Pulse Survey Results

Summary of challenges and actions

• Workload

  Challenge:

  The pandemic has created uncertainty. Staff indicated that they would like more support managing high workloads.

  Action:

  We have taken a number of steps to help manage the increased demand on our services, including:   

  • Recruited additional staff and started new graduate nurses earlier.  
  • Implemented workforce surge actions and adjustments in response to demand.  
  • Redeployed staff to high need areas. 
  • Encouraged regular breaks and annual leave during high demand periods to allow periods of rest, while also ensuring the highest number of staff were available during peak periods.  
  • New models of working, including the introduction of team nursing.  
  • Provided managers with support to acknowledge high workloads and identify and manage stress, burnout and recovery in themselves and their staff.  
  • Encouraged healthy work life balance and self-care through our Nursing and Midwifery Health Program, wellness sessions, team sessions on recognising and responding to burnout, manager support series and other training and wellbeing webinars.  
  • Provided space for open debriefs, team debriefs and stress stocktakes, special acknowledgements and thank you’s from senior staff.  
  • Psychological support onsite and offsite in partnership with Caraniche.  
  • Daily reporting on hot spots to ensure organisational awareness and response.  

• Equity and Fairness

  Challenge:

  Some staff have shared concerns about perceived inequality in a range of issues, including remuneration, rostering, feedback and career progression.  

  Action:

  • Implemented, where possible, appropriate rostering to help manage fatigue and managers have been provided with support sessions to improve their capacity to manage fatigue in themselves and their staff.  

  • Advocated for support payments to be extended to all staff and for longer periods of time to ensure equity and recognition for all staff who receive payments during the pandemic.  

    

• Uncertainty

  Challenge:

  COVID-19 has made it challenging to plan ahead and some staff are feeling uncertain about the future and they would like more support managing this challenge.  

  Action:

  • Provided manager support sessions on control and uncertainty and how to support employees.  
  • Enhanced our communication with staff about the current situation, predictions about what may occur in the future, as well as reflections on the past.  
  • Worked with leaders to provide additional support measures, such as tailored support sessions for teams and individuals, lunches and snack boxes.  

• Recognition and Reward

  Challenge:

  Our staff told us that they were seeking more recognition for their efforts, whether that is through recognition or remuneration.  

  Action:

  • Provided ‘thank you’s’ and morale boosters across every site, as a form of reward and recognition.  
  • Recognised staff who went above and beyond through the Inspire awards.  
  • Rewarded staff through the Wellbeing raffle and weekly giveaways to teams and individuals.  

• Community Connections

  Challenge:

  Our ways of working have changed considerably over the past two years and some staff feel that the disruption has made it harder to foster a strong sense of a community. They would like to enhance their connection with team members, particularly given many have been redeployed and new people have started during periods of high demand.  

  Action:

  • Created opportunities for team building. 
  • Supported leadership cohorts to connect.
  • Supported teams to reconnect.
  • Conducted listening circles to share experiences and reconnect. 

• Values

  Challenge:

  The pandemic has challenged us in different ways. We have had to provide care that is focussed, efficient and it may have varied from what we have delivered previously. Some staff are experiencing moral fatigue or a sense that their values are misaligned.  

  Action:

  • Provided a range of psychological supports tailored to team or individual needs.  These supports continue to be available to staff.
  • Offered team debriefs, open debriefs and sessions that included managing fatigue.  
  • Engaged providers to offer our staff moral fatigue support and strategies. 

    

Pulse Survey November 2021 highlights

• Western Health

  

• Bacchus Marsh and Melton sites