Staff Newsletter January 2024

NCN HEALTH

STAFF NEWS January 2024

MESSAGE FROM THE CEO This is my first newsletter message as Interim CEO, thank you to all staff for your support as I transitioned into the role during January.

CH & W ACCREDITATION Well done to the Primary Health and Community Aged Care and the Integrated Community Health teams who underwent accreditation in January. The Accreditation was for the Home Care Package and Commonwealth Home Support Program which includes; NCN Health Home Care Packages District Nursing Occupational Therapy Podiatry Social Support Groups The two day process was undertaken by the Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission. Thank you to our staff for your hard work and focus on quality, safety and continuous improvement.

COBRAM CAMPUS URGENT CARE CENTRE The Cobram Campus Urgent Care Centre is in the final stages of construction.

There have been some delays in delivery of building material and the completion date is now end of March. I’d like to acknowledge our admin, maintenance and nursing staff who have continued to provide excellent care and service around the challenges of the redevelopment.

NCN HEALTH CEO RECRUITMENT Recruitment for the role of NCN Health CEO closes on February 4th. The NCN Health Board of Directors will follow a recruitment process that will take another 1 – 2 months. I will continue to provide updates to staff around this process.

DIRECTOR QUALITY, RISK & PERFORMANCE A warm welcome to Adrian Walker Director Quality Risk and Performance. Adrian has been working for nearly 3 years at Tallangatta Health Service in the role of Director Quality, Safety and Consumer Experience. His qualifications are in Applied and Health Science. With senior management experience and a commitment to systems and governance processes to support safety and quality, patient centered and excellent care, Adrian will be a great asset to NCN Health. He commences on Feb 5th and will work across all three campuses.

I hope you all have a great month and if you have any questions or concerns I can be reached at justin.sullivan@ncnhealth.o rg.au

Justin Sullivan Interim CEO

January Joke: "I ordered a chicken and an egg from Amazon. I'll let you know..."

PEOPLE AND CULTURE Best of luck for the future to staff leaving us, and a warm welcome to all our new staff across NCN Health. The following report reflects staff movement for December and January.

Roslyn Johnson Maxine Vale Yi (Michelle) Wang Yi-Ping Wang Jordan Merriman Niamh Smith Chrystal Polglase Chloe Simpson Chelsea Vergara Nikki Jack John LaTorre Megan Nicholson Leah Bee Nicholas Coburn Lewis Gauci Felicity Harris Anneliese Henderson Sharnpreet Kaur William Keenan Thesssa Kuijpers Georgia Maroske

Madeline Meek Bronte Meinertz Catherine Nesbitt Harrison Purves Vicky Roumpos Darcy Ryan Declan Saville Gabriella Smith Lisa Williams

Elizabeth Adams Aaron Thorn Jennifer Jones Andrea Rouse Kaycee Heaton Michelle Butler Rebecca Armstrong Emma Wiltshire Amardeep Kaur Akwinder Kaur Kathryn Cyr Wen Fang Tadhg Fitzpatrick Ryan Fleming Ali Hazara Tristan Heath Sara Lai Wei-Hsiang Liao Lydia Limbri Ross Lomazov

Nyan Lwin Hope Moylan Molly O’Donohue Nang Pang Zijiang Yang Sharon Cain Emilia Sella Chrystal Gemmill

DIRECTOR QUALITY RISK AND PERFORMANCE A warm welcome to Adrian Walker Director Quality Risk and Performance. Adrian has been working for nearly 3 years at Tallangatta Health Service in role of Director Quality, Safety and Consumer Experience. His qualifications are in Applied and Health Science. With senior management experience and a commitment to systems and governance processes to support safety and quality, patient centered and excellent care, Adrian will be a great asset to NCN Health.

He commences on Feb 5th and will work across all three campuses.

REWARD AND RECOGNITION Sheree Lawless - Practice Nurse/Nathalia Positive, enthusiastic and available to support my development. Always willing to respond to texts even when not working.

Chris Leskie - Enviro Services/Numurkah I witnessed Chris calm a fellow staff member down whilst they were stressed about how much work they had to do. Chris used great examples such as "I also get feedback about how to do my job better" and "take a breath." Well done Chris, I was very impressed by how you managed this situation as a witness.

Staff Parking A reminder for all staff to park in designated Staff Parking areas and not patient parking spots.

EZIWAY SALARY PACKAGING EZIWAY SALARY PACKAGING – REMOTE AREA BENEFITS AND RELOCATION BENEFIT What is Remote Area Benefit?

Remote Area Benefits was designed to assist and financially reward homeowners or renters who lived and work in regional remote Australia. This applies to staff living and working in Nathalia and Cobram.

Through Eziway you could be eligible to package rent, interest on mortgage repayments and the cost of household gas and electricity, in excess of your existing salary packaging cap.

What is Relocation Benefit?

Relocation Benefit is designed to assist people relocating for employment purposes. To qualify you must relocate to take up a permanent position because of an employment secondment or in response to an advertised job.

Through Eziway you may qualify to package incidental costs associated with relocating which can lead to tax savings.

For more information and to discuss your individual circumstances, please contact Eziway direct on 1800 932 394, or make an appointment when they are next onsite.

Salary Packaging 1-on1 consultations One of our highly trained Eziway consultants is visiting your location. Book an appointment if you have any questions about Salary Packaging & Novated Leasing lHow does it work? lDo I earn enough? lHow much can I save? lCan I buy a new car?

Consultation Details Site Numurkah 2 Katamatite Rd

Location TBD

Date & Time

More Information Scan the QR code to download the MyEziwayAccount app

08/02/2024 9:30 AM - 12:00 PM

Numurkah VIC 3636

Booking an Appointment 1

Download the MyEziwayAccount App

2

New Starter Login Username: ncnhealth Password: newstarter

3

Choose the ‘Book Appointment’ button

For existing account holders, use your existing login details.

03.8768 5777 | 1800 932 394 | admin@eziway.net.au | eziway.net.au

NCN HEALTH CARE FINDER PROGRAM I would like to introduce myself, Marie Doyle as the Care Finder Program Officer at NCN Health and make you aware of the Care Finder Program and the opportunity it provides in referring eligible clients into the program to assist them with navigating the Aged Care System.

The Care Finder Project Officer can assist and support people over the age of 65 and over 50 for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders who live across the Moira Shire to navigate the Aged Care System.

The Care Finder Program aims to: - Connect and engage with older people who have significant difficulty accessing aged care services and who are at risk of “falling through the cracks”.

- Assist people to understand the supports, assistance and services that they may be entitled to.

- Improve the willingness of people to become involved with the Aged Care System.

- Work with the person’s carer, family or another nominated person (with consent) to help access the services they need.

- Build relationships with communities and individuals.

- Support and provide intensive assistance to senior members of the community to understand, access aged care services and connect with relevant support in the community.

Reasons to refer to Care Finder Program: - The client may be unable to navigate/access support services to assist them to remain living at home independently and safely.

- The client may be at risk of “falling through the cracks” if they do not receive support to register, engage and communicate with Aged Care Services.

- The client may not be aware of services/funding that they are entitled to access.

- Is the client aged over 65 or over 50 for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders?

- Does the client live in the Moira Shire and given consent to generate referral??

Internal referrals can be submitted via the Community Health & Wellbeing Referral Form on NCN Health intranet page or by using the following link; https://ncnhealth-3.snapforms.com.au/form/community-health-amp-wellbeing-referralform If you require any further details, please don’t hesitate to contact me via email or mobile 0436 657 474.

COVID GUIDELINES Just reminder of the COVID guidelines for COVID – 19 positive staff and close contacts on HRP Close Contact requiring High Risk Pathway A close contact is anyone who: Lives with someone who has COVID-19 or stayed overnight in their house Spent more than 4 hours indoors with a person who has COVID-19 while they were infectious

Social Contacts for High Risk Pathway A social contact is anyone who is NOT a close contact (as above) Spent more than 2 hours in an indoor space with a Positive case or Had 15 minutes face to face contact with a positive case High Risk Pathway Asymptomatic be placed on a HRP for 7 days (close contacts undertaking daily RAT testing prior to commencement of shift)

Symptomatic and testing negative for COVID-19 Symptomatic acute respiratory infection (including a runny nose, sore throat, cough, fever or chills) stay home until Substantial resolution of acute respiratory symptoms No fever for 48hrs without the use of fever reducing medications COVID Positive Stay home for minimum of 5 days from the onset of symptoms and until acute symptoms have resolved.

RTW on Day 6 if symptoms free Day 6 – 7 on HRP upon RTW as directed by COSS Team With continuing symptoms: Stay home until acute symptoms has resolved as advised and/or directed by the COSS Team / DCS. Please do not return to work if symptoms remain.

Sick Leave As per Advice to Health Services, effective 1 October 2023, Staff are advised that they are required to use sick leave under the enterprise agreement that applies to them if unwell with COVID-19 symptoms and/or tested positive for COVID-19.

Any questions - contact Ali Beatson

OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH AND SAFETY N95 Mask Wearing Reminder Please ensure your mask is fitted correctly at all times, straps are secured as shown in pic below. Masks are not to be pulled down under our nose or chin.

Ensure the mask you are wearing is the correct mask as per your most current respiratory fit test.

If you’d like to schedule an appointment for a refit please follow the link below, our team is available at varied times across campuses.

Respiratory Protection Fitting booking sheet - Google Sheets In preparation for your test please ensure you: Do not eat [including gum] or drink 30 minutes prior to test Do not smoke 30 minutes prior to test Present clean shaven Health and Safety Representatives [HSR]: Welcome - We’d like to welcome Jessica Bowden to the safety team. Jessica will be the HSR representing the Support Services designated work group at Numurkah Campus Farewell – Kerri-Anne Culton, Kylie Darcy and Claire Lawless have resigned from their HSR role and we thank them all for their valued contribution and commitment to safety. Election process is underway in these DWG’s

Duress Alarms at Numurkah Campus A reminder to Numurkah Campus staff that our insitu duress [Code Grey/Black] alarms have been upgraded and is now active. When the duress alarm is activated the following process will take place ART Monitoring will contact the campus for confirmation it is an active duress or false alarm ART will then initiate appropriate response or stand down following advice and password confirmation Duress button will be reset The Maintenance team and Afterhours Managers have been provided with the ‘password’ details and a key to reset alarms has been distributed.

OHS Survey You may recall completing a survey late last year which was designed at assessing staff’s general knowledge and understanding of OHS related topics. This has assisted us in aligning our education plan, webinar topics/themes and conveying value-based safety communication to support you.

We have developed several brief powerpoint presentations on various topics which will be made available to all staff over the coming weeks and will also be available via the Intranet under OHS to view at any time.

Please don’t hesitate to contact us at NCNOHS@ncnhealth.org.au if you have any queries.

VHIMS Incident Reporting Just a reminder that accessing VHIMS to report an incident or hazard is available via the intranet page link as pictured below.

Once you click on the above link the VHIMS home page will appear and your login details are required on the left side of the page, these details are the same as your computer login details.

Please don’t hesitate to contact our teams if you have any queries: OHS - NCNOHS@ncnhealth.org.au Respiratory Fit Test – NCNFitTest@ncnhealth.org.au Tanya Fothergill and Lisa Aquilina – Ext 20319 or 10878 Julie Vella – Ext 20568

COMMUNITY HEALTH AND WELLBEING We are looking for volunteers to help at Numurkah Good Friday appeal on Saturday 23rd March. Our team will be taking the juice bike and games, if anyone is able to assist that would be great. Get in touch with John Shrimpton for more information. For more information, see the flyer on page 12!

Move Moira - Active April Our shire wide Move Moira - Active April initiative will soon be upon us - we are looking for any clubs, personal trainers, recreation groups etc that would like to promote themselves/their programs to the community - free advertising!

Just organise an event or simply open your doors for new people to come and try your activity. Activities we have promoted in the past have included: come and try: lawn bowls/ ukelele/ fishing/ exercise groups etc, story time, events, services, walking groups, social groups etc - anything that encourage people to get involved in all things our wonderful community has to offer.

For more information or to express an interest in getting in the promotional calendar please contact Jenny Burrows 58620571, jenny.burrows@ncnhealth.org.au

Learn more here!

What is the Good Friday Appeal all about - click here!

ICT Have you heard about credential stuffing? Do you know what that even means?

In short credential stuffing is a cyber attack where details are stolen from one data breach and used to attempt to log into other services/accounts.

This is particularly relevant if you (like many of us) use the same passwords across different accounts.

Recently there has been a surge in these types of cyber attacks across Australia. Some things you can do to minimise your risk are: 1. Change passwords so they don’t all match 2. Set up two factor authentication 3. Never click links or download files from unknown email accounts or sources To keep the health service systems safe, we ask that you do not use your work email for any personal online activities.

VOLUNTEERS In 2023 we put a call out for School aged volunteers to volunteer over the summer break. Volunteering over summer wasn’t a huge commitment for our potential volunteers, with a minimum of one hour per week.

We were lucky enough to end up with TEN student volunteers across the three NCN Health campuses. The students came from secondary schools, students about to start university, students undertaking further education and university students.

NCN Health strongly support students to help them develop skills to potentially lead to a job in the health industry or to develop their confidence.

The students have volunteered at Irvin House, Cobram Medical Clinic, Banawah Nursing Home, Pioneers Lodge, Gardening bees, outings and more.

We thank Caleb, Cadence, Darby, Ellie, Emily (Numurkah), Emily (Cobram), Harry, Layla, Jack, and Lonnie, they have made a difference to patients and residents alike.

Some are continuing to volunteer throughout the year or will be back during school holidays.

Jacquie Hughes Volunteer Coordinator

Cadence was recently profiled in a video about the benefits of volunteering at NCN Health, you can get a preview of the video here before we make it public!

AROUND

THE GROUNDS What happened across NCN in January

NCN HEALTH PLANNED ACTIVITY GROUP

Recently NCN Health Nathalia Planned Activity Group clients and volunteers celebrated some milestone birthdays over the Christmas and New Year period. Ediie - 80, Marlene - 70 and Noel - 96!

DIEGO AND PEDRO VISIT IRVIN HOUSE

Irvin House residents were visited by Diego and Pedro in January. Diego and Pedro are two therapy donkeys that visit many community groups around our region. What a fun treat for the residents at Irvin House, and what a stunning day for it too!

AUSTRALIA DAY AROUND THE CAMPUSES

The Residential Aged Care Homes and PAG groups celebrated Australia Day in style this year.

GRADUATE NURSES 2024 Welcome to our Graduate ENs and RNs for 2024, we are excited to work with you!

EN Grads L-R – Helen Smith, Karlee Foster, Kylie Wilson, Chrystal Polglase, Lisa Williams & Chloe Simpson. eading

RN Grads L-R – Sandeep Kaur, Lauren Nye, Diana Bourke, Chelsea Vegara

A WEDDING TO REMEMBER! Congratulations to NCN Health Administration Assistant and receptionist Tanika Russell (Davis) and fiancé Cohen Russell who got married on January 11.

Rather than hit the road for their honeymoon the happy couple chose plasma over palm trees and headed into the Shepparton Lifeblood Donor Centre where they regularly donate blood.

Shepparton Donor Centre were so impressed they featured Tanika and Cohen in a story now on display at the centre. You can read the full article below, and Tanika has also shared some wedding pics. Congratulations and best wishes!

Plasma Over Palm Trees (credit Shepparton Donor Centre) “There may not have been any complimentary flight upgrades or welcome drinks on arrival, but for newlyweds Tanika and Cohen, their joint plasma donation was the perfect way to start their honeymoon.

Last week, long-term plasma donors Tanika and Cohen walked down the aisle and straight to the check in desk at Shepparton Donor Centre. They showed off their rings and officially marked the special occasion with their regular round of side by side competitive donating. For a couple who like to challenge each other, Tanika and Cohen have made a habit of racing to see who can finish off their donation the quickest, but when they first started donating together, things didn’t exactly go off without a hitch – get it?!

Tanika had been donating for several years before meeting Cohen. She was motivated by the ill health of her grandmother who needed blood products, and by seeing the impact this had on her family. Tanika made it her mission to do her bit to help other families stay together by giving the gift of life.

It didn’t take long for Tanika to persuade Cohen to register to donate. But after coming along with Tanika for his first donation, Cohen promptly passed out. He hasn’t let this stop him though and now the pair have reached nearly 70 donations between them – their goal is to make 100 each.

When asked why they continue to donate together and why they’ve made it such an integral part of their lives, Cohen summed it up perfectly. “People need it, so I donate, it just needs to be done.”

Without people like Tanika and Cohen stepping up and showing heart every day, we wouldn’t be able to do what we do. They are the faces behind the bags of plasma and blood our recipients rely on.