Murrumbidgee Matters
Special Edition
8 May 2015
Congratulations to Cath Hanrahan,
Don Kendell recipient for 2014
Cath Hanrahan, Nursing Unit Manager (NUM) for the Wagga Wagga Base Hospital Renal Unit has been
announced as the 2014 Don Kendell Award recipient for 2014.
Cath was presented with the award on Monday 4 May by MLHD Board Chair, Gayle Murphy and MLHD Chief
Executive Jill Ludford.
Cath was nominated by her team with the nomination highlighting her innovative leadership in the management of
the expansion of the Wagga Wagga Dialysis Unit, a key component of the $282.1M Wagga Wagga Health Service
Redevelopment project.
The team also noted Cath’s integrity, dedication and commitment to the MLHD, patients and staff during this
expansion has been unsurpassed.
Cath’s concern for the welfare of patients and their families has always been paramount, and she has negotiated
phases of the redevelopment to cause minimal disruption and inconvenience to clients as they undergo their three
weekly sessions of haemodialysis.
The seamless extension of the Wagga Dialysis Unit is
largely attributable to Cath, and her ability to liaise with other
professionals and coordinate patient care according to
patient acuity.
Cath’s team also noted that she is an exemplary role model
who leads by example and does not demand more of her
staff than she delivers herself.
Nursing Staff comments when asked to elaborate on their
NUM as a role model:
"Works to achieve goals"
"Dedicated and flexible"
"Very approachable and caring with staff and patients"
"Good listener and nothing is a trouble to her"
"Treats everyone equally"
“Stands up for staff to achieve best outcomes"
Cath commenced her role of NUM to the Renal Unit in 2012.
This position had been vacant for many months and Acting
NUMs filled in until her appointment.
Since that time staff have developed a cohesive,
harmonious workplace, and the introduction of new work
Recipient Cath Hanrahan, Chief Executive Jill Ludford
skills and equipment has enhanced staff and patient morale. and MLHD Board Chair Gayle Murphy congratulate Cath
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Our emerging leaders
Murrumbidgee Local Health District (MLHD) is pleased to acknowledge those who were nominated for the 2014
Don Kendell Award:
Jan Field
Community Nurse, Gundagai Hospital and Health Services
Jan has worked at Gundagai Hospital for 28 years as a Community Nurse and has
demonstrated commitment to the organisation and the community nursing service/team
and has provided personal, organisational and professional leadership during her
career.
Jan takes leadership in her daily work through a strong sense of ownership for her
actions, decisions and her dealings with others within her team.
Jan is a strong advocate for clinical excellence. She is committed to best client
outcomes and her practices is evidence based to ensure that the outcomes are positive.
She is a constant provider of feedback during the MLHD's development of policy and
practice in areas that concern community nursing.
Jan has involved herself in many quality projects over the years such as wound
benchmarking within the Gundagai Community Nursing Service. She is a current longstanding staff member of the
Gundagai Local Health Service Advisory Committee. She has been a long standing member of the Gundagai Interagency Committee and she is involved in the development of Health pathways for community nursing.
Melissa Heazelwood
Senior Speech Pathologist, Acute Stroke Unit, Wagga Wagga Base Hospital
Melissa has been part of the Speech Pathology Adult team at Wagga Wagga Base Hospital
(WWBH), for over 10 years. Melissa is well known throughout the MLHD and Wagga Wagga
Health Service (WWHS) as being a dedicated and conscientious clinician specialising in
acute and subacute care of adults with speech pathology needs. Melissa is a key member
of the WWBH Stroke Unit and Speech Pathology department with specialised experience
and expertise in the assessment and treatment of clients with communication and
swallowing disorders including complex caseloads such as brain injury, Neurodegenerative
diseases, laryngectomy, tracheostomy and head and neck cancer.
Melissa has delivered a number of innovative programs including the ASSIST screening
program that enables nursing staff at WWBH to screen patients who are at risk of dysphagia
(swallowing difficulties) admitted within the emergency department under the Stroke
Pathway.
Melissa also implemented the delivery of education for Speech Pathologists across NSW by developing a workshop
event in Wagga Wagga by world renowned presenter Dr Maggie Lee Huckabee. This event was instigated by
Melissa who oversaw the funding, liaised with Dr Huckabee and developed the workshop program. She negotiated
with key stakeholders to coordinate the event which was fully attended by Speech Pathologists from across NSW
and Victoria.
Melissa’s outstanding knowledge and clinical skills in the assessment, diagnosis and treatment of patients with
communication and swallowing disorders provides a valuable resource to the Speech Pathology and
multidisciplinary team members within the WWBH Acute Stroke Unit and MLHD Speech Pathology network.
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Sharon Hutchinson
Registered Nurse, General Ward, Narrandera Health Service
Sharon’s leadership is recognised across all department of the hospital, and she has
successfully applied herself to acting management roles and various clinical roles
across the facility. There is no gap between Sharon’s professional values, personal
values and behavior.
Sharon is able to be strategic in planning the needs of her patients and workshops as
well as facilitate the conditions required to delivery a culture that is pleasant to work in
and delivers safe clinical care.
Sharon has led a positive workplace culture within the acute inpatient areas in addition
to community health and the wider community. Sharon has been instrumental in the
Culture Improvement Plan including the implementation of a values tree within the
hospital which marries individual employee values with the MLHD values.
Sharon has also implemented a feedback system to acknowledge the positive aspects of the Narrandera hospital
culture including a suggestion box and thank you board.
Sharon embraces innovation and positive energy to see district programs through to completion.
Di Maruskanic
Respiratory Care/tuberculosis Coordinator, Griffith Community Health
Di has led, and continues to provide leadership, in the provision of high quality care for
chronic and complex patients. Di ensures that all patients living with chronic respiratory
(and other illnesses) have management plans, are linked to their GP and also
participate in the Pulmonary Rehabilitation program that she manages.
Di has led the way in ensuring that each patient knows the early signs of their illness.
Di has negotiated with each GP to enable patients to hold prescriptions for their
medications, so that once early signs of deterioration are detected, patients can have
these "scripts" filled and commence treatment without having to wait to see their GP.
These management plans and strategies have resulted in many patients avoiding the
need to be admitted to hospital.
Di has streamlined the approval and charging processes for home oxygen clients
ensuring significant financial efficiencies and subsequent cost savings for across the
whole organisation.
Di has also distinguished herself in her support of extended families of refugees requiring Tuberculosis (TB)
treatments. Her tireless, single handed follow up of all possible contacts of very large extended families with limited
English, and her patience in providing continued education to each family member from small children into older
adults, has been praiseworthy.
Di's continued liaison with a wide range of primary and public health providers, sends a message to these health
professionals and their organisations of the importance placed on helping patients.
Meredith McClelland
Manager Work Health Safety and Wellbeing, Workforce Services, Albury Area Office
“...if you want to do something better, find a person that does it well and copy them” this is why
Meredith is a role model. She is enthusiastic, driven and inspired to make MLHD the best
health district in NSW.
Meredith’s innovative thinking has been demonstrated through proactive changes in the way
her team, and the wider MLHD, approaches staff safety, health and wellbeing.
Meredith has been the driving force in improvement within the WHS and Wellbeing unit within
the past five years. In particular, Meredith has led programs to reduce the number of open
workers compensation claims by 34% reducing backfill (and other associated costs) as well as
created and implemented the 1-2-3 Manual Handling program reducing the number of manual
task injuries by nearly 10%.
In 2014 Meredith’s Wellbeing team received a Bushiness Chamber Award for “Excellent in
Workplace Health” following the positive introduction of the BeWell program in 2013.
Meredith does not have unrealistic expectations for her team, she simply makes the team want to do better and
more for the organisation. Her teams doesn’t perform because they are told to as she leads by example.
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Lorraine O’Sullivan
Health Service Manager, Tumut Health Service
Lorraine has 40 plus years of commitment to clinical and management roles within
MLHD. Her dedication to a high standard of leadership in clinical and management
areas has ensured Tumut hospital is regarded as a proactive facility.
Lorraine places education as the key to further broadening and consolidating any staff
member’s ability and confidence to work in a rural hospital. She leads by example,
providing one on one and group education and is happy to discuss, debate or debrief
when it is required. Her own professional development is constant and she is methodical
in covering all the clinical areas, whilst achieving ongoing goals in the management
area.
Lorraine has been recognized by various health services over the years. Her dedication
to Tumut hospital and the community has been well recognised by local organisations
Lyons and Rotary as well as MLHD management. In 2004 she was recognised as a staff member with 30 years
service to the area.
Helma Riddell
Clinical Nurse Consultant Wound Management and Stomal Therapy
Helma has been a leader in education for both patients and clinicians in the region for many
years. She is extremely proactive, ensuring all facilities and services have access to
resources, and constantly reminding them of these resources (stoma education material,
wound care manuals). Helma takes every question as an educational opportunity, always
more than happy to share her knowledge and help clinicians better understand not only what
to do but why to do it.
Helma is a great patient advocate and her work is the epitome of patient-centred care.
Helma has encouraged nurses to take up stomal therapy and supported their journey, giving
education along the way. There are now two qualified stomal therapists on ward 2 at
WWBH.
She has led the way with pressure injury awareness and prevention. She has sold home
made jam to fund the printing of cards for all staff to aid in identifying and staging pressure
injuries. The past twelve months have seen Helma working hard promoting this important
area with a PIP (Pressure Injury Prevention) campaign and overseeing the introduction of
Point Prevalence Surveys.
Maria Roche
Acting rural Group Manager, Riverina
Maria has shown innovative leadership by working with the Riverina Group Managers
to further develop and support them to take full responsibility for their individual sites
to decrease expenditure and implement innovative strategies to obtain real savings,
resulting in a favorable budget for the Rural Group.
Riverina Group did not receive any Not Met recommendations at the NHSQS
Accreditation survey. This was achieved through collaborative teamwork and effective
leadership. Maria has also identified talented staff who she has supported as new
Managers to ensure succession planning is part of Riverina group culture.
Her role has inspired the Riverina Group Managers to take responsibility and be
accountable for the operational performance of their site. This has included financial
monitoring, planning and analysis, review of staffing establishments against profiles,
effective management of excessive leave, decreased expenditure in goods and
services and the integration of services to improve patient outcomes.
Maria is a great ambassador for MLHD with her positive attitude to the District and also across the ten sites that she
has a responsibility for. Each site receives individual attention a regular basis. Maria is committed to patient care
and the staff.
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Board Director’s message
It was my pleasure to be able to present the 2014 Don Kendell Award to Cath Hanrahan, a
well deserving winner of this prestigious honour.
Cath’s commitment to renal services for people in Wagga, and surrounding communities,
represents everything we were looking for when selecting the award winner.
Cath has worked tirelessly to ensure minimal patient disruption during the development of
the new renal service in Wagga and led her team capably through this time.
Congratulations and well done to Cath and thanks to her team for the nomination.
I also wish to congratulate all the staff who were nominated for the award. Once again, the
panel were presented with an outstanding group of people who were put forward.
As Board Chair, I am very proud that the organisation continues to nurture our emerging
leaders and recognise their outstanding contributions to health in the region.
It was wonderful to see so many people and teams nominate their leaders. I believe this shows real respect and true
leadership from all our nominees.
I wish to thank my fellow panel members including our Chief Executive, Jill Ludford; our Manager of Workforce, Colin
Cowell; and our 2013 Don Kendell winner Sherryn Kieltyka.
Once again, congratulations to Cath for her outstanding efforts.
Thank you to all our staff across the entire district for their work in improving health outcomes for our community. It
does not go unrecognised.
Gayle Murphy
MLHD Board Chair
2013 Don Kendell Award Winner Sherryn Kieltyka,
Nephrologist, Dr Edward Tai, Chief Executive Jill
Ludford, 2014 winner Cath with husband Lachie and
MLHD Board Chair Gayle Murphy
MLHD Board Chair Gayle Murphy presents Cath with the
2014 Don Kendell Award. Chief Executive Jill Ludford
and Cath’s husband Lachie, look on.
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Chief Executive’s message
I congratulate all our nominees for the 2014 Don Kendell award and I continue to be
impressed and proud of the contribution made by our staff to better the health of our
communities.
All 10 nominees are leaders in their own right and I would like to acknowledge and commend
the work they continue to lead across our health district.
I especially would like to congratulate Cath Hanrahan, the 2014 recipient, for going above
and beyond to ensure that patients in our community receive the best renal care they can.
Cath embodies everything that a Don Kendell award recipient should:
· COMMITMENT: dedication and devotion, loyalty
· ACHIEVEMENT: accomplishment, performance and realisation
· PIONEERING SPIRIT: innovator, creator, instigator, show the way, take the lead
The Don Kendell award began in 2002 when the former Greater Murray Area Health Service (GMAHS), with the
support of Don Kendell’s family, initiated a memorial award commemorating Don’s leadership contribution to the
Health Service.
The award celebrated the above values upon which Don’s approach to life was based.
These characteristics were fundamental to the way Don approached life and business and his individual style and
integrity earned him enormous respect and admiration, not only in the airline industry but also in the community.
His achievements in aviation were great, and in a business notorious for a very high failure rate, Kendell Airlines
prospered and grew while many other companies came and went.
All this was achieved form the company’s original regional base in Wagga Wagga. Don provided inspired
leadership, regardless of industry, and his commitment and contribution to regional Australia was passionate.
Once again I thank all the nominees, those who nominated and all our staff who continue to work every day to make
a difference in the lives of our community.
I encourage each and every staff member to continue to be committed, achieve more and have the true pioneering
spirit that Don embodied.
Jill Ludford
Chief Executive
Cath and her husband Lachie following
her win.