Each year, St Andrew’s War Memorial Hospital recognises the service and commitment of our staff on St Andrew’s Day.
The occasion was marked with a lunch and afternoon awards ceremony with a bagpipe parade through the hospital setting the scene.
This year we recognised staff who received 40, 35, 30, 25, 20, 15, 10 and five years of service as well as the Spirit of St Andrew’s awards.
Hospital General Manager Mairi McNeill said St Andrew’s Day was always a special occasion.
“We are so grateful to be able to recognise staff in what has been a tremendously difficult year,” Ms McNeill said.
“Everyone across the campus has gone above and beyond to keep our patients, visitors and staff safe and I’m proud of each and every person for their efforts.
“This special occasion has allowed us to celebrate the dedicated service of people in our teams,” she said.
The prestigious Spirit of St Andrew’s Awards was awarded to a number of individuals and teams for their efforts in 2020.
The award is to recognise and celebrate demonstrated excellence that reflects and supports our Mission and Values. Nominated individuals and teams are must demonstrate and encompass our organisational Mission and
Values through:
- a quality improvement initiative;
- an innovation or project;
- exceptional service; or
- outstanding leadership.
This year’s Spirit of St Andrew’s winners:
Simon Spencer
Simon is a volunteer that has quickly become an integral part of our amazing volunteer team. Prior to Covid the very dapper Simon had many roles when he was here. He started by managing the ward shopping trolley and then moved onto meeting and greeting our patients, escorting patients to specific areas and helping patients to their cars. When it was deemed safe for certain volunteers to return to the Hospital, Simon immediately made himself available to volunteer. Simon has truly taken on the role of a “Concierge” – supporting the staff, patients and family in our foyer. An overwhelming number of staff and patients comment on how fantastic and helpful he is.
Chyleigh and the Operating Theatre Team
Our Operating Theatre Teams generosity and Christmas spirit shone bright when the team of nurses, doctors and Orderlies all got together to create a very special giving project to help out families that were struggling at Christmas. They made plans to buy Christmas trees, decorate them and buy presents for a family that was specially chosen for them. They decorated 23 Christmas trees that were donated to 23 families in need at Christmas. The feedback from the families was heartwarming.
Marilyn Woods and Callum Smith
Marilyn and Callum were nominated for working above and beyond in their roles under such stressful times as this year has been, in their roles as clinical nurse managers on 2F. They have been able to adapt to the changes that have occurred within their ward and have developed a great team of staff to care for patients in our COVID-19 pending wing and the entire ward. They have taken on these challenges with passion to enjoy that the patients were cared for appropriately and that their staff were educated and supported throughout this time. They have developed a great ward manual that can be utilized for any type of outbreak we may have in the future.
Anne Horscroft
Anne has become the face of St Andrew’s Hospital at our main reception COVID-19 Temperature Testing and Patient and Family Support station. Every person entering the hospital has to be temperature tested and Anne has had to facilitate everyone’s entry. She has patiently and politely explained all the requirements and rule changes and has demonstrated both sympathy and extreme empathy to everyone during these stressful times.
Peter McCarthy and the SAWMH Education Team
This team were nominated for working diligently for many years to ensure that staff and students working at the hospital are appropriately trained and educated. In turn this leads to excellent patient outcomes. The quality of the work done by this team, particularly with regards to the coordination of training of the nursing students, is abundantly evident in the letters of recognition from the universities that adorn the notice boards in the unit’s corridor. To undertake this work in-hours, the staff have been innovative in the way they have embraced new technologies to deliver educational material – keeping up with modern standards and practice.
Peter, Helen, Jess and the SAWMH Fire Fund Raising Team
Earlier this year the staff of the hospital came together in the spirit of “together we can” to fund raise and provide support to communities ravaged by fire in regional Australia. With the help of Helen and the Uniting Church they ascertained how best to get some much-needed funds for the Bateman’s Bay region. A local school was also identified that desperately needed support for their children. Over the next few months the team went about having small fundraising events which culminated in a hospital Trivia night raising a total of $5400 plus six cartons of children’s book packs for the Batlow School and surrounding communities.
Jackie Ferguson and Cher Griffiths
Once there was news of the impending COVID-19 outbreak our stock levels of PPE had to be assessed a future need determined. That was when both Jackie and Cher swung into action and have not stopped since. They have sourced PPE from all avenues. It was especially difficult when we were unable to source any reasonable masks and gowns and our current suppliers stopped supplying us. Jackie and Cher worked tirelessly to identify appropriate vendors that could provide us with stock. Without their diligence and proactive approach, St Andrew’s would not have been so well prepared.
Keith Munt
In the past year Keith has worked tirelessly to change from water bottles to water jugs for our patients. This has been a huge project to roll out to the whole facility and change a practice that has been in place for over 10 years. Continued ongoing budgetary savings and a reduction in the supply and removal of plastic bottles has resulted in the removal of a whole waste stream container refund scheme and the removal of 20 x 240 litre rubbish bins from our site.
Lynette Spence
From the very beginning of the COVID-19 outbreak Lyn has been a calm and reliable expert in all matter of infection control management. She has worked tirelessly to ensure that all mechanisms have been put in place to keep our patients and staff safe. Her collaborative working style has meant that all areas of the hospital have felt included and well informed about how to care for patients with COVID-19, how to use PPE and ensured that all our processes during the pandemic have been reviewed and met the Queensland Health guidelines and requirements.
Congratulations to everyone.