Ms Megan Brown, Ms Suzanne Alexander, Mr Scott Lang, Ms Alexis Lenton
1Illawarra Shoalhaven Local Health District, , Australia
2Far West Local Health District, , Australia
Introduction: In 2019 a rural Local Health District (LHD) in NSW was unable to secure Infection Prevention and Control (IPaC) expertise. The LHD covers over 190,000km2 and serves the highest population of Indigenous Australians in NSW, through 12 health facilities. The provision of effective IPaC services is imperative for patient safety. An ISLHD IPaC CNC took a 3-month secondment opportunity which seeded an ongoing partnership between two distinctly different LHDs.
Method: The aim of the arrangement was to provide specialist IPaC support to a rural remote LHD and provide ongoing development and mentorship to an emerging IPaC nurse in order to build ongoing capacity and service provision in the rural setting. Support and mentorship was provided by 3 ISLHD IPaC CNCs who undertook four on-site secondments lasting from 3-4 months. Ongoing connection and collaboration between the two LHD IPaC teams are provided through regular virtual meetings.
Results: This partnership has benefited IPaC services across both LHDs. Key IPaC achievements for the rural LHD include strengthened governance, improved relationships with pathology, corporate services, and infectious disease services, the establishment of fundamental IPaC programs, fostering new introductions between the rural IPaC service and the wider IPaC network, and supporting the transition and regrading of the rural LHD IPaC nurse from CNS to CNC. ISLHD CNCs developed mentorship skills and experienced the challenges of working in a rural and remote settings.
Conclusion: The partnership has evolved into a mutually beneficial collaboration with an aim to maintain the relationship into the future.
Biography Suzanne Alexander is a registered nurse with over 30 years of experience, working clinically in both critical care and community nursing positions. Suzanne is currently a clinical nurse consultant for the Infection Management and Control Service (IMACS) in the Illawarra and Shoalhaven Local Health District (ISLHD).
Suzanne especially enjoys working with patients but also her wider consumer group on all things Infection Prevention and Control (IPAC). Suzanne was instrumental in establishing the collaboration and was the first IMACS CNC to support the Far West Local Health District completing two secondments.