Keeping In Touch March 2022
Welcome to another edition of KIT. I thought we would kick the March edition of Keeping In Touch off with a heartfelt thank you to everyone involved with St John of God Day which was celebrated on March 8th, lots of hard work and planning went into ensuring the day was a success. You can read more about the day later in the newsletter. Our hospital footy tipping got off to a slow but bumper start in Round 2 with over 90 caregivers now participating in the competition! This year there are weekly prizes to be won and of course the chance to share in the $900 worth of prizes at the end of the season. It was nice to not only welcome our volunteers back during March but we have also been able to introduce visitors once again, which has been greatly appreciated by our patients, their families and loved ones. Whilst we are not quite the same as pre pandemic, it does feel like we are returning to some form of normality. We look forward to bringing Keeping In Touch to you each month this year, so please share your stories about what’s happening in your departments or anything special that a colleague may have achieved inside or outside the work space.
Upcoming Events: Good Friday Friday 15 April
Easter Sunday Sunday 17 April
ANZAC Day
Monday 25 April
Bowel Cancer Awareness May
International Midwives Day Thursday 5 May
International Nurses Day Thursday 12 May
International Volunteer Week Monday 16 - Sunday 22 May
Keeping In Touch is a newsletter for you. We would like to invite all caregivers to submit ideas, stories, photos and feedback to share. We know you’re all doing fabulous work - tell us about it! It’s easy! Just drop an email to: Tanjeela.chowdhury@sjog.org.au GLMarketing@sjog.org.au
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Celebrating St John of God Day - Tuesday 8 March
A huge thank you to our caregivers who helped make St John of God Feast Day an immense success! It was wonderful to see every one enjoying the paella brought in especially for our caregivers! This day was made even more special as two caregivers were recognised for their commitment to our Hospital and the Geelong community. Caregiver of the Year was awarded to Kellie Carracher and the Consumer Advisory Group’s Caregiver Achievement Award was awarded to Mariann Dalli. Kudos to Kellie and Dalli for their achievements!
Face-to-Face Hospital Orientation resumed! We were excited to resume face to face orientation sessions with 15 new caregivers attending the day. New caregivers brought with them a diverse range of skills and experiences from other industries, healthcare organisations, states and even other countries. All presenters really enjoyed returning to face-toface delivery so they could engage more personally with the audience. We hope our new caregivers enjoyed the session and we welcome them to our Geelong team!
Gift Shop re-opened
Easter Raffle
The Hospital Gift shop reopened on Monday 21st March, Mon-Fri 10am-4pm We are happy to see the reopening of our Gift Shop after many months of restrictions and being unable to have our wonderful Auxiliary team members on site. Managers please share this information with patients in case they wish to purchase any items from the shop. The team also delivers any purchases up to the rooms and an EFTPOS machine is available for payments.
The Auxiliary Easter raffle is on again this year! Yay! The Easter hamper is displayed in the main reception foyer - have a sneak peek into all the goodies that have been assembled by the Auxiliary team. Tickets are available for purchase via Exec Admin office - $2 each or 3 for $5. Cash and EFTPOS accepted. All money raised goes to purchase of cuddle bed. Raffle drawn on Wednesday 13th April.
Music therapy at the click of a button!
Peter Roberts needs no introduction here at St John of God. His music has echoed through our hospital corridors for years, and now patients and their families can access Peter’s music at the tip of their fingers. Our Hospital television channel 104 plays his beautiful calming music 24/7. Be sure to share this message with your patients! Did you know? Peter is generously donating his time playing his harp in the hospital for the next month! Do not miss a chance to watch him play...
Vale Gregory Mitchell
Mr Mitchell - Greg was a much loved and highly respected General and Breast Surgeon in Geelong for over 30 years and he made a significant contribution to service development and delivery at St John of God Geelong Hospital. Rest in peace Mr Mitchell.
Caregiver Benefits Program
We are in the process of revamping and updating our Caregiver Benefits Program, and will soon offer more variety of discounts and offers from local businesses to our caregivers! Head over to our new ‘Caregiver Benefits’ page on CORA.
Meanwhile, we have free Family Swim passes from Geelong City Council to give away to caregivers. Please collect your pass from Executive Administration with our gratitude. This Family Swim pass is for 2 adults and 3 children
Return of Volunteers
It is very nice to see the gradual return of our wonderful team of volunteers in the hospital. They have certainly been missed by our caregivers and patients alike! We have seen the return of our Meet & Greet Main Reception Volunteers and Day Oncology Patient Transport Drivers. The following groups have returned and we hope to welcome the rest of our volunteers back soon: • • • • • •
Surgery Centre – Patient support & Clerical Pre Admissions – Clerical Level 4 Day Stay, Patient Support Koala Cove – Parent Companions BCORE – Clerical Pharmacy – Clerical
Jade Bone our Volunteer Coordinator will be in contact with Managers to let them know when their volunteers will return. Kindly reach out to Jade if you have any questions.
Appointment of Senior HR Business Partner
We were delighted to welcome Kelly Gray to our hospital in the role of Senior HR Business Partner. Kelly moved to Geelong last year looking for a post lockdown sea change. Kellie and her pet dog Bullet settled down in Breamlea and when a maternity relief position recently come to an end, we were fortunate to have been able to recruit Kelly.
Kelly has recently been working as a HR professional providing strategic advice in a variety of industries. Kelly is passionate about the employee experience and is looking forward to the new challenge of working with us here in health care.
Hospitality Workers in Healthcare Day - Monday 7 March We celebrated Hospitality Workers in Health Care Day on Monday 7 March. This is an initiative of the Institute of Hospitality in Health Care to celebrate and recognise the great work of our support services teams.
We couldn’t be the best at what we do without you supporting us!
Reconciliation for Action initiative
The Reconciliation for Action Committee are pleased to announce NITV (National Indigenous Television) is now part of the hospital television video channels. NITV broadcasts programmes produced and presented largely by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. Patients can tune in to Channel 34 to learn more about the history of and issues affecting the country’s First Nations peoples.
Your Caregiver Advisory Council - EOI
Are you passionate about bringing positive changes to the workplace? Then this is for you… The Caregiver Advisory Council [CAC] provides an avenue for communication allowing caregivers to share their input and providing a forum to suggest improvements to the Hospital Management Committee. The CAC actively participates in enhancing caregiver engagement, welfare and communication. Some of the Council 2021 initiatives include: • •
Reinstatement of Cake Day Hospital Music Videos - R.E.S.P.E.C.T. - ‘I can see clearly now’ • Christmas Hamper inspiration • Christmas decorations, including Elf on Shelf • ‘Taking Care of You’ - COVID correspondence
We are currently looking for members to join our team. Send your EOI and any ideas or suggestions to GLMarketing@sjog.org.au.
St Patrick’s Day - Thursday 17 March The three leaves of a shamrock are said to stand for; Faith, Hope and Love. A fourth leaf is where we get the luck from. The four-leafed clover, or “lucky clover”, is an uncommon variation of the three-leafed clover, and widely considered to be a symbol of good luck. Our caregivers wore green in celebration!
Caregiver of the Month - February 2022
Big CONGRATULATIONS to Jacinta McGregor from our 3 North team on receiving the Caregiver of the Month award!
“Jacinta Jacinta has developed many activities, distractions techniques and guides for staff in regards to our confused/dementia patients on 3 North. She has donated her time, efforts and skills to help these patients have a better hospital experience, especially during our periods of no visitors throughout COVID times.” If one of your team members is going the extra mile - put your nomination in by the end of the month to GLExecAdmin@sjog.org.au. The nomination form can be found on CORA.
Back pats
Yvette said: 5 stars
My recent stay at SJG Hospital in Geelong felt like home. You have such wonderful, professional, hardworking, caring and friendly people working there, many who contributed in one way or another towards my recent stay and care. My room was comfortable, clean, facilities great and food was awesome and especially loved the SJG scones! Thank you!
What our patients had to say about us this week... 2 North
Patient feedback Great staff and service, very friendly. Food was great! My stay was most enjoyable and was made very comfortable and my needs were always met.
3 East
Patient feedback
Pleasant competent staff, very clean rooms and great food. Not one area lacking. Congratulations to management for training of all staff from cleaners, tea ladies, nurses and doctors. Dr Alex Cheng excellent. A very good hospital experience. Thank you. I was particularly impressed, having worked in hospitals, with the communication skills displayed by staff. Patients around me were listened to, cared for and quickly attended to. Every single staff person over 3 days was polite and pleasant. Obviously a great work culture. Well done to management.
NPS Day Stay
Patient feedback
I have been to St John of God Hospital many times. I got looked after very well. Great Doctors & fantastic nurses & staff.
Day Oncology Patient feedback
The staff were extremely friendly and efficient which made me feel at ease.