Resources

Governing bodies play a critical role in aged care – they set the direction for, and culture of, the organisation, directly influencing the safety and quality of care provided to consumers.

As another year is drawing to a close, many of us may be feeling burnt out – not least our healthcare professionals, who have continued to soldier on past the COVID-19 lockdowns of 2020 and 2021.  

Despite a parallel pandemic of healthcare worker fatigue, we have yet to see a positive cultural shift towards promoting the health and well-being of health professionals, and in offering ongoing support to an already stretched workforce.  To the contrary, we have recently heard of junior doctors being threatened with negative actions for sleeping during night shifts – including putting strategies in place ‘to increase the night time workload’ and furnishing them with ‘less comfortable chairs.’

In recent times, we have heard discourse in the media around unconscious bias – appearing (allegedly) in the banking sector, customer service, academia, or even amongst royalty - and unconscious bias in healthcare has also been reported on the basis of specific research findings.

As at July 2022, there were in excess of 642,000 health practitioners registered with the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency (AHPRA).  In addition to this cohort, there are also non-registered health professionals who play an essential role in the delivery of care.

It has been 14 years since all governments in Australia signed the National Agreement on Closing the Gap, yet Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Communities are still facing barriers to achieving equitable outcomes in health and wellbeing. Despite an abundance of good intentions, healthcare settings are still places where deficits in cultural safety often drive poorer outcomes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. This discussion explores what’s required in practice to change that reality.

"It has been 14 years since all governments in Australia signed the National Agreement on Closing the Gap, yet Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Communities are still facing barriers to achieving equitable outcomes in health and wellbeing. Despite an abundance of good intentions, healthcare settings are still places where deficits in cultural safety often drive poorer outcomes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people."

It has been 14 years since all governments in Australia signed the National Agreement on Closing the Gap, yet Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Communities are still facing barriers to achieving equitable outcomes in health and wellbeing. Despite an abundance of good intentions, healthcare settings are still places where deficits in cultural safety often drive poorer outcomes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. This discussion explores what’s required in practice to change that reality.

Medical error remains rife. The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare reported 26,995 potentially avoidable deaths in 2020 among people under the age of 75 in Australia. While this ‘age-standardised’ rate has been the lowest reported in 10 years, there is clearly room for improvement.

Saying sorry is an important element of open disclosure and psychological safety – and therefore clinical governance. It is also an extremely powerful yet simple way to make people ‘feel better’. Saying sorry conveys empathy, compassion, and respect towards the person receiving the apology, not to mention remorse. It acknowledges an acceptance that your actions (or words) can adversely impact others, and is the opposite of defensiveness (which is counter-productive). Apologising is not taking the blame, nor is it an admission of liability. Saying sorry is about being accountable, accepting responsibility, and restoring trust in a relationship.

In part two of this two-part webinar, Dr Duncan McKellar talks about where to start when developing a cultural framework in the context of compassionate, relationship-centred care. Dr Duncan McKellar will talk through the sequence of events needed, citing the three-phase project plan adopted for Northgate, and the practicality of cultivating psychological safety.