Western Health’s nurses and midwives have had an amazingly successful year in 2024-25. Our professions have consistently excelled in meeting the healthcare needs of our community and we have cared for each other, supported our colleagues and have continued to be an astonishing team. Our Nursing & Midwifery Annual Report 2024-25 has been released as an opportunity to reflect on the past financial year. You should all feel rightfully proud of everything we have been able to achieve together, including:
Leadership:
- Implemented and undertaken the first evaluation of our employee-centred rostering program.
- Implemented our new electronic supplementary roster to support fairness, flexibility and the right to disconnect.
- Continued to implement the Nursing & Midwifery Workforce Plan 2022-2026, with incredibly low attrition, and achieving our lowest ever vacancy rates and agency utilisation.
- The first health service to introduce the Neonatal Postnatal Support Nurse role into Joan Kirner Women’s & Children’s post-natal.
- Supported our nursing and midwifery leaders, including our Unit Managers and Associate Unit Managers with 186 completing high quality leadership programs.
- Introduced micro-credentialing for a pathway for nursing and midwifery leaders, with recognition of prior learning from Western Health’s leadership programs to make a Master’s less expensive and more accessible for our nurses and midwives.
- Introduced Associate Unit Manager Masterclass series to complement our existing Unit Manager Masterclass series.
- Introduced our STAR program to support high-performing, high-potential nurses and midwives to achieve their career goals.
Research:
- Undertook a record amount of nursing and midwifery led research and published a record number of articles.
- Our Chair of Midwifery Professor Linda Sweet has been recognised in the Top 2% of scientists in the world and the third most influential midwife-researcher in the world, based on her publications rate, citation rate and other factors.
- Had 2 of our nurses appointed as MacHSR Fellows by the University of Melbourne.
Evidence-based practice:
- Decreased the use of Additional Care Resources by an average of 15 FTE (21%), whilst at the same time decreasing nurse-sensitive adverse events. This has been optimised through enhanced critical thinking and decision making, and outcomes enhanced through skill alignment and handover processes.
- Continued to implement our Falls Improvement Plan, achieving sustained drops in our falls with serious injury rates.
- Became exemplar services when compared to our peers in both our rates of Medication Complications and Pressure Injuries.
- Continued our focus on decreasing restrictive practice in our Mental Health & Wellbeing services.
- Expanded our Mental Health & Wellbeing beds at Sunshine Hospital to enhance the service provided to our community.
- Joan Kirner Women’s & Children’s was reaccredited as a Baby Friendly hospital, one of only 2 public health services to achieve this in metropolitan Melbourne.
- Had a record year, with our maternity teams at Joan Kirner Women’s and Children’s and Bacchus Marsh birthing a total of 7,756 babies were born across both sites, the highest number on record!
- Our team at Dame Phyllis Frost Centre achieved a highly successful accreditation.
- Expanded our electronic medical record implementation to Bacchus Marsh, Melton and Caroline Springs, piloted ‘EMR on the Go’ at Bacchus Marsh and introduced Western Health Care Connect to give clinical staff an easier way to see patient information in one place.
Education:
- Strong interest and participation in early-career programs. Over 24% of all nurses and midwives graduating in Victoria in 2024 applied to work at Western Health!
- Welcomed 350 early career nurses and midwives and supported them to transition into our amazing professions.
Clinical expertise:
- Introduced our new Nursing & Midwifery Advanced Practice Plan and associated resources.
- Continued to expand the number of nurses and midwives in advanced practice roles, now 379 and growing!
- Strong interest and participation in our post-graduate programs, with now over 34% of our nurses and midwives having completed a higher qualification (up from 26%).
Our deepest gratitude to every nurse and midwife at Western Health for their unwavering dedication. Your contributions continue to shape a safer, more responsive, and more compassionate health service for the people we serve. Your professionalism, courage, kindness and empathy not only lift the standard of care but also the spirit of our entire organisation.
Thank you for your commitment – and for everything we’ve achieved together in 2024-25. With admiration and appreciation.