Work satisfaction - video transcript
Zoe: I love that we get to help people every day. You come in and you know you’re going to help somebody, and generally they’re pretty happy to be helped. They’re people that have chosen to come here and sought out help, and they’re not here against their will. So, you do get the opportunity to talk to them and work with people and work within the team as well. So, just because I can't help someone, I know that someone else in this team will be able to help, or at least will work together to find some option. It's really rewarding to know that people are going to walk away from here, generally a little bit better than when they came in, or at least on the right path.
Manjeet: Yeah, definitely. I think you know the fact that we, you know, help is the right word. You know for a lot of these patients that come in, they're at the end of their tether in some cases. They've been seeing someone that's maybe not been able to help them and it’s just frustrated them - they just want that help and to think to be able to help these patients can be so meaningful, and to have a positive impact on their life and equally support them when things don't go the way that they want them to is also up a benefit of the job that we provide. And then also developing our team is another thing that you know, brings me to work, is just helping people who may be starting on their podiatry journey as a team, as a staff member, you know just being able to get them pushing forward to where they wanted to go is another big aspect of it as well.
Zoe: Sometimes even people don't know what podiatry is at all. There was a patient that came in last week and he didn't understand what he was here for at all, and they walked out happy that they’d come. And the same thing happens with other professions in the hospital that maybe haven't come across podiatry much before.
Manjeet: Yeah because you do, you often get referrals where patients will say I don't really know why I'm here, but you know why they're here because you've read the referral but someone hasn't quite taken that time at the referral point to educate them on why they sent them to podiatry and yeah, a lot of the beginning of that conversation is …
Zoe: Yeah, because they’re overwhelmed.
Manjeet: Yeah, they may not have retained that information because of the fact that there's so much going on. Absolutely. I think, like before you came along, we knew that we were not going to meet our statewide performance measures in regards to hitting the targets for patients that we wanted to see. So basically, we knew that there are patients out in the community that have foot ulcers that we may not necessarily be able to reach out to, or offer an appointment to, unless we got some more staff on board. So, when the opportunity came across to get some funding to support that, I know from my perspective, it was really really beneficial to get some more bodies into the team. So with you coming on board, it's made such a difference because it's now allowed us to see these patients within the right time frame that we wanted to, as well as improving, you know the outcomes for these patients, saving them going to emergency or turning up at the GP practice, and then not necessarily having a place to go for further treatment. For sure, I think that's made a big difference.
Zoe: It’s given you the time to develop new processes to make things more streamlined and efficient as well. From my understanding of it, obviously not seeing what it was before, but it seems like you had the opportunity to spend more time on that, you and senior staff.
Manjeet: Absolutely. Because now that we've got Zoe and another colleague Felicity on board we’ve now managed to branch out into another team. So, we’re now working more closely with our vascular colleagues and we’ve have set up a clinic down at Robina Hospital which wasn't there before working with the vascular wound nurses and the nurse practitioner. And so again, that there and setting this up here as well, it’s all been, as a result, a direct result of having yourself and Felicity join our team.
Zoe: So dad always speaks about, he joined Queensland Health because he was struggling meeting the hours of his private clinic, so he attributes basically our whole childhood to Queensland Health which obviously makes it quite enticing place to work, and he was always home at home time within half an hour, give or take, and he didn't often bring work home with him, which meant that we had weekends, and that's a nice thing to see and sort of want obviously for yourself into the future.
Manjeet: Yeah, I can agree with that as well. Again, growing up with my parents, they would work in their own business. So again, we were always encouraged don't go into a job where you don't get public holidays, or you don't get paid leave or sick leave. So I think from my cultural background as well it was, you know, it was good to go and get a job where you can work for an employer like the government and you'll get good working conditions and I think, you know, we can be quite honest here and say that Queensland Health is probably one of the best employers you can ever have. You know we're very fortunate that we’re paid well and that we’re looked after from sick leave perspective, we get good annual leave allowances. We get a great professional development allowance and that ability not even just to go out with, but their ability to be educated within our work. You know, so much of it happens on what time and I just genuinely don't think I would want to work elsewhere. You know, having been in it, I wouldn't change it. Definitely wouldn't change it.
