A graduation ceremony was recently hosted at Echuca Regional Hospital for the latest graduates of the Murray Leadership Program.
The program saw 14 health professionals from hospitals in Echuca, Kyabram, Rochester, Cohuna and Kerang come together to take part.
Through the course, participants were able to refine their leadership skills and create a change management project to be applied in their workplaces.
GOTAFE leadership trainer Sarah Chircop said she was impressed by the participants’ projects and the support of the hospitals.
“All the ideas for the change management projects came from a really genuine place,” she said.
“This is a workplace that genuinely wants to hear from people that are on the ground, what affects their day-to-day and what changes they want to make.
“Often in workplaces changes get made, and we have to implement them, but this is asking for your opinion on them, which I think is brilliant.”
Participants came from varying professional backgrounds in health care and each project was specific to their professions, making for a range of unique projects.
Cohuna District Hospital nurse Jan Monro based her project on ensuring nurses had enough time to complete their education sessions and their duty to patients.
Rochester and Elmore District Health Service employee Hollie Hildebrandt worked on a stay interview process that sought insight from employees about why they chose to remain at REDHS in order to boost employment engagement and retention.
Kerang District Hospital’s lifestyle co-ordinator for the Glenarm Nursing Home, Ange Teasdale, created a reablement strategy to enhance independence among aged care residents.
The projects targeted the different issues and areas found within a hospital to improve the care and service they provided to patients and clients.
ERH nurse Darcy Harrison said the program had taught her a lot.
“Being able to participate in the Murray Leadership Program has been extremely beneficial in enabling me to learn valuable skills on how to become a more effective leader,” she said.
“I really enjoyed learning about the different personality types that can be found within a team and how to then navigate these personalities.
“It was also highly beneficial to learn that the most effective leaders don’t just use one leadership approach — it’s more about adapting your leadership style based on the person in the team with whom you are trying to communicate.”