Congratulations to our Excellent Care for the Older Person award winners

WA Country Health Service’s Excellent Care for the Older Person awards recognise outstanding staff who provide high-quality care to country WA's older residents.

Our Aged Care Directorate and judging panel – which included representatives from the WACHS Board, WACHS District Health Advisory Committee (DHAC) and external stakeholders from Rural Health West and Council on the Ageing WA – were overwhelmed by the quality of nominations received from right across our business. 

The awards featured three categories – Residential Care, Community and Hospital. Congratulations to each of our winners.  

Residential Care

Nurse Manager Northampton Hospital Mid-West Region, Di Smith

Known for advocating for the wellbeing of the residents in her care, Di ensures that the resident is always at the centre of her decision-making. She leads her team in delivering exceptional palliative care and has received multiple compliments regarding the care and compassion provided to residents and their families.

She is passionate about community connectedness and has been instrumental in engaging with the local school to facilitate school children visiting and participating in regular reading activities with the aged care residents of Northampton Hospital. The initiative provides a positive experience for students, residents and staff. 

Di is committed to the Northampton community and was on hand during the aftermath of Cyclone Seroja to help with the recovery efforts.

She is also committed to engaging a culturally diverse workforce - employing local trainees while identifying their strengths and supporting them to become invaluable members of the team.

Hospital

Clinical Nurse Manager Patient Flow Kalgoorlie Health Campus Goldfields Region, Melissa Clark

Melissa works on-the-ground with older patients’ families to ensure that patients, their families and their support networks are kept informed of their progress and plans for discharge as well as taking the time to assess if a patient’s care requirements have increased.

Melissa leads the nursing team in daily meetings to assess patient flow, including discussions around safe placement of older patients at risk of fall, pressure injuries and patients who could benefit from more individualised and focused care with one-on-one nursing.

Additionally, Melissa also chairs a weekly multidisciplinary team meeting with a focus on collaboration where the care needs of older patients are discussed, and complex discharge plans are made.

Her curiosity and integrity have ensured that safe and high-quality at home care could be sought for patients, exploring options with various external stakeholders.

Community

Older Patient Initiative Coordinator Pilbara Region, Maoneyi Ndewere

Maoneyi is a multiskilled nurse and a vital asset in bridging the knowledge gap between residential aged care and community service. As the regional lead for Cognitive Impairment, Maoneyi promotes workshops, training and engagement for staff across the region, building networks of dementia and delirium care champions across our sites.

An Aged Care Assessment Team (ACAT) assessor and delegate Maoneyi provides comprehensive, culturally secure care and builds rapport instantly. Her African heritage drives engagement with multicultural communities and having worked in the Pilbara for almost ten years Maoneyi understands the dynamics of where our elders fit into their family structures. Unsurprisingly, Maoneyi is very well liked in community.

Maoneyi is a committed lifelong learner and teacher and is always happy to share her knowledge. She holds a Master of clinical nursing (aged care nursing), ACIPC Foundations of Infection Prevention and Control Course and is undertaking a Diploma in Dementia.

We would also like to acknowledge our second-place winners:

• Residential Care
  Registered Nurse Katanning Great Southern Region
  Ashlee Plant-Covill

• Hospital
  Regional Patients Awaiting Aged Care Services Coordinator South West Region
  Kerry Lander

• Community
  Aged Care Liaison Officer for the Older Patient Initiative, Great Southern Region
  Renee Wagland

It’s clear from the nominations that our aged care workforce embraces a person-centred care approach to care in line with our core values of Community, Compassion, Quality, Integrity, Equity, Curiosity.