OUR VIRUS HEROES
Meet the people on Geelong’s frontline
TAMARA McDONALD
THEY are the people at the coalface, putting themselves in the firing line to lead Geelong’s fight against coronavirus.
Today we meet some of these unsung heroes, such as palliative care nurse Jacob Miller, pictured above with his children.
BARWON Health says the best gift the community can give its hardworking staff is to stay home, with the whole organisation mobilised to respond to the coronavirus pandemic.
Chief executive Frances Diver said she had been “blown away” by the way staff were working through the pandemic, whether they were adapting to ever-changing precautions and entirely new ways of working, or putting their hands up to take on different roles that need to be filled as its services respond to these unprecedented circumstances.
“Many staff have worked extra days, or joined other teams within the organisation to help us achieve everything that needs to be done in response to the changes we’ve seen, as well as the preparations that need to take place for the upcoming months,” Ms Diver said.
The health service is also hiring new staff to help meet the expected increase in demand.
“Staff are also being retrained to move into the departments with a greater need,” she said.
“The initial phase has seen a small number of staff redeployed into different departments, while many more staff have changed their roles significantly to address areas of need.”
Barwon Health has more than 7000 staff.
“Our community is facing a challenge that needs the best quality healthcare more than ever, and it’s fantastic to have an agile workforce that understands the complexities and problem-solving that is being worked through at every level,” Ms Diver said.
She said the pandemic had been a difficult and stressful time for many in the community, with healthcare workers no exception.
“Many have the added concern of balancing their commitment to care for their patients with their own fears of being exposed to the virus and infecting their loved ones,” she said.
“I’m proud to work alongside them during a time that we can make a true difference to those we serve.”
The community has already got behind health staff, with acts of kindness ranging from letters from primary school students to donated coffees.
Ms Diver said displays of gratitude had been much appreciated.
While staff have appreciated acts of kindness, hygiene precautions now mean hospital staff can no longer accept physical donations of gifts such as flowers and food.
Barwon Health says the best give the community can give is to stay home.
OCEAN Grove palliative care nurse Jacob Miller works on the last line of defence against the coronavirus pandemic.
The Bellarine Community Health nurse provides end-oflife essential palliative care to the most vulnerable members of our community.
Mr Miller is part of a small mobile specialist palliative care team caring for 70 clients — many of whom have chosen die at home.
But while his patients are dying, some live up to a year and could lose the precious time they have left if they contract COVID-19.
To try to reduce the risk of spreading the virus to this atrisk group, Mr Miller and his colleagues have limited their contact to essential visits only.
“Because we deal with such a vulnerable group of people, if we can limit their interactions and their chances of getting the virus — it is definitely better for everyone,” he said.
The palliative care health team supported more than 80 per cent of palliative care clients to die in their preferred place last year, with 44 per cent choosing to die at home.
The team delivers not only clinical care, it also provides around-the-clock psychological and spiritual support to the client and their families.
Mr Miller said he moved to palliative care to be able to help people and their families at such a critical time.
“Nursing is a lot of dealing with people dying, and previously working in an emergency department you’d see a bit of it and we often don’t do it well,” he said.
“Working in palliative care has increased my knowledge and allows me to work with families and people in the community.
“And we can do a really could job with working with people in their final stages.”
Mr Miller, who has three young children and a wife who works in aged care, has called on the community to do their bit by staying at home and adhering to coronavirus pandemic guidelines.
“The whole team at Bellarine Community Health are really working hard to support the community at this time and the community could help us by staying and home and really limiting their interactions outside their home,” he said.
“I’d encourage them to selfisolate because that will make our job easier.”
Mr Miller said community members who did not have to send their children to childcare could help by keeping them home.
“This week I’ve sent the kids back to childcare because we are both working — but those who don’t need to can save it for those who have no option,” he said.
“This week we couldn’t get away with keeping them home and it was hard dropping them off.”
Mr Miller said all efforts made by individuals to selfisolate would make a big difference to the broader community.
RUSSEEN Norman acknowledges there is overwhelming pressure at work and anxiety about managing her family amid the coronavirus pandemic.
But the Barwon Health emergency department equipment and resource nurse says amazing work colleagues are helping her get through.
“I’m involved in coordinating equipment and resources for the emergency department, which means all facets of equipment, including cardiac monitoring, ventilators, thermometers, anything we might need for the COVID-19 patients coming through,” Ms Norman said.
“There’s a lot more planning for larger numbers to come through the door and some quite sick patients.
“We’re ramping up our capacity to treat that cohort of patients and planning on that being quite significant based on the projections.”
She said it had been a “little bit stressful”.
“I feel a lot of responsibility to keep our staff resourced appropriately to stay safe,” she said. “You’re trying to alleviate fears and anxieties of other colleagues and patients as well, so being healthcare workers can magnify that part of it.”
Ms Norman said health workers were worried about their families as well as trying to keep the community well.
“At the moment, I’m quite fearful of bringing it home to my husband and children,” she said.
“In terms of interaction, that hasn’t changed but it’s the thought that’s constantly with me and we’ve discussed the option of even moving out for a period of time when there are more cases and we’re right in the midst of that higher exposure.”
Ms Norman said it was hard to manage home and work life.
“There’s an overwhelming pressure to help staff, but there’s always an anxiety over how I’m managing my family at home,” she said.
“I have some amazing work colleagues and they’re helping me get through it.”
BARWON Health supply storewoman Lisa Kenny’s work ensuring staff have the resources needed to protect their health is more important than ever.
Ms Kenny’s role is to supply all the hospital wards and make sure they have enough masks, gloves, gowns, sanitiser — everything you could imagine that is involved in keeping staff safe while treating patients.
“There’s been a lot of extra hours just to cope with it all,” she said.
She said while the initial panic has calmed down a little bit, it was “still very hectic”.
“Most people have been aware we’re all under pressure and we’re all in this together,” Ms Kenny said.
“We’re happy we’ve still got a job, but in another way you think about that risk going out all the time. But we’ve got a job to do and we have to step up and pull together.”
She said everyone was working as a team.
“My partner is still working as well, so we’re in a similar boat,” she said.
“You’re more mindful at home of cleanliness.
“We’re making sure family chats are just through the phone and limiting supermarket trips.”
PATIENT services assistant co-ordinator Stuart Marshall says Barwon Health has been constantly recruiting PSAs for the COVID-19 pandemic, who will be needed to manage anticipated demand.
Mr Marshall has been involved in getting the former Geelong Private Hospital site, now known as University Hospital Geelong Building B, up and running with cleaning and setting up rooms for fever clinics.
The site has been recommissioned to help Barwon Health in its fight against COVID-19.
Fever clinics can be used to assess, test and treat people for coronavirus.
“I’ve been working less in day-to-day operations and more in training and recruitment,” Mr Marshall said.
“The main hospital has changed a lot of practices with more personal protective equipment stations, learning new precaution signage, as we try to cover all bases.
“Wearing proper PPE is for everybody’s benefit, so if you’re a doctor you wear the same PPE as a PSA or cleaner.
“We need to wash our hands and change gloves after every contact with a patient area, from one bed to another.
“PSAs have had hygiene training, but it’s been a bit more of a learning curve because we’ve never had a pandemic like this and we need to maintain our health as well as the patients’.”
Mr Marshall said some staff said they had health issues and were at higher risk so did not think they could work on certain wards, and were accommodated to work where they were comfortable.
“We have to alleviate panic and hysteria over the pandemic because a lot of people are apprehensive, which comes down to being informed and educated about infection prevention and proper hygiene,” he said.
Mr Marshall said he had “no fear”.
“My wife works at Barwon Health as well and we’ve spoken about it, agreeing if we do proper hand hygiene and correct PPE, we’ve got no problem,” he said.
“We put our clothes straight in the wash when we get home.
“We don’t go out and see other people — we stay at home.
“If we want to speak to people, we’ll ring them up.”
THE evolving nature of the coronavirus pandemic has meant Barwon Health Corio Community Nursing coordinator Kate Archbold’s role has become “very reactive”.
“We are in the planning stages, building our workforce and training up staff who have been redeployed to our community nursing program, making sure we have guidelines and processes in place to support staff, and making sure we have plenty of PPE supplies,” Ms Archbold said.
The changing information has meant the service has had to adapt quickly.
“What we worked through as a good plan yesterday might not work tomorrow, so we’ve been pretty productive as a leadership group to plan but also revisit those plans to make sure they apply to the current situation,” she said.
She said a lot of day-to-day actions had been scaled back, such as meetings, education and even care delivery in the home had moved to rely on phone calls and telehealth to reduce close contact.
“There’s definitely anxiety for healthcare workers about the risk they might pose to our vulnerable clients, but also the risk to themselves,” Ms Archbold said.
“That’s definitely something our teams are struggling with, but I think we’ve focused on making sure our communication with our team is really transparent and honest.
“I think that our team feels their issues and concerns are being escalated and considered, which helps with the anxiety.”
She has been heeding social distancing advice.
“I think it’s on your mind always,” Ms Archbold said.
“As soon as I get home, I have a shower and I’m not breaking any social distancing rules with anyone outside my household.
“We’re not spending time with family because I feel we’re at a higher risk with the job I do.
“It hasn’t been too bad because the government has made that the situation for everyone else as well, but I’m learning new things like (online meeting tools) Zoom and Houseparty, so that’s made it better.”
BARWON Health intensive care specialist Neil Orford has been helping plan how an influx of critically ill patients could be cared for in Geelong.
“As well as doing our clinical jobs in the ICU, we’ve been getting ready for the expected increasing levels of COVID-19 patients,” Associate Professor Orford said.
“My role has been to prepare for that demand, which means planning a strategy to potentially care for up to 100 critically ill patients in Geelong.
“Our ICU has 24 beds, so we are preparing for something well beyond our usual footprint and that presents a lot of challenges.”
He said his role in the COVID-19 project team was to help develop a plan for escalation, which included a co-ordinated plan between University Hospital Geelong and the private hospitals.
“Logistically, it is very challenging in terms of redeploying staff and taking over other spaces we wouldn’t normally use, but we have to look at what’s the safest and best way to care for that many people,” Prof Orford said.
“The goal with our modelling on expected numbers is to make sure there are enough ICU beds and staff to care for all people who would benefit from them — both the COVID-19 cases and our usual expected patients who require time in the ICU.
“It’s certainly a very unusual environment, but staff have drawn together as we get ready to do whatever we can.
“I think we’re a wonderful institution when these crises happen.”
Prof Orford said his family reckoned he was obsessively clean at home, but now he was more conscious of surfaces and doors than normal.
“At work and home, I’m conscious more than usual of potentially having been exposed to the virus because community transmission is the biggest issue we’ve got,” he said.
“I think a lot of healthcare workers are already very careful after they’ve been exposed to infectious patients, so quite often you get home and just change your clothes.”