Much, much more than a job for Maria
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Getting up and going to work at the West Gippsland Hospital has never been a chore for Warragul resident Maria Kraszewski.
And she’s been doing it for more than 46 years.
“I love it, it’s my second home and second family,” Mrs Kraszewski says, adding that she never contemplated working anywhere else and, at this stage, thoughts of retirement are not on her mind although she doesn’t see herself working at a new WGH after it is built a number of years down the track.
At the West Gippsland Healthcare Group’s annual meeting last year her 45 years topped a lengthy list of long service award presentations to staff and volunteers.
It all began a little by accident for Mrs Kraszewski whose start was as a casual fill-in for her mother when she took long service leave from her job in the hospital’s kitchen.
At the end of that period she was offered other work for another 12 months then continued on again in various roles including cleaning the operating theatre and labour ward.
Now she is the environmental services co-ordinator, responsible for among other things, the cleaning staff, hospital attendants, accommodation, pest control and ensuring a number of annual health department audits are successfully met.
Mrs Kraszewski never knocked back opportunities to continue to learn in a hospital environment where change and new regulations are continuous; framed certificates of her industry qualifications take up plenty of space on her office walls alongside a certificate awarded to her in 2006 when she was honoured with life governorship of the WGHG.
She says throughout the hospital, from the top to the bottom and no matter what department they were in, the staff have been and continue to be terrific.
“There have been plenty of challenges but everybody helps each other to meet them”.
Those challenges included over the past three years where COVID had been “very testing,” especially for the environmental services department that had huge responsibilities to keep the hospital clean for staff and patients even with some staff having to take sick leave or absences due to contact with an infected person.
And in the 1990s when government funding was cut Mrs Kraszewski recalls cleaning services staff had to be halved.
“It was hard going but everybody did that bit extra and we got through,” she says.
The hospital may be what Mrs Kraszewski sees as her “second family” but her immediate and first family are almost part of the furniture, too.
Her mother spent 25 years working there and a daughter and two grandsons are among today’s total of 1468 employed by the West Gippsland Healthcare Group.
Chief executive officer Dan Weeks described Mrs Kraszewski as “always friendly and happy, a committed member of the team and always keen to help where she can.”
Mr Weeks said presenting service awards to staff and volunteers was a highlight of the year for him.
“Congratulations to Maria. This is an incredible achievement to receive her 45 years of service award,” he said.