QualityTalks

QualityTalks

QualityTalks: audio interviews that explore leadership for safety and quality in health, aged and community care.


Get a quick grab of leadership and motivation on QualityTalks.  What has our response to COVID-19 revealed about how we lead and motivate?  I've noticed six characteristics of each emerging - what are they? Find them here!

In early 2019 Glenda Gorrie was looking forward to the next stage of her life, having 'retired' from full-time work at the end of 2018.

What she didn't expect was to be diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. 

In this two-part conversation, we roam around her encounters with the health system, observing the 'person-centred care' aspects through the lens of Glenda's long clinical and policy-making experience with improving healthcare safety and quality.

We touch on issues with connected - or disconnected - care and what happens when you don't play the role of the 'good' patient; we question if patient advocates are the answer and whether or not Glenda considers herself a consumer.  Glenda muses over her early encounters with care and treatment 'wrapped in person-centredness' that didn't last quite as long as she'd hoped!  We discuss how organisational structures and systems can be a barrier to person-centred care, and how it's not only clinicians we need to be person-centred. Finally, she distils what's really important: it may not be what you think and it won't cost you a thing to implement!

Nicola Reinders, ED of Quality and Patient Experience, and her team at Ambulance Victoria explains how they're using the strategic quality system to achieve consistently high quality care across a state-wide organisation.  What does it take to get everyone on the same page and wanting to provide a consistent standard of care?  AV is in the process of finding out! 

Maree Cameron PSM, recorded this interview, giving her perspective on the aged care sector - after a long and distinguished career in the Victorian Public Service, overseeing residential aged care quality.  I am very sad to say that she died in January 2024.  But her thoughts on aged care quality are as fresh and relevant as ever and useful for anyone looking for a dose of inspiration.    And as a bonus, she also talks about her experience as a patient in the acute health system over the past few years.  What does a quality specialist see when looking at healthcare as a patient?  

Mel Wityk, the Nurse Unit Manager of the Geriatric Evaluation and Management Ward at Western Health knows what it takes to lead a team towards a 'moonshot' goal. 525 days without a new PI later, she knows a lot more about preventing PIs - and about sustainable leadership. Their goal was zero pressure injuries, but the leadership lessons apply to any goal you're trying to achieve.

Julie Warnock, an organisational psychologist who teaches leadership in healthcare, reflects on her experience of healthcare leadership - as a patient at the end of 2015. What does leadership and clinical governance look like from the other side of the bed?  What's really important?

Jacque Phillips, CEO of Numurkah District Health Service discusses leadership in times of crisis. In 2012 devastating floods caused the evacuation of her hospital.  What did she learn about leadership - when it really counts?

Dr Michael Walsh, CEO of Cabrini Health has been a champion of safety and quality in Australia and other countries at health service, state and national levels for over two decades.  In this interview, I try to get to the bottom of what drives him as a safety and quality leader, where we've come from on the quality journey - and where we're going.