The Royal Melbourne Hospital

Preparing discharges ✅
Organising hospital transport ✅
Food and stationery orders ✅
Giving directions to lost staff and patients✅

Bev does it all! 💪😎

As a Ward Clerk, Bev helps keep Ward 3 South West a well-oiled machine.

“I just try to make the day go smoother for the team, because they are already very busy,” Bev says.

Want to join the team? Explore opportunities at the RMH: https://f.mtr.cool/msuwsvhfbr

Inclusion body myositis (IBM) is a rare muscle disease that slowly takes away strength and independence. Right now, there’s no treatment that can stop it.

A new collaboration with the Snow Centre, in partnership with the Snow Medical Research Foundation, and The Royal Melbourne Hospital Rheumatologist, Dr Jessica Day. The aim is to create a powerful research platform that can help researchers understand IBM better and speed up the search for effective therapies.

By using advanced technology to understand the disease more clearly and spot early signs of whether a treatment is working, we hope to bring new hope to people living with IBM.

Read more: https://www.wehi.edu.au/news/new-research-offers-hope-to-people-living-with-a-life-altering-muscle-condition/

Nhat and Nazih are among the more than 200 volunteers working across the RMH, representing 35 different countries and speaking 37 languages to support patients, visitors and staff in countless ways every day.

Nhat, a student from Vietnam studying Biomedicine at the University of Melbourne, joined the RMH as a volunteer earlier this year. Nazih, originally from Egypt and a retired teacher, has been volunteering with the RMH since 2010.

“I always felt I had to do something after I retired, to give back,” Nazih said.

“I have a personal connection to the RMH, too, having been treated here as a patient back in 1969. It’s been a place that has stuck in my mind for a long time.”

For Nhat, giving his time to help people has been a lifelong commitment.

“I see volunteering as a part of my nature,” he said.

“Before coming to Australia, I would volunteer in areas of hardship across Vietnam, doing things like teaching English to people who hadn’t received a good education.”

Thank you to all our volunteers, who are a highly valued part of our team and play an important role for patients, consumers, carers, visitors and staff members.

Look out for their red shirt if you need assistance!

Read Nhat and Nazih's story: https://f.mtr.cool/kyvmqjckpa

Today, on National Sorry Day, we are releasing the Royal Melbourne Hospital’s First Nations Anti-Racism and Cultural Safety Framework.

This Framework names the RMH's role in systems that have failed First Nations people, and our commitment to changing them. Reaching health equity requires leadership at every level. Non-Indigenous leaders have a particular responsibility to demonstrate allyship through ongoing learning, speaking up against discrimination, and actively upholding equity, respect, and cultural safety.

Shaped by First Nations people, led by our board and executive, and developed with ABSTARR Consulting, the Framework sets out concrete commitments, including (but not limited to):
• Mandatory cultural safety training tied to performance reviews
• First Nations identified positions at the board, executive, and senior leadership levels
• A formal policy for reporting and responding to racism

This is the beginning of ongoing, accountable work. We invite you to read the Framework and learn more about our commitments: https://f.mtr.cool/zwtdbhtvmz

After training in New Zealand and working in rural hospitals in Australia, Mitch found his way to the RMH Basic Physician Training program, where he is now advancing his clinical training.

Currently, Mitch cares for high-need patients on our Haematology and Bone Marrow Transplant ward who may be facing new diagnoses of leukaemia or recent bone marrow transplants.

For Mitch, the most rewarding part has been connecting with patients and helping them navigate their medical care.

“There's a culture of encouragement and expecting excellence from people”, said Mitch. “Our senior clinicians tell us we have the potential to do good things.”

Looking to advance your medical training?

Applications are now open for the RMH Basic Physician Training Years 2 and 3!

Visit our website for more information: https://f.mtr.cool/wqlufaapxg

Applications close on this Sunday, 31 May.

How has the RMH Residential in Reach team reduced readmissions from 18% to 4% within the first 28 days?

Through the RMH’s Post Discharge Delirium Pathway - led by Geriatrician Dr Anvi and Clinical Nurse Consultant Carrie - helping reduce unplanned hospital readmissions for older patients with delirium.

The pathway includes a phone assessment within 72 hours of discharge, checking sleep, nutrition, mobility, pain and bowel movements to ensure a safe transition back to residential aged care homes.

Dr Anvi says, “We’re able to pick up early signs of infection or refer patients to RMH’s Hospital in the Home team.”

Thank you to Dr Anvi, Carrie and the wider Residential in Reach team for supporting our older community!

Discover more about the pathway: https://f.mtr.cool/vamjqzgryh

When Dr Douglas Johnson was a medical student at the RMH in the 1990s, today didn't exist.

The World Health Organisation had only just removed homosexuality from its classification of mental disorders in 1990. In Australia, same-sex relationships were still criminalised in some states as late as 1997.

IDAHOBIT, a day that aims to raise awareness of LGBTIQA+ discrimination and to celebrate diversity, is marked each year on 17 May to commemorate that WHO decision, wasn't established until 2005. The wards Doug trained in were ones where these conversations simply didn't happen.

"When I went through school, high school and then university, this wasn't a conversation that was part of formal teaching," he says.

Now Head of General Medicine, Doug has watched the culture of healthcare shift over decades. Rainbow flags outside our Emergency Department. LGBTIQA+ Patient Liaisons, among the first of their kind in Australia, supporting continual work towards safer and more inclusive healthcare. Colleagues who once felt they had to hide parts of their lives at work, who no longer do.

"I have seen a tangible shift in our culture," he says. "We want to say that everyone is welcome and everyone is safe."

But he is honest about what remains. Members of the LGBTIQA+ community still experience higher rates of self-harm, and present to hospital less often, and later. "We, as healthcare workers are still not providing the care that we could be doing," he says. "There's a lot for us to do to make it better. And that's on us working with the community to hear from them."

"I think it's on all of us to either call behaviour out that we think is inappropriate, but also to really clearly articulate our support for vulnerable communities and marginalised communities, to help support and champion our work colleagues and our patients."

"What I would like to be, and what our team would like to be, are allies to support the community."

Discover more: https://f.mtr.cool/kjagfhxcjw

This Dietitian’s Week, we are sharing Abdisamad’s journey at the RMH.

Abdisamad was referred to the RMH for consideration of knee surgery for a meniscal tear. After being assessed by an Advanced Practice Physiotherapist in the Soft Tissue Injury Clinic team, Abdisamad was encouraged to focus on exercise, nutrition and lifestyle changes rather than surgery.

“I met Mariam, a dietitian who truly listened to me,” Abdisamad said. “She didn’t judge me. She helped me see my habits clearly and showed me that change was possible.”

Advanced Practice Physiotherapist Emily said surgery is not always the best option for every patient.

“By guiding patients through non-surgical care, we can often achieve excellent outcomes. We’re fortunate to have a highly skilled allied health team that helps make this possible.”

Nutrition Manager Hilda added: “We provide supportive care that empowers patients to make informed lifestyle choices and improve their health and wellbeing.”

Six months later, Abdisamad had lost 36 kilograms.

“I feel happier and more confident,” he said. “I started enjoying my life again.”

Abdisamad’s care team included Advanced Practice Physiotherapist Lachlan, Dietitian Mariam, Advanced Practice Physiotherapist Emily, Nutrition Manager Hilda (Pictured L-R) and Senior Physiotherapist James.

For more information, visit: https://f.mtr.cool/qebmyubvkv

We heard Spotify was compiling all-time stats?

Here are some fun stats from Victoria’s oldest public hospital!

Find out more: https://f.mtr.cool/veeerylhvg

🏥 27,000 patients
🫁 1.1 million hours of mechanical ventilation
🫀 Over 15,000 hours of extracorporeal membrane oxygenation
🔟 years of the RMH Intensive Care Unit (ICU) in our B Block building

In 2016, the new RMH ICU opened as part of the Victorian Comprehensive Cancer Centre (VCCC Alliance), increasing our capacity from 24 to 42 beds.

The new pod system, where each patient has their own room, has significantly improved the way ICU delivers care - improving patient comfort, privacy and safety, and the experience of their loved ones while visiting.

The ICU cares for some of the sickest patients from the Royal Melbourne Hospital, Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre and The Royal Women's Hospital.

Thank you to our RMH ICU team for their commitment, hard work and dedication in caring for Victoria’s most unwell patients.

Find out more: https://f.mtr.cool/rennuerxjt