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Innovation

Our initiatives offer a wide range of benefits to nurses and midwives, including our innovative programs that support our staff’s continuous development, and our awards that recognise staff contributions.

What we offer

Magnet designation

In April 2020 Gold Coast Health attained the highly prestigious Magnet designation®, an international organisational credential, which recognises excellence in healthcare.  Our inter-disciplinary approach to Magnet and incorporation of our three hospitals and multiple community sites demonstrates our commitment to innovation. With this designation, we became the first whole health service in Australia to achieve Magnet Recognition®.

As part of the Magnet Program, we created a Professional Practice Model (PPM) that is unique to Gold Coast Health. The PPM demonstrates how we collaborate, communicate, and develop professionally to provide safe, high quality, person-centred care.

Kirakira Hospital partnership

In 2015, we began a relationship with Kirakira Hospital on Makira Island in the Soloman Islands, which was formalised in 2017 through the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding. As part of this memorandum, Kirakira Hospital nurses visit the Gold Coast annually and our nurses and midwives self-fund trips to Kirakira Hospital, providing an immersive intercultural experience.

This has enabled our staff to guide Kirakira Hospital staff about:

  • clinical practice development
  • coaching and systems improvement
  • clinical handover
  • infection control
  • inter-professional communication
  • the Identification, Situation, Background, Assessment, Recommendation (ISBAR) tool.
Events

Student Expo

In July each year, for third year university students interested in the Graduate Transition at Gold Coast Health, our Nursing and Midwifery Services showcase our clinical services with interactive stalls and displays. An information session is also provided to students on the graduate recruitment process.

Post Graduate Expo

Each year, we invite universities to Gold Coast Health for the Post Graduate Expo, which provides opportunities for our nursing and midwifery staff to engage with university representatives and explore pathways in further studies.

Oration

The Oration honours and celebrates the academia of our nurses and midwives, and the end of the transition year for Enrolled Nurse, Registered Nurse and Midwife graduates.

Awards and recognition

We have multiple awards available to nursing and midwifery staff. Our Nursing and Midwifery Excellence Awards, celebrated in May each year, recognise nurses and midwives who reflect our health service’s vision, purpose, and values and honour past colleagues who have demonstrated these values within their professional work. They also align with four Magnet model components:

  • exemplary professional practice
  • transformational leadership
  • structural empowerment
  • new knowledge, innovations, and improvement.

102.9 Hot Tomato Gold Coast Nursing Awards

These awards, sponsored by Hot Tomato 102.9, recognises nurses and midwives, who strive to make a difference to their patients.

Nursing and Midwifery Professional Recognition Program

This program recognises nurses and midwives for their practice expertise and application to lifelong learning. Benefits of the program, which encompass Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia professional practice requirements, are:

  • encouraging reflection, and nursing practice development
  • ensuring expertise is visible, valued, and understood
  • defining practice levels and identifying expert role models
  • promoting ongoing education, training, and research participation
  • supporting retention and recruitment.
Releasing Time to Care Program

Releasing Time to Care (RTtC) is an evidence-based continuous improvement program, supporting frontline nursing and midwifery teams in undertaking improvement. The program offers a systematic approach to delivering safe, high-quality care.

RTtC focuses on improving systems, processes and environments to help the team spend more time on patient care, leading to improved patient safety and outcomes, and improved staff well-being. The program’s process improvement is also a key activity for digital transformation.


Last updated 18 Jun 2021