2021 St Vincent's Nursing Awards You are here:HomeNewsroomNews 2021 St Vincent's Nursing Awards 25 May 2021 This year’s International Nurses Day theme – A Voice to Lead ; A Vision for Future Healthcare comes at a time when global health care is experiencing a monumental shift in the delivery of appropriate care that meets the growing needs and expectations from the communities we serve. Our nurses are indeed leaders, clinical innovators and specialist experts. They provide dignified, compassionate and practical care, making our patients & clients feel safe and respected. That’s what makes a nurse, a St Vincent’s Nurse. Please join us in celebrating just a few of our outstanding nurses. St Vincent's Health Network Sydney 2021 Nursing Awards 2021 Director of Nursing Award - Peter Jones Throughout his long career at St Vincent’s, Peter has consistently demonstrated a commitment to nursing and the wider organisation through his professionalism, skills, knowledge and expertise, a willingness to mentor and support his peers, colleagues and students - with a leadership style that commends him as an exemplary role model for nurses across our organisation. During the COVID-19 Pandemic, he stepped up to lead a team in very challenging circumstances, and then supported that team through uncertainty and much change. He has an attitude to his work that is always professional, personable and strongly aligned to our organisations mission, values and goals. He demonstrates a consistent willingness to support that goes above and beyond what would reasonably be expected. Peter has a positive attitude, contemporary knowledge and a commitment to his profession, his colleagues and our organisation - which makes him an exemplary role model for his peers, other managers and ‘new’ nurses as they join us at St Vincent’s. He is definitely a quiet achiever, with an optimistic, professional manner - fully committed to practice improvement and a person centred approach in all that he does. CEO Award - Erin Longbottom “Each year my CEO award goes to a St Vincent’s nurse that embodies our mission of service of the poor and vulnerable and lives our values in action of integrity, compassion, justice and excellence. But I also look for a nurse that carry’s on our traditions and the heritage of the sisters of charity, nurses who are innovative, risk takers, gutsy, working at the edge where there is disadvantage and displaying an attitude like our hospital founder Mother Baptist DeLacy who despite many hurdles got the job done and in the spirit of Mary Aikenhead can be found delivering care where health care is needed the most. Erin gets it done, she provides care where patients are… rain, hail or shine and displays a passion for new models of care to the most disadvantaged, she is committed to the wellbeing and development of the nurses she leads, will stand up for and speak out for social justice and has been willing to put herself out there to help with our advocacy efforts in media and engaging with Ministers and politicians”. A/Prof Anthony Schembri, AM CEO St Vincent’s Health Network Sydney. Heart Lung Stream Nursing Award - Solly George Solly has worked at St Vincent’s for 19 years, and is an invaluable resource for 10 North / CCU. As well as being an excellent nurse leader, who maintains great communication with the MDT and is well respected by the medical teams, Solly is a source of immense compassion for both the staff and patients. She goes above and beyond – nothing is ever too much trouble. Solly always remains calm under pressure, whether managing deteriorating patients, resolving patient flow issues or addressing patient complaints. Solly is the CCU ‘Mum’. Everyone can turn to her for encouragement and support, and she is always quick to forgive. She is an outstanding nurse who is always prepared to take our problems on board and to fix anything and everything. Cancer Stream Nursing Award - Susan Hall Susan is a registered nurse from 9 south our haematology and bone marrow transplant ward for her outstanding leadership she shows when working on the floor and team leading. Susan is professional, safe, supportive, provides guidance, and is inspiring. She is someone we professionally admire and we strive to embody her work ethic. She is a true leader. Surgical Stream Nursing Award - Rose Kennedy Rose was nominated for this award for her proactivity, leadership and commitment in her acting role as Intensive Care Unit Clinical Nurse Consultant. Rose has been in the acting in this position for the last 14 months, during this time, Rose has embraced all facets of the role with enthusiasm and a determination ‘to make a difference.’ Rose’s passion to improve both patient safety and holistic patient care, has driven her effectiveness to review and analyse pressure injury incidents in ICU and planned an associated improvement project. Coincidentally with the advent of the NSW HAPI toolkit, the projects merged and Rose has been prominent in its promotion, implementation and evaluation, with noticeable improvements in prevention and reporting. From presentations at Clinical Council, managing the ‘Fit Testing in ICU’ and her active involvement in COVID planning and preparation, Rose is always a willing participant. Rose’s timely reporting, risk identification and coordination of activities has meant that ICU are now up to date with all policies and procedures, and are making advances in reducing hospital acquired complications. Rose always makes herself available to assist clinically on the floor in times of need. She is a humble, diligent and quiet achiever, valued by all the ICU multi-disciplinary team. Medical Stream Nursing Award - Jane Hookway Jane is a leader who has worked at our organisation for 13 years. In the last 18 months, Jane has worked tirelessly to lead and empower her team to develop new and innovative person-centred ways of working that have significantly reduced harm to our patients. This is most significantly represented by achieving an overall 47% reduction in falls in 2018 when compared to 2020, a period of 500 days without a fall with serious harm. Nursing Research Institute Award - Dr John Rihari-Thomas John has been a Registered Nurse for 27 years, working at St Vincent’s for 13 years and is currently a Post-Doctoral Research Fellow with the Nursing Research Institute. John has a major interest in implementation science research. Building on his PhD studies and expertise in critical care and evidence translation, John led the implementation of the NHMRC-funded ENCORE Trial at St Vincent’s Hospital Sydney and three hospitals in Queensland. This Trial tested the implementation of a comprehensive patient assessment to reduce Medical Emergency Team calls. John is currently the Project Manager for the ACCELERATE Trial being run at St Vincent’s Hospitals in both Sydney and Melbourne, and Prince of Wales Hospital. The intervention combines comprehensive patient nursing assessment with effective bedside clinical handover practices. These projects are focused on a key interest of John’s - enabling nurses to work to their full scope of practice. Underpinning John’s research is his passion, enthusiasm, collegiality and unwavering dedication to improving nursing practice and patient outcomes through his clinical and research endeavours. Nursing Directorate Award - Cathy Macknight Cathy joined the St Vincent’s family in September 2019. Little did she know that within a few months her 25+ years’ experience in infection control was about to be put to the test. Cathy raised questions around the pandemic plan in November 2019, almost like she had a premonition of what was about to come. Cathy is a committed, dedicated, hardworking member of the nursing profession. She is the quiet achiever who drives best practice at the bedside with the patient always at the centre of everything she does. Cathy is a proud nurse who inspires others to practice at their best at all times. Inner City Health Nursing Award - Luzy Joyce Luzy has provided care to patients on Caritas for over 25 years. She is a very compassionate nurse and a role model of compassionate care for new nurses coming though the service. Luzy forms strong therapeutic relationships with her patients, they trust her to be transparent and open and this has the effect of keeping everyone on the unit safe. She understands the importance of working alongside patients and you will see her at meal times and during her rounds sitting with patients and making herself emotionally available for patients to engage with her. Her engagement skills are highly valued and she uses her warmth and humour to ensure patients feel cared for and listened to during very difficult periods. She is fearless in the way she approaches difficult conversations and demonstrates the integrity required to assist patients in accepting bad news or challenging circumstances on the unit. She goes above and beyond in her patient care and engagement with families. She instils hopefulness in families and goes out of her way to take patients on leave when they have no family to do this with. She sometimes brings her patients a special food item which she knows will bring a hopeful and caring moment for a patient who cannot leave the unit. Luzy is a team player and is respected by her peers for the compassionate care she delivers – her person centered approach is notable in handovers in the language she uses which is always recovery focused and without stigmatisation. Sub-acute and Ambulatory Care Stream Nursing Award - Stephanie Scarf Stephanie is the ultimate professional who has given of herself in the role of Clinical Nurse Specialist Grade 1 leading the team over the past 2 years. Steph is a highly skilled clinician who is not afraid to advocate for the patients within the community, the patients know her and she knows them. She shares her many years of clinical community nursing knowledge within the team, collaborates and mentors team members into leadership roles - the greatest way of showing others what succession planning looks like. Amongst her peers and with our external providers that the community team works with Stephanie is considered an expert in her field. Recently through the COVID-19 pandemic, Stephanie stepped up in assisting managers and peers alike in coordinating safe care in the community for both patients and nursing teams in the roll out of the individualised PPE packs to the teams. Additionally, given her in-depth knowledge on the community team operations Steph has been invaluable in assisting through the beginnings of a new transitions in community care. Nursing Education and Development Centre Award - Ireen Deo Ireen is the Clinical Nurse Educator at St Vincent’s Correctional Health. She constantly displays outstanding professionalism and dedication to this role, in an often difficult environment. She is approachable and able to support staff in their ongoing professional development in order to deliver quality care to all clients. Ireen has worked tirelessly to achieve incredible results in regard to essential training compliance. She is proactive in her approach to education and constantly strives to identify appropriate content matter experts to deliver content. In addition to this challenging role, Ireen is also currently undertaking the Graduate Certificate in Correctional Health in order to enhance her clinical knowledge and expertise. This will result in continuing enhancement in educational delivery. Ireen is an outstanding role model for all she works with. Correctional Health Nursing Award - Kirsty Johnston Kirsty has succeeded in managing not only her role as Population Health Clinical Nurse Consultant but also managed oversite of the entire COVID-19 operations, procedures and process for Parklea Correctional Centre. Kirsty authored the Parklea COVID-19 Pandemic Plan and provided the Situation Reports 7 days per week, even whilst on holidays. Kirsty educated both the health and custodial workforce on COVID-19, PPE and patient flow. Given that all new custodial patients are required to isolate for 14 days, this required skill, clear communication and organisation. Kirsty is a solid and outstanding team player always stepping up to support the team on the floor, attend emergency responses and added suturing to her repertoire of nursing skills. Kirsty will never say no to supporting the entire workforce and works tirelessly to ensure her patients get the very best of care. Kirsty will always put in 150% and her clinical judgment is second to none.