Contact Inquiries can be directed to the Nurse Policy Branch.
State Nursing & Midwifery Excellence Awards 2009
Recognising and valuing outstanding achievements by
Victorian nurses and midwives.
Recognising and valuing outstanding achievements by Victorian nurses and midwives.
The State Nursing and Midwifery Excellence Awards 2009 presentation ceremony was held on Wednesday 16 September at the Rydges Melbourne Hotel in Melbourne.
This very successful event was attended by approximately 200 guests. Guest included, Directors of Nursing, senior executives of Nurses Board of Victoria, senior executives from the Department of Human Services and Department of Health including the Acting Secretary, nurse academics and most importantly nominees, nurses and midwives and their guests.
The Minister for Health, The Honourable Daniel Andrews presented five healthcare awards, The Honourable Lisa Neville, Minister for Mental Health and Minister Senior Victorians, presented the awards in mental health, drug and alcohol and aged care and The Jen Rusden Memorial Award, sponsored by the Department of Health, was presented by the Acting Secretary, Lance Wallace.
The State Nursing and Midwifery Excellence Awards 2009 award recipients are:
Excellence in Nursing Practice
• Susan McGregor, Western Health
• Jennifer Orr, Western Health
Excellence in Midwifery Practice
• Pauline Kearns, Western District Health Service
Division 2 Nursing
• Claire Temple, Austin Health
Improving Health Outcomes for Aboriginal Clients
• Pam Muszkieta, Wimmera Health Care Group
Mental Health, Drug and Alcohol Nursing
• Fiona Reed, Peninsula Health Mental Health Service
Excellence in Aged Care Nursing
• Fiona Quigley, St Vincent’s Melbourne Health
Jen Rusden Memorial Award
• Jodi Haartsen, Eastern Health
Excellence in Nursing Practice
These awards recognise nurses or midwives working in any practice domain or setting who have made a unique and outstanding contribution to improve the working lives of nurses/midwives, supporting transition and reform or developing professional practice.
2009 winners (two):
Susan McGregor is the Blood Transfusion Clinical Nurse Consultant at Western Health. Susan is credited with changing the clinical practice of transfusion management within Western Health, engaging both clinicians and clients in this transformational process.
Western Health provides health care to a diverse community and in particular the needs of a large non–English speaking groups, areas of low socio-economic demography and particular burden of disease have presented a range of challenges.
Her drive, motivation and extreme passion for excellence that leads her to out perform her colleagues and peers consistently – this is what makes her difference from other highly skilled nurses. She is relentless in her pursuit to minimising harm to patients through the creation and presentation of tools and information to influence and change practice amongst the professions, both locally, state-wide and nationally.
The breadth of Susan’s work includes the development of a transfusion alert card for patients with clinically significant antibodies that may cause adverse reactions, investigating junior medical staff knowledge around transfusion best practice and engaging their supervisors in up-skilling, developing an extensive E-learning materials to assist Western health nursing and midwifery staff to improve their knowledge of transfusion management and implemented multilingual patient information.
The outcomes of Susan’s efforts are not only qualitative. A recent clinical audit of one aspect of Western Health’s transfusion management demonstrated they are amongst the top in the State.
Jennifer Orr works as the Manager Aged Care Liaison Service for Western Health. It has been Jennifer’s initiative, energy and tenacity that has seen the establishment, pilot and implementation of a new “in- reach” service for residential aged care facilities bare fruit.
The Aged Care Liaison Service has seen significant improvements to the health care experience for aged care residents by providing care in people’s own environment, thus avoiding the need for unnecessary time spent in emergency departments, preventing admission to hospital and reducing the length of stay and the risk of functional decline if admission is required.
By providing a person centred model that facilitates the “right care at the right time in the right place” the service has also built capacity within Aged care facilities to better manage the needs of their residents and improved cross sector relationships.
Demand for the service has steadily grown and the results are impressive. To date over 1100 aged care facility residents referred to the service have had their acute health care needs triaged over the phone, with 63% of them avoiding presentation to the Emergency Department and over 190 unnecessary inpatient admissions prevented.
Jennifer has been responsible for process development, care provision and evaluation of this service that has crossed traditional hospital boundaries utilising a collaborative approach. Through this model residents can receive safe and clinically appropriate care in their home.
Excellence in Midwifery Practice
This award recognises a midwife who demonstrates excellence in midwifery practice, and outstanding commitment and skill in promoting change and choices for Victorian women and their families.
For the past 18 months Pauline has been the program co-ordinator and driving force behind the development and implementation of the Hamilton Midwifery Model of Care, Western District Health Service.
The successful implementation of this caseload model of care in June 2009 has enhanced the future sustainability of midwifery services at Western District Health Service.
The model was developed as a response to Western District Heath Service’s commitment to maintaining a sustainable midwifery service for its community at Hamilton Base Hospital in the face of increasing demand and births, and a critical shortage of midwives in rural areas.
The model aims to provide more midwives for the maternity unit when demand is highest. This case load model of care ensures that the Service is utilising its limited midwifery resources most effectively to provide continuity of midwifery care in collaboration with the Obstetrician and GP Obstetricians.
Pauline is a highly skilled and experienced midwife. She has demonstrated outstanding commitment in her role and her ‘people skills’ contributed significantly to the success of the project. She has the ability to readily establish a good rapport with staff, doctors and clients from all walks of life.
Pauline has juggled her hands-on patient care role with key administrative tasks involved with the development of a new major program and has fulfilled both roles exceptionally well.
Division 2 Nursing
This award recognises a Division 2 nurse who demonstrates exceptional contemporary nursing practice and is recognised by their peers as a clinical leader in the workplace; leading, motivating and influencing others in the pursuit of excellence in clinical care.
Clare is part of the Endoscopy Department of Austin Health and has been described as a dynamic Division 2 nurse who thrives in a challenging environment and provides exemplary patient care. Claire has been supported by the Endoscopy team to expand her role and up skill to be competent to undertake manometry studies- a diagnostic test to measure pressure in the oesophagus and its effect on swallowing.
This new capability has had a significant impact on the Endoscopy Service, assisting the unit to meet the growing demand for the procedure, reduce waiting times and free up the senior medical staff to better manage the diagnosis and ongoing treatment of the unit’s patients.
Claire has enthusiastically accepted the challenges of extra training, supervision and has achieved the respect of the nursing team as well as the wider Endoscopy department and Austin health. She is recognised as a clinical nursing expert in the area and an exemplar to all nurses at Austin Health of the possibilities of how their work can be transformed to provide fulfilling work life and enhanced patient care.
Her professionalism and dedication to ongoing education to advance her clinical skills enhances the positive culture of role fulfilment and excellence in patient care.
Improving Health Outcomes for Aboriginal Clients
This award is for a nurse or midwife who demonstrates outstanding commitment and excellence in practice to improve health outcomes for Aboriginal clients and communities.
Pam’s role as Wimmera Health Care Group’s, Nursing Operations Manager and delegate for the ‘Delkaia Aboriginal Best Start’ partnership, has given her the opportunity to work closely with local indigenous women, developing their leadership and management capacity assisting them to access mainstream health promotion and community development opportunities.
It has been Pam’s vision of self determination that has resulted in her becoming a strong advocate for the development of local indigenous women as leaders. This has produced tangible results including: an increase in breastfeeding among indigenous women, increase in the number of aboriginal clients accessing the health service and an increased number of aboriginal people expressing a desire to join the health workforce.
She has demonstrated perseverance, sensitivity and commitment to the Koori community which has fostered a relationship of mutual respect and understanding. She is recognised and respected for being instrumental in strengthening the relationship of trust and respect between the Wimmera Health Care Group, the local aboriginal cooperative, the traditional owners group and the local aboriginal community.
Mental Health Nursing
This award recognises a nurse who demonstrates clinical excellence and innovation through initiatives and nursing actions that improve outcomes for clients with mental health and/or alcohol and drug problems.
Fiona is the Nurse Unit Manager of the Adult Inpatient Mental Health Unit at Peninsula Health and is recognised as an outstanding nursing leader and strong advocate for mental health. In her role she has been instrumental in progressing a number of significant mental health projects that have had a substantial impact on the way mental health care is provided at Peninsula Health.
As a project leader she has provided drive and stewardship for to ensure that best clinical practice and superior consumer outcomes are achieved and sustained including:
• Kya WEAVE – the gender sensitive practice project which aims to ensure enhanced gender responsiveness for women in mental health care through the recognition of the specific gender and safety needs of women clients
• The Dual Diagnosis project – which facilitates a culture and environment of ongoing learning and up skilling for staff in assessment, therapeutic engagement and treatment for those consumers who present with dual diagnosis disorders
• The Beacon project - which utilises evidence based practice initiatives to improve safety and quality in the health care setting in line with the national safety priority recommendations to reduce to seclusion and restraint in mental health services.
Aged Care
This award is for a nurse who demonstrates excellence and innovation in a public sector Residential Aged Care Facility.
Fiona is the Nurse Unit Manager of Auburn House, St. Vincent’s Health, a transitional residential care nursing home. This home is purpose built for people with dementia or mental health diagnoses. The overarching aim is to provide engaging strategies to respond to the elderly and enhance and enrich their lives.
The project had its beginnings in late 2005, when Fiona was appointed as the Nurse Unit Manager. Through Fiona’ leadership and commitment the environment has been transformed into a vibrant, caring home that focuses on both residents and carers. The project includes providing access for residents to activities that increase the resident’s opportunities to meaningfully engage with their environment such as music, sewing, men’s shed and car, activity pods and a tranquillity garden.
Whilst the changes have enriched the life of all the residents, the quality of life of those residents with challenging behaviours has been significantly improved. Auburn House has become a facility of excellence, showcasing alternative ways to manage residents with dementia.
Fiona’s innovation and leadership has been illustrated by her change management strategies, including her encouragement of the local community and their fund raising activity. Fiona has developed networks with health professionals both locally, interstate and internationally and has successfully incorporated a continuous improvement and multi disciplinary approach.
Jen Rusden Memorial Award (Department of Health Award)
This award is presented by the Secretary, Fran Thorn. The recipient receives a monetary scholarship of $2000 to further develop their profession.
Sponsored by the Department of Health, the Jen Rusden Memorial Award commemorates the achievements of the late Jen Rusden whose work, while living with breast cancer inspired all around her. Jen Rusden was a community health nurse who demonstrated excellence in nursing and believed in empowering the people she worked with to make decisions about their care and treatment. Jen educated, supported, and counselled women with breast cancer. She established and coordinated the Daffodils Breast Cancer support group for women living with this disease.
Nominated by the women she worked with, Jen was the recipient of a Nurse Care Award in 1997, before passing away in 1998 after losing her battle with breast cancer.
Jen epitomised the skills necessary for sound, patient centred practice. She clearly saw that working with clients in a partnership yielded better outcomes for all concerned. This award was established in her honour.
The recipient of this award is to a nurse who exhibits the traits that Jen Rusden exhibited in her professional practice.
Jodi Haartsen, Multiple Sclerosis Nurse at Eastern Health, work centres on supporting those clients living with Multiple Sclerosis within the local community. The service established by Jodi has been structured to ensure that at Eastern Health, this group of patients are supported and connected to the MS service throughout their treatment course in a way that accommodates their lifestyle and empowers the clients to implement self management strategies as well as providing compassionate and responsive support to clients and their carers.
MS is a chronic, often disabling disease that randomly attacks the central nervous system. It is a lifelong disease for which a cure is yet to be found. More than 2.5 million people around the world have MS, including 18,000 Australians. MS most commonly affects women and is usually diagnosed between the ages of 20 and 40.
For some people, a drug called TYSABRI can slow down the progression of physical disability in people with relapsing remitting MS and can reduce the number of flare-ups (relapses). However, TYSABRI cannot repair damage that has already been caused by MS. Tysabri is commenced at a point when the disease process has escalated and other therapies have failed.
Contact
All enquires can be directed to the Nurse Policy Branch or on 9096 8971