Rebekah Hales. Photo: Christopher Hopkins
Rebekah works at St Vincent’s Hospital (Adult Mental Health), and only became an HSR towards the end of 2022. At the time, there were no HSRs at the workplace but Rebekah had already demonstrated an interest in health and safety issues, so she decided to put her hand up for the official role. She now shares it with two other equally passionate colleagues.
‘The actual process of becoming an HSR took me a bit of time to get my head around and I was grateful to ANMF OHS officer Harriet and our hospital OH&S co-ordinator for explaining the process and clarifying terms like a ‘designated working group,’ she says.
Despite the initial learning curve, Rebekah was a natural and she has achieved a lot in a short span of time. Significantly, she’s had a major win with the building of two neutral-pressure isolation rooms for the treatment of patients with COVID-19.
‘In 2022, before I became an HSR, I contacted ANMF for support,’ Rebekah says. ‘Like many other health services, we were not suitably equipped to manage the COVID-19 outbreak. Our unit, a mental health ward, is set up with double bedrooms, shared dining areas and connective ventilation across the rooms. This meant there were significant challenges in safely isolating individuals who were suspected for or positive for COVID-19.’
There were additional complexities to consider, such as the placement of air purifiers in spaces where, under usual circumstances, all furniture must be soft or non-liftable to prevent the risk of harm. On top of that, as a mental health unit they are separate from the main hospital and limited in their ability to provide for the physical health needs of unwell consumers.
Working with management and ANMF, Rebekah and her colleagues established COVID isolation policies and escalation pathways for transferring to the medical ward.
Having got a taste for the work, newly minted HSR Rebekah got to work on the neutral-pressure isolation rooms. It took nearly two years but the ward now has two of these rooms, both with direct external ventilation to reduce the spread of airborne infectious diseases.
‘This experience has been a crash course for me around the challenges we all face within healthcare,’ Rebekah says, ‘but it has also shown me the rewarding outcomes being a HSR can achieve.’
In addition to working to secure support and funding for the neutral pressure rooms, since becoming an HSR Rebekah has also been advocating for safer manual handling in her workplace to prevent staff injury. ‘This has involved liaising with MoveSMART® to identify safer ways to transfer, as well as training staff to use hoists and hovermats,’ she says.
With the two other HSRs, Rebekah has also been called on ‘in instances of uncertainty when there are immediate risks’. For instance, when their ‘duress systems went down, we advocated for personal safety alarms, a plan for how we respond to codes and provided clarity for staff with timely communication.’
Day to day, Rebekah says the HSR role is about awareness and communication. ‘As nurses, safety is always our priority and we are avid in advocating for high quality of care. Safety often lapses due to a lack of resources, specifically when nurses are time poor or uncertain of the next steps; this is where an HSR can be the supportive person and a driver for change,’ she says. ‘We listen to the concerns of staff, provide education on the importance of risk assessment and incident reporting, and aim to facilitate collaboration between the nurses and management.’
Among the key learnings Rebekah has taken from the role is that, ‘identifying health and safety issues starts by listening to each other, and it only takes one voice to raise the concern – but you don’t have to navigate this process alone.’
She has also learned that ‘recognising the contributing factors and moving towards change requires time, thoughtfulness and respectful and open discussion. You can’t go into this process with an “us and them” mentality: the ultimate shared goal should be the safe and effective delivery of care. This requires the organisation to recognise and address the concerns of nursing staff.’
Lastly, responding takes commitment, she says. ‘It is challenging, but it is worth it, and you can do it.’
