jenuesse health

You can't be here in Australia for very long before hearing about the concept of "mateship."  Here are some explanations: Wikipedia says : "Mateship is an Australian cultural idiom that embodies equality, loyalty and friendship." But it goes further than that.  This government site says: 'Mateship' is a concept that can be traced back to early colonial times. The harsh environment in which convicts and new settlers found themselves meant that men and women closely relied on each other for all sorts of help. In Australia, a 'mate' is more than just a friend. It's a term that implies a sense of shared experience, mutual respect and unconditional assistance. And this article notes: " It is a term that conjures images of young men providing unconditional support for one another amid the toughest of conditions." But what I've found is that the term also often implies demonstrating that loyalty with a panache of machismo, somet...

The most common question I get--worldwide--after I give a talk or seminar on creating a learning organization to improve clinical processes in hospitals is:  "I really like what you are saying, but what can I do if those above me in the organization have not adopted the philosophy you espouse."  I respond by saying, "Start small, and just try to get something fixed in your area, working with other like-minded people. Maybe the ideas will spread organically. Maybe they won't, but at least you will have made things better for some." Well, May Wong from Sydney didn't need my advice.  My buddy Sarah Dalton at the New South Wales Clinical Excellence Commission told me the story: Several years ago in her intern year, the thing that most frightened May was having to participate in a resuscitation.  To alleviate part of her anxiety, she checked the resuscitation trolley ("code cart" in our region) in her ward to be intimately familiar with the location of ...

One of the great pleasures of being ex-CEO of a hospital is to visit other places around the world and see the staff in action.  Whatever you might have heard about the stresses and problems faced by doctors and nurses and others, there remains an underlying sense of purpose and commitment that often shines through. Here's a example, from the theatre in which young patients at Royal Children's Hospital receive lumbar punctures and bone marrow tests to receive chemotherapy and/or to assess their progress with regard to leukemia treatments.  I offer the explanation totally in pictures, which pretty well tell the story.  The only one warranting a bit of explanation is the one showing Steve, the anaesthesia technician, driving a small toy car as the patient enters the room--to distract and engage the child!

A danger of being " Thinker in Residence " for several months here in the state of Victoria, Australia, is the danger of diagnostic anchoring--too quickly reaching conclusions about the state of the health care system--followed by confirmation bias--valuing only those observations that support the conclusion you've reached, while ignoring other data.  With cognitive errors of this sort, the best defense in avoiding them is to be aware of their existence.  So, I've tried assiduously to be careful during my visit here.  But the time has come to offer my considered view on several matters. In a recent blog post , I noted that the extensive program of traffic safety run by the Transport Accident Commission is an example of the strong sense of communitarianism that pervades this society.  I suggested that a future column would explore whether this communitarian view within Victorian society carries over into health care--whether there is a comparable commitment "towa...

It isn't often that I can report that I was honored to see a play, but such was the case recently when I was invited to view the showing of a short four-person drama at West Gippsland Hospital in Warragul and especially because I was permitted to attend the staff discussion that followed the performance.  Here's the background: The Australian Institute for Patient and Family Centred Care was established a few years ago by Catherine Crock and colleagues to promote just what its name implies.  As noted: We aim to to transform people’s experience of healthcare through a three-fold approach: Develop partnerships between patients, their families and health professionals Create a culture that is both supportive and effective Improve healthcare environments through high-quality integrated art, architecture and design. One medium used by the AIPFCC is to commission short plays on key themes in health care delivery and present them, upon invitation, to hospitals throughout the count...

In America, drivers don't try to kill other drivers. In Australia, drivers try not to kill other drivers. After almost three months here, I've decided that this difference in attitudes is the biggest thing that separates these two cultures. America was built on a culture of individualism, sometimes called "rugged individualism."  In Australia, society is characterized by a much greater degree of communitarianism. The place of traffic fatalities in the two countries provides a nice example. There are about 32,000 traffic-related fatalities in the US per year, about 10 per 100,000 population .  I think if you were to ask most American drivers about this figure, they would probably answer, "These things happen."  There is virtually no concern in the general population about these deaths, and there is certainly little or no evidence that road dangers influence the manner in which people drive. In Australia, there are about 1200 deaths per year, or about 5 per 10...

When I was growing up, ultimate (originally known as ultimate frisbee) had not yet been invented .  While we played with frisbees, it was mainly just a lot of tossing them around.  Since then, the sport has developed and highly skilled players and teams compete worldwide. I've had a forced sabbatical from playing soccer here in Melbourne (no one plays during the summer apparently), but have been lucky to be invited to join a local co-ed division three ultimate team.  It's been great fun to play a sport which in which the rules are self-enforced, i.e., without referees, and where the "spirit of the game" is the dominant culture. Nonethless, there remains a role for a team leader, often a player-coach, and in this case we are blessed to have Michelle Phillips, a world class player, as ours.  Off the field, she and I have traded stories about leadership, and I've also had a chance to watch her skills in that regard during games and her post-game advisories to the tea...