses and midwife that recently went to help out in flood-affected health services to support our colleagues. In true Western Health style, we had a large number of staff volunteer to assist – thankfully most were not needed. For those that did go, they were faced with challenging circumstances and I sincerely appreciate them going above and beyond.

Shane Crowe
Executive Director, Nursing & Midwifery

Getting SABs to zero

In September 2022 unfortunately we had an increase in the number of Staph Aureus Bacteremia (SAB) incidents at Western Health, which we know can have terrible outcomes for our patients. It is a timely reminder that through simple, best practice we can prevent these from occurring 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.
• Scrub the Hub: Prior to using any device make sure that you scrub the hub with a alcohol wipe for at least 15 seconds to ensure that you are not introducing a pathogen as you use the device.
• 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.

Nurse and Midwife-led Research Recognised

It was wonderful to celebrate the high caliber of nurse and midwife-led research being undertake at Western Health during Research Week when it was recently held in October.

We were honoured to be able to hear the key note addresses from:

• A/Prof Mette Rothmann (University of Southern Denmark) and Steno Diabetes Odense (Deakin University) on the Psychosocial impact of COVID-19 on Danish Nurses; and
• Prof Helle Terkildsen Maindal, (Aarhus University, Denmark) on Health literacy as an asset in antenatal care.

It was also wonderful to hear for some of our local nurses and midwives undertaking research (pictured above), including:

• Gary Blackburn (Nurse Practitioner, ICU) presenting his work on Evaluation of the impact of digital health platforms on referrals of deteriorating patients to the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) liaison service and Medical Emergency Team (MET) activations at a multicentre metropolitan health network. Congratulations to Gary, who won the prize for best oral presentation during the session.
• Lisa Gatzonis (DONM Workforce) presenting her work on the Efficacy of group interviews conducted through a virtual format for recruiting nurses and midwives at Western Health
• Glenys Jansson-Frank (Midwife) presenting Maternity experiences of women seeking asylum, in Australia; and
• Jessica Hughes (Midwife) presenting Low-cost breast pump hire in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit: an evaluation of women’s experiences and infant feeding outcomes at hospital discharge.

Nursing and Midwifery Research Grants:

It was also wonderful to be able to bestow Western Health’s annual nursing and midwifery research grants. This year we continued to receive high caliber submissions, and

• Nursing Research Grant ($15,000) was awarded to Hannah Sharrock to support her work to research the cultural workforce outcomes of the Westwards workforce initiative. Hannah will evaluate the Westwards project using specific workforce outcome metrics. Through a series of short-term quantitative investigations of nursing workforce attitudes and behaviour, and progressive thematic qualitative analysis, this research aims to determine the extent to which the Westwards project offering meets nurses’ engagement and professional developmental needs. The workforce outcomes used to measure this include self-efficacy, job-satisfaction, training-satisfaction, organisational engagement and retention of Westwards nurses.
• Midwifery Research Grant ($15,000) was awarded to Ciara Noble to support her to conduct the MOMEES study (Mother’s Own Milk, Early Expression & Supply) to improve early expressing rates for mothers of babies admitted within two hours of birth to Newborn Services. This project will investigate whether rates of early initiation of breast milk expression post birth and regular expression of breast milk at minimum 8-12 times per day, improves when an early expressing bundle is introduced to staff working in the birth suite, New Born Services and postnatal environments.
• The Denise Paterson Research Grant ($10,000) was awarded to Marianne Phillips to support and conduct the Emerging from the pandemic: exploring moral distress among Victorian palliative care staff study. This work will explore the prevalence of moral distress among palliative care nurses employed at Western Health; and their experiences of moral distress during the COVID-19 pandemic in order to identify the personal, occupational and patient impacts of moral distress including the association with turnover intention and psychological wellbeing.

Congratulations to all grant recipients, and we look forward to reading your research outcomes!

Free Nursing & Midwifery Study

Western Health is currently preparing submissions for scholarships and training support for our nurses and midwives that are planning to undertake study in 2023.

The packages being prepared include:

• Enrolled Nurse to Registered Nurse
  Scholarships will be offered in 2023 and 2024 for enrolled nurses employed in Victorian public health services to undertake a transition/conversion ‘diploma to degree’ course (e.g., program of study leading to registration as a registered nurse) over two years. The full scholarship of $11,000 will be provided to candidates over four years, consisting of $2,500 per annum for two years of study, $3,000 per annum for two years of employment following completion of study while employed in a public health service (minimum 0.6 EFT or equivalent pro rata). Scholarships will be offered in two cohorts: 1,000 scholarships for nurses commencing studies in 2023, and 1,000 scholarships for nurses commencing studies in 2024. Public health services will administer the funding to their employees. If you are an Enrolled Nurse wanting support to undertake study to become a Registered Nurse please complete this survey. Submissions are due on 2 December 2022. 
  
• Refresher Pathway: Scholarships and support for nurses and midwifes to re-enter the workforce
  Refresher programs provide a supported program of education, clinical teaching and ward-based learning for nurses and midwives who are current registered but have had a break from work in a hospital setting and want to ‘refresh’ skills or upskill in a particular clinical setting. This funding will provide scholarships and support for 225 nurses and midwives per annum across Victoria to return to practice in public health services via the refresher pathway.
  The refresher pathway is designed for nurses and midwives who are currently registered but who lack recency of practice. Nurses and midwives can undertake refresher training, including up to eight weeks of clinical placement time at a public health service. This pathway is appropriate for nurses and midwives currently holding non-practicing registration in Victoria, as well as other nurses and midwives with full registration but needing recent clinical practice in health services.
• Additional postgraduate nursing positions in specialty areas
  Nursing and midwifery postgraduate scholarships are provided to public health services to support registered nurses and midwives to undertake postgraduate study, in areas of clinical practice where there is an identified workforce need. This funding will increase both the number and value of scholarships provided to nurses and midwives undertaking postgraduate studies in 2023 and 2024. This will contribute to building capability in the nursing and midwifery workforce, particularly in intensive care, emergency, oncology, midwifery and other areas of high need. To be eligible for these full scholarships you need to enrol in one of Western Health’s post-graduate clinical programs prior to the census date in early 2023. The value of this scholarship will cover the out-of-pocket course fees for the postgraduate qualification. Funding will be distributed to each health service for the nurses and midwives that are undertaking one of the health service’s post-graduate courses that have a structured clinical component (within the speciality area and as evidenced through the university/health service course curriculum) of at least an average of 24 hours a week and a dedicated clinical educator and/or clinical support staff, employed by the health service.
• Support for new Nurse Practitioners
  This funding will enable Western Health to support nurse practitioner candidates, grow the number of nurse practitioners and meet future needs across the system. A total of 50 candidate packages will be offered across Victoria each year for two years (that is, 2022-23 and 2023-24) to support new NP candidates. This includes health service support for nurse practitioner candidates ($30,000 per candidate) to contribute to health service costs, and a scholarship support for nurse practitioner candidates (up to $12,000 per candidate) to support education costs associated with completing the qualification. In addition, 16 new NP roles will be offered salary support for 2023. This includes $32,150 to support implementation of the nurse practitioner role and assist in embedding the nurse practitioner model of care within the organisation. If you are interested in introducing a Nurse Practitioner into your service, or if you are a nurse that has a clear idea on a model of care that would enhance patient care to meet an unmet need please complete this survey. Submissions must be in by 9 December 2022.

Advancing Best Care Week

Advancing Best Care Week is fast approaching, running from 7-13 November, which is an opportunity to reflect and celebrate the amazing contributions of our people delivering Best Care to our community. This week contains events and some great launches that will help everyone to continue to improve the quality and safety of the care delivered at Western Health.

Over the course of Advancing Best Care week, the newly-named Best Care Governance and Support Division (formerly Quality, Safety and Patient Experience) is re-launching and showcasing its range of services through events and information stalls.

Directors Lisa Smith and Alison Rule and their team are on board to support Western Health and its staff to lead, drive, create and achieve Best Care – care that is person-centred, coordinated, right and safe. The division has oversight of Best Care quality systems including health service accreditation, patient experience, consumer feedback, clinical risk management and improvement.

Best Care Awards:

It if the final few days to get an application in for the Best Care Awards, which recognise and celebrate examples of the high-quality care we provide at Western Health.

Prizes in the form of departmental funding (and lovely keepsake trophies) are available from our corporate sponsors Maxxia and HESTA for the following categories:

• Person-centred care – Person-centred care involves seeing the person in every patient and providing care that is welcoming, respectful and designed to engage the patient in their health care decisions.
• Coordinated care – Coordinated care entails prompt access to patient services, resulting in an effortless patient journey that is designed to optimise time to care through efficient services provisions.
• Right care – Right care implies providing appropriate, equitable and effective care for each person.
• Safe care – Safe care supports the design and delivery of care and services to patients to minimise the risk of patient harm.

The awards recognise either a completed or proposed improvement project or initiative.

Please encourage your teams to consider submitting applications. For more information, visit the Live Best Care microsite. Submissions close 5pm Friday 4 November 2022.

Auditing Best Care:

During Advancing Best Care week we will be recommencing our Auditing Best Care program, where we audit our practice via a series of questions directly to the patient (or carer), bedside checks and reviewing documentation entered into the EMR/medical record.

Launching systems to support Best Care:

A number of new initiatives will be also launched during Advancing Best Care week, including:

• PROMPT our new policy, procedure and guideline system,
• our new Live Best Care microsite,
• the new Feedback module in Riskman, to manage and record compliments, enquiries and complaints.

Western Health wins 3 Victorian Public Healthcare Awards

The Victorian Public Healthcare Awards 2022 were held on 13 October 2022 and Western Health won 3 of the awards – more awards than any other health service.

We won in the following categories:

• Improving healthcare through clinical research: The McMonty – finding safe air.(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)

We were also a finalist in the following category:

• Improving integration of care for patients with chronic and complex conditions: Western Health’s Integrated COVID-19 Care at Home (Western Health)

Congratulations to all staff involved in these amazing pieces of work, and great to have this innovation and commitment to Best Care formally recognised.

Stopping the Pressure

Our new Pressure Injury Dashboard is now available on MaP 2.0 and a QRG is available on the Pressure Injury Prevention and Management Western Health intranet page. This dashboard will assist our clinical managers to quickly identify emerging trends and implement targeted strategies, ultimately improving patient outcomes.  Please direct any questions to Rebecca.Woltsche@wh.org.au

Following on from the inaugural  Pressure Injury Champion Training program which commenced in October, there is a fabulous Pressure Injury Prevention Travelling Expo coming to each site in November!

The expo is designed to raise staff awareness of hospital acquired pressure injuries that occur below the knee. There will be lots to see and learn, and loads of giveaways so please come and say hello.

• Tuesday 15 November 1:30 – 3:30pm – Williamstown Hospital
• Wednesday 16 November  1:30 – 3:30pm – Footscray Hospital
• Thursday 17 November 1:30 – 3:30pm – Sunshine Hospital
• Friday 18 November 1:30 – 3:30pm – Bacchus Marsh

Unlock your Super Powers and become an EMR Phase 2.1 Super User!

The EMR Phase 2.1 team are searching for nurses and midwives interested in becoming EMR Super Users to support their colleagues during the 2023 EMR Phase 2.1 Go-Live.

Nursing and midwifery Super Users were integral in supporting the first EMR Go-Live in 2018 and the Super User team credited with significantly boosting EMR understanding and generating a supportive and fun atmosphere across the organisation during the Go-Live period.

With the Super User team building up again, it’s hoped our nursing and midwifery cohort will again be keen to lead the way in signing up.

There are a number of reasons to join the Super User team:

• Improve your skills and knowledge in the EMR, digital health and change management
• Build your personal profile and visibility in the organisation
• Receive certification of the additional training you complete and add this role to your CV
• Be part of the largest Digital Health project ever implemented by Western Health!

In order to be an EMR Super User, you must:

• Have your manager’s approval
• Be based at or working at Footscray Hospital, Sunshine Hospital, Williamstown Hospital, Hazeldean or Sunbury Day Hospital
• Employed by Western Health at a minimum of 0.6 EFT

EMR Super Users will receive additional training in the EMR (paid, in-person training of up to 8 hours depending on discipline), and play a vital role in preparing Western Health staff for EMR Phase 2.1. Super Users will also assist during the Go-Live period and help with sustained adoption and optimisation efforts after Go-Live.  This is of course with EMR team support at every step of the way.

If you’re interested in being part of this exciting project, please speak to your manager, then nominate by completing this short form.

For more information, please join the Super User information session on 29^th November, visit the EMR Super User page on the Digital Health information site or contact Jo-Anna Wood (EMR Change and Implementation Manager): jo-anna.wood@wh.org.au; or Emma Steele (EMR Change and Implementation Lead): emma.steele@wh.org.au.

Ordering Portable Video Monitoring

Portable Video Monitoring (PVM) technology is an evidence-based patient falls prevention strategy, extending observation technology to monitor our high falls risk patients.

This is now available as an order in the EMR.

For further information regarding the EMR order and documentation of Portable Video Monitoring, please see this Quick Reference Guide or refer to our Digital Information site on the intranet.

Best Care Awards 2022

Western Health is committed to high quality care that is safe, person-centred, right and coordinated, these together enable us to live Best Care.

The 2022 Best Care Awards showcase completed or planned initiatives and projects that support the provision of ‘Best Care’ to our patients. Click here to learn more about call for entries

Entry requirements:

If you have recently completed a project that improved how we provide Best Care or you have an idea for an improvement project that will enhance how we deliver Best Care complete one of the below entry forms and submit your entry to BestCareAwards@wh.org.au

• Planned Best Care Idea Submission Form
• Completed Project Submission Template

Judging and prizes:

All submissions require submission of a 3 minute video, with winners invited to attend a moderated webinar on 11 November 2022 to enable a short Q&A session. A panel of judges consisting of a consumer, operations and professional representation will decide the winning entries. Winners will be announced and listed on the Live Best Care Microsite on 11 November 2022.

Prizes will be awarded in the form of departmental funding kindly donated by our corporate sponsors, Maxxia and Hesta for the projects that best demonstrates the project outcome alignment to the following categories:

• Person Centered Care: Person Centred Care involves seeing the person in every patient and providing care that is welcoming, respectful and designed to engage the patient in their health care decisions.
• Coordinated Care: Coordinated Care entails prompt access to patient services, resulting in an effortless patient journey that is designed to optimise time to care through efficient services provisions.
• Right Care: Right Care implies providing appropriate, equitable and effective care for each person.
• Safe Care: Safe care supports the design and delivery of care and services to patients to minimise the risk of patient harm.

Important dates and enquiries:
Entries close: Friday 4 November 2022, including 3 minute video
Shortlisted entries notified: Wednesday 9 November 2022
Winners announced: Friday 11 November 2022
Contact: Please direct enquiries to BestCareAwards@wh.org.au

Need a PROMPT for the latest procedure?

The PROMPT system for policies, procedures and guidelines (PPGs) goes live for all Western Health staff on Monday 7 November. Currently used by Bacchus Marsh & Melton staff, the site has been expanded to accommodate all of Western Health’s PPGs. Click here to access the new Western Health PROMPT system.

PROMPT 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. Click here to view a short video (less than 3 minutes) on using the PROMPT system.

All of the PPGs currently on the Intranet have been copied and moved across to the PROMPT site.

Reports on new and reviewed PPGs, as well as the status of PPGs (eg those out-of-date) will now be produced through PROMPT. These will be available on the message board of PROMPT’s front page from 7 November.  The Western Health PowerBI report on PPG status has been removed however. We will look to recreate this in the future.

PPG management processes will now be the same for all Western Health services, including Bacchus Marsh & Melton. Coloured banners on PPGs to clarify the scope of their use and a more advanced search function are a couple of features introduced to support integration of these processes.

For authors and authorisers of PPGs within Western Health, please note the following:

• New PPGs need to be developed in slightly modified Western Health template available on the message board of PROMPT’s front page
• PPGs for review can be downloaded off the site, updated and re-submitted in their existing templates … to ensure this is as simple a process as possible
• The submission form for new/reviewed PPGs has been slightly modified and is also available on the message board of PROMPT’s front page.

For further information on PPG management processes, please refer to the Western Health procedure on ‘Policy and Procedure/Guideline Framework – Operation’

A new email address has been created for the submission of all PPGs or queries about PPG management processes: documents@wh.org.au. Please also use this email if you have any queries about using the new PROMPT system.

Auditing Best Care Day

At Western Health, our vision for outstanding patient care is that each of our patients receive ‘Best Care’ from us, every time, everywhere. This translates into us constantly putting the patient first, listening to them and their families and constantly reviewing, enhancing and improving how we deliver care.

To support Western Health’s vision of best care, the Auditing Best Care (ABC) audit is a tool used to monitor our delivery of Best Care and provides us with an opportunity to identify areas for improvement on how we deliver that care.

When is ABC audit day?

ABC Audit day will be held across most inpatient areas across Western Health on Tuesday 8 November 2022.

Who is required to complete the ABC audit? 

The audit must be completed at the following locations:

• All inpatient areas at Footscray, Sunshine, Williamstown and Bacchus Marsh Hospitals
• Emergency Observation Units (EOUs) at Footscray and Sunshine Hospitals

The following areas DO NOT need to complete the audit on the day:

• Sunbury Day Hospital
• Day Procedure Units/Treatments/Surgery departments
• Outpatient Clinics
• Emergency Departments

Who is responsible to complete the audit? 

The NUM/MUM for each ward is responsible for completing the ABC audit. NUM/MUM’s can use their discretion to delegate the audit to other staff to assist on the day. There will be staff members from the Best Care Governance and Support (BCGS) roaming to troubleshoot with staff.

ABC Audit Resources

The ABC audit tool is available via this link: Auditing Best Care: ABC Audit

It can also be accessed via the barcode right. We encourage you to familiarise yourself with the tool however please do not enter information or conduct the audit prior to ABC day.

There is also a Q&A document available here ABC Audit – Comms Q&A, as well as a short video available below with an overview on the ABC audit.

Statutory Duty of Candor

The Health Legislation Amendment (Quality and Safety) Act 2022 introduces new reforms which will come into effect on 30 November 2022.

Statutory duty of candour:

Health service will be required to provide a patient with a Statutory Duty of Candour when they have suffered a serious adverse patient safety event (SAPSE) while receiving health services. This builds on the principles and elements of open disclosure currently used for all cases of harm and near miss.

When a patient has suffered a SAPSE, the health service will be legally required to provide the patient, and/or their next-of-kin (NOK)/carer, with:

• a written account of the facts regarding the SAPSE
• an apology for the harm suffered by the patient
• a description of the health service entity’s response to the event
• the steps that the health service entity has taken to prevent re-occurrence of the event.

They will also be required to comply with any timelines and requirements set out in the Victorian Duty of Candour Guidelines. If the event is classified as a sentinel event, they must also comply with any relevant timelines within the Victorian sentinel event guide.

There will be situations where the patient and/or their NOK/carer can opt out of receiving the Duty of Candour.

SAPSE reviews (protections for reviews):

Adverse event reviews are valuable quality and safety improvement processes, conducted in relation to serious incidents. However, there is evidence to suggest that clinicians are reluctant to provide information to a review for fear of medico-legal consequences.

Amendments to the Health Services Act 1988 (Act) introduces protections for adverse event reviews, and these protected reviews will be called a SAPSE review. When a SAPSE review panel is formed, the review process including any documents or reports created as part of the SAPSE review, will be protected and not admissible in legal proceedings. There will also be relevant protections for SAPSE review panel members and participants of the SAPSE review.

The resulting SAPSE review report must be offered and produced to the patient and/or their NOK/carer when accepted , and also made available to the Secretary of the Department of Health on request.

These reforms will help foster a culture where errors and harm are effectively identified and discussed openly, ensure a better understanding of what occurred in regards to the event, and more comprehensive and effective recommendations for improvements.

It is important to note that an internal review of all SAPSE is required, however a SAPSE review is not mandatory for all SAPSE. It simply refers to a protected review process.

View the Protections for serious adverse patient safety event reviews.

Education:

The Best Care Governance & Support team is developing training modules to support the implementation of the new requirements and support relevant staff with the legislative changes.

This education will be available closer to the go-live date.

Aboriginal Cultural Safety Plan to launch

On 17 November 2022 we are delighted to launch our Aboriginal Health Cultural Safety Plan 2022-2025 with our Aboriginal Health Steering Committee who have been instrumental in its development. There will be a formal Welcome to Country, a musical performance and a celebration, with catering from a local Aboriginal owned business.

This plan has been 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. This 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. 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.

To get a concise overview, please click here to view the Aboriginal Health Cultural Safety Plan On A Page 2022-25.

Linda awarded ACM Life Membership

Western Health’s Chair of Midwifery Professor Linda Sweet received a Life Membership to the Australian College of Midwives (ACM)!

This prestigious acknowledgement was awarded at the gala dinner at the ACM 2022 National Conference in Cairns on September 14, 2022.

This is an incredible testament to the significant impact Linda has had on midwifery, and in forming and shaping the ACM.

We acknowledge and celebrate Linda’s career long commitment to delivering exceptional maternity care to the mothers and babies of Australia.

Congratulations Linda on this well deserved recognition!

Family Fun Day to say thanks

Come along to join the Family Fun Day at Flemington Racecourse on Sunday 20 November from 12-4.30pm.

The Family Fun Day is a gesture of our gratitude for your hard work, dedication and commitment over the last few years – we couldn’t have come this far without you!

Enjoy a day of entertainment, children’s activities and a bite to eat with your colleagues and family. The lawn area at Flemington Racecourse will be set up with marquees, picnic-style seating and a main stage. The event is free for Western Health employees and their families.

See below for more information and registration details. Please note, tickets are limited so registration is on a ‘first in, first served’ basis.

Looking forward to seeing you there.

Main stage
Local comedians, Troy & Zara Love will host the main stage, with appearances from bands and musical acts including Reverend Funk and the Horns of Salvation, and a headline performance from iconic Melbourne duo Vika and Linda Bull and their band.

Children’s activities
Giant bubble making, roving magic, book reading and workshops such as face painting, magic lessons, garden and pot making will run throughout the day. Children’s activities will be fully supervised in separate areas away from the main stage.

Food and drinks
Lunch and afternoon tea will be supplied through various food outlets at Flemington. Vouchers will be provided on the day. This is an alcohol-free event.

Registration
Visit our EventBrite page, click on the ‘Register’ button and complete registration for you and your family (if you’re a family of four for example, you’ll need to select four tickets when registering). Please note, tickets are limited so registration is on a ‘first in, first served’ basis.

Our Inspirational Nurses and Midwives

The Inspire Awards 2022 ceremony was held on 18 October, and a huge number of nurses and midwives were recognised and received an award.

Congratulations of these individuals and teams that make a real difference to their colleagues, patients and the wider community through the delivery of Best Care and always epitomising Western Health’s values:

Individual Awards:

• Amber Borg – Midwife Maternity
• Amrit Gurung – Enrolled Nurse Ward 2A
• An (Thi) Nguyen – Registered Nurse Lower West Ward
• Bridget Somers – Clinical Nurse Consultant Continence
• Bronte Peters – Registered Nurse 3 East
• Brunella Morresi – Endorsed Enrolled Nurse Grant Lodge
• Chris Tiglao – Registered Nurse Ward 2A
• Dayna Hoebee – Registered Nurse Ward 1A
• David Nguyen – Senior ED Nurse Footscray ED
• Eva Garcia – Associate Nurse Unit Manager Williamstown Theatre
• Fadzai Mbutsa – Registered Nurse Bacchus Marsh Theatres
• Huseyin Alkas – Registered Nurse Footscray ED
• Kalyan Adhikary – Registered Nurse 3E
• Katerina Perkovic – Infection Prevention CNC
• Kerrie Woodward – Registered Nurse Newborn Services
• Kim Nash – Infection Prevention CNC
• Leonor Galang – Nurse Unit Manager COVID Testing Clinic
• Linda Nguyen – Registered Nurse 2 East
• Linda Souki – Team Leader admissions and PACU recovery nurse Williamstown Theatre
• Lisa Smith –  for her work as Project Director, West Metro COVID Vaccination Hub
• Lou (Ma Luisa) Magboo – Clinical Nurse Specialist Ward 2A
• Maddison Mooney – Associate Nurse Unit Manager Orange Team, Antenatal Clinic
• Rachel Kropman – Nurse Unit Manager Ward 1 West
• Jonathon Hardwick & Brett Timms – Scrub Scout Nurse & Scrub Scout Nurse Theatre JKWC
• Samantha Angiolella – Nurse Unit Manager Sunshine ICU
• Samantha Francis – Registered Nurse/Midwife Early Pregnancy Assessment Service (EPAS)
• Susan Marks – Registered Nurse Williamstown Theatre
• Suthida Kanhalikham (Sue) & Monica Kiplagat – Registered Nurses Ward 1A – Sunshine
• Toni Davey – Operations Manager Critical Care Services (previously Nurse Unit Manager – Ward 2F)
• Val Dibella – Education & Learning Manager

Team awards:

• Ward 3F NursingTeam led by Joyce Dalde
• Lisa Gatzonis, Michelle Read and the Nursing & Midwifery Workforce Unit team
• Community Health Nursing Team
• Footscray DPU/ Admissions Team led by Ewa Grzesiak
• Ward 1 West Team led by Rachel Kropman
• Transit Lounge and Infusion Clinic
• COVID Positive Pathways Team
• Nurse Nutrition Champions (NNC)
• Melton Dialysis Unit Team
• Majd Rustom, Bhupinder (Rummy) Saini and the WeLearn team

Congratulations also to our colleagues from other disciplines and roles that were also recognised with an Inspire Award. It is a team effort to deliver Best Care to the community and you all do amazing work!

Benchmarking Best Care

The latest benchmark reports from the Health Roundtable that go up to June 2022 have recently been released, that show how our delivery of Best Care compares to other health services across Australasia.

The reports below show a summary, as well as a 4 year trend in all hospital acquired complications.

Sunshine Hospital

1.8% of our admitted episodes had a major hospital acquired complication (compared to 2.6% at our peers),

2.4% of admitted patients experienced a major hospital acquired complication (compared to 3.7% at our peers).

Pleasingly our rate of hospital acquired complications at Sunshine Hospital over the past 4 years has been progressively dropping – and has been green for the past year.

Go Sunshine!

Footscray Hospital

3.5% of our admitted episodes had a major hospital acquired complication (compared to 2.6% at our peers),

4.6% of admitted patients experienced a major hospital acquired complication (compared to 3.9% at our peers).

Pleasingly our rate of hospital acquired complications at Footscray Hospital over the past 4 years has been progressively dropping – however we have spiked up over the past 2 quarters.

Bacchus Marsh Hospital

0.5% of our admitted episodes had a major hospital acquired complication (compared to 1.7% at our peers),

0.6% of admitted patients experienced a major hospital acquired complication (compared to 2.3% at our peers).

We have only been measuring our trend of hospital acquired complications at Bacchus Marsh since July 2021 when the hospital joined Western Health, however we have been consistently low, with a huge drop in the past 2 quarters.

Excellent job Bacchus Marsh!

Elder Abuse Support

October was Seniors Month and the 7 October was Ageism Awareness Day. 

We all have beliefs and possibly misconceptions about age and aging that may impact on how we think and feel about ourselves and others in their later life. Ageism is the key social driver of elder abuse, with 1:6 Australians having experienced elder abuse in the last 12 months.  Elder abuse is most often hidden, and in many instances is normalised by victims and their families, often proving difficult to identifying and safely responding to elder abuse. Perpetrators of elder abuse are most often adult children, but they can be anyone in a position of trust who uses threats, violence or other means to control or harm an older person. 

Health care workers and in particular nurse practitioners are uniquely placed to be safe first responders to elder abuse, and the nursing workforce may come into contact with victims, perpetrators or other whistle-blowers who are concerned about an older person. Western Health has an expert Elder Abuse Liaison Officer – EALO (Carla Wilkie) who is available to assist staff with best-practice advice when we suspect, witness or someone reports elder abuse. Contact Carla on 0423 842 103 (business hours) or email elderabuseenquiries@wh.org.au.

Carla also triages referrals to WH’s Elder Abuse services:

• informed therapeutic counselling for victims of elder abuse and their families,
• financial counselling for when financial difficulties occur as a result of elder abuse; and
• community-based case management that is elder abuse informed.

Additionally, the DFFH Elder Abuse Learning Hub now has free, DFFH approved, on-demand, self-paced Elder Abuse training available for all health care workers, inclusive of entry level and advanced practice modules.

For further information about ageism and elder abuse please contact carla.wilkie@wh.org.au

Upcoming Education Opportunities

Check out WeLearn for the upcoming educational opportunities available for Western Health nurses and midwives:

• Invasive Lines & Cannulation:
  Due to COVID-19 restrictions, advertised dates are only available for Bank-Pool Nursing Staff, Radiology and Medical staff. All ward nursing staff are to book in a time with their ward educator.
• Resuscitation Mandatory Competencies:
  Sessions have recommenced. In the first instance, can you 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 separate sessions for Nursing and Medical staff are available on WeLearn.

November 2022:

• 2/11/2022: Heart Failure Study Day (Rescheduled from 3/11/2022)
• 4/11/2022: Male Catheterisation
• 9/11/2022: Night Duty: Pain Management
• 10/11/2022: Respiratory Study Day
• 11/11/2022: Anaesthetic Emergency Responses Workshop (AERW)
• 16/11/2022: Pressure Injury Study Day
• 16/11/2022: Microsoft Course: Pivot Tables
• 16/11/2022: Microsoft Course: Using Formulas
• 17/11/2022-18/11/2022: Advanced Life Support Level 2 (ALS2): Booking is full
• 23/11/2022: Microsoft Course – Track Change, Markup & Compare Documents
• 23/11/2022: Microsoft Course – Excel Advanced
• 23/11/2022: Renal Study Day
• 28/11/2022: Male Catheterisation

December 2022:

• 02/12/2022: Crisis Management in Obstetric Anaesthesia and Neonatal Resuscitation (CMOANR)
• 07/12/2022: Night Duty: Falls / Introduction to Lippincott
• 12/12/2022: Refugee and Asylum Seeker Study Day: Sunshine Hospital (Enrolments opening soon!)

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:

• Exploring pre-hydration in angiography patients in Australian tertiary hospital settings. Australian Nursing & Midwifery Journal. 2022: Oct–Dec. Western Health Author
• Preventing Patient Falls Overnight Using Video Monitoring: A Clinical Evaluation. IJERPH, 2022: October. Full Text Western Health Author
• Australian maternity service provision: a comparative analysis of state and territory maternity care frameworks. Australian Health Review, 2022: October. Full Text Western Health Author
• Be sweet to babies: consumer evaluation of a parent-targeted video aimed at improving pain management strategies in newborn infants undergoing painful procedures. Advances in Neonatal Care, 2022: September.
  Full Text  Western Health Author
• A dedicated antenatal clinic for pregnant women with morbid and super‐obesity: Patient characteristics, outcomes, perceptions and lessons learnt from establishing the DIAMOND clinic. Australian and New Zealand Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, 2022: October. Full Text Western Health Author
• Health literacy in health professionals two years into the COVID-19 pandemic: results from a scoping review. JMIR Medical Education, 2022: October. Full Text
• Utility of healthcare worker-targeted antimicrobial stewardship interventions in hospitals of low and lower middle-income countries: a scoping review of systematic reviews. Journal of Hospital Infection, 2022: September. Full Text
• Experiences of handovers between shifts among nurses in small and medium-sized hospitals: A focus-group study. Nursing & Health Sciences, 2022: September. Full Text

New Nursing/Midwifery eBook Title

• Fast facts about LGBTQ+ care for nurses. New York: Springer, 2022
  Fills a crucial need in helping nurses to provide safe, culturally-competent care to LGBTQ+ patients. This pivotal resource-the first written specifically for nurses-focuses on the unique health needs and inequities affecting LGBTQ+ patients and discusses how to provide them with safe, respectful, and holistic care. Written in an easy-access bulleted format with concise paragraphs, this book sets the stage by examining the background and history of the LGBTQ+ population and focusing on the health disparities that set them apart. It addresses the nursing implications and care of LGBTQ+ patients in all practice settings, highlighting transgender medical, surgical, and mental health.
  View similar Library titles available at Western Health
• Comprehensive lactation consultant exam review. 5^th edition. Jones & Bartlett Learning, 2022
  This review guide is perfect for beginning lactation consultants and those re-certifying, as well as dietitians, childbirth educators, nurses, and breastfeeding counselor. The book is an ideal resource to help prepare for the International Board of Lactation Consultant Examiners (IBLCE) certification examination. Completely revised and updated the new edition includes detailed content outlines and contains more than 1100 practice exam questions and answer rationales, more than 350 clinical photos, and 20 case studies with questions. Organized around the mother-baby dyad’s development, it poses questions unique to key topics, including nutrition, pathology, psychology, clinical skills, and more.
  View similar library titles available at Western Health

Off-site or home access to the library eBook titles and databases, require free library membership. If you are not a member you can Join Online. For more information Click on our FAQ page.  All the links above work best with Microsoft Edge.

Visit the library’s Intranet website, or ring the library to speak with a Librarian: 8395 8036 or 8345 6655. Working from home? Visit the Library Internet site.