Brendan Jackson. Photo: Christopher Hopkins
For Brendan Jackson, the best part of being a Job Rep is being there as a support and advocate for other members on the ward.
‘It’s just an extension of the advocacy that I bring to my patients,’ he says, ‘to ensure that their concerns are being heard by the multidisciplinary team and being involved in their care.’
Co-recipient of the 2024 ANMF Job Rep of the Year award, Brendan is a clinical nurse specialist at the Victorian Heart Hospital (VHH), where he’s worked since its opening in March 2023. Prior to this, he worked in Monash Medical Centre’s Coronary Care Unit (CCU).
Brendan, who is also a Health and Safety Rep at VHH, first became a Job Rep in the early stages of his career when his mentor and ANUM nominated him after seeing him encouraging other members on CCU to attend ANMF rallies/meetings/statewide member meetings and helping to coordinate transport to said events.
‘This ANUM saw in me the potential from the leadership that I had taken to encourage participation of other members in the EBA campaign at the time.’
And although Brendan admits he was not as active during his time as a Job Rep at CCU MMC, the transition to the VHH got him fired up and ‘heavily involved’.
This hasn’t required much more of him than he was already giving, however. ‘My day-to-day role as a Job Rep isn’t really too much more outside the scope of the clinical field,’ he says. ‘I have members coming up to me on shift occasionally to ask questions (most recently about the new EBA and what it entails) about pay or allowances or issues with management, for instance. I’ll bring their attention to relevant parts of the EBA, encourage discussion where possible with management or assist them to lodge a member assist query.
‘If I can’t help in that capacity,’ he continues, ‘I’ll escalate the concern to our ANMF organiser and see where we go from there.’
Brendan also notes that although it is not required, he has also been interested in attending the monthly consultative meetings with ANMF and Monash Health management ‘to be a first-hand voice to what’s going on “on the floor” and bring up concerns from members on the ward’. He also tries to attend any other meetings to give grassroots perspective on policy or procedure changes to be potentially rolled out.
‘Being an HSR as well, I bring a different perspective from just the clinical aspect of any issues but also how it would impact OH&S for members and ward staff as a whole.’
In addition to being able to support and advocate for his colleagues just as he does for patients, Brendan sees the benefits of the role(s) in helping to ensure his colleagues have a voice and that their concerns about their working environment, conditions, policies and procedures are being heard and escalated to an appropriate level.
‘I feel like I’m a trusted member of the team,’ he says, ‘and colleagues feel comfortable that they can bring any concerns to me regardless of how sensitive the issue.’
Indeed, Brendan feels so strongly about the Job Rep role that he has recruited about six new Job Reps to VHH since they moved!
And he would encourage any other ANMF members who might be thinking about it to give being a Job Rep a go. ‘The more the merrier,’ he says. ‘It’s great to have a few Job Reps available on a ward or in a workplace to allow the work to be divided among a team so it’s not just one person fielding all the questions for an entire department/floor/organisation.’
The role is only as labour-intensive role as you want it to be, he says, and ‘it’s a valuable skill/role to have in your tool kit. You can put in as much effort, attend as many meetings and do as much work as you feel comfortable with.
It’s an amazing collaborative role where you meet lots of like-minded people and there are plenty of chances for networking and enhancement of the EBA for nurses’ and midwives’ working conditions at the annual Delegates Conference.’
