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A hospital stay these days is a daunting prospect, even if only half the headlines about the dire state of the public health system are true. I’d been awaiting surgery for six months, so a booking when it came last month was the best Christmas present ever. As a retired nurse, I thought I knew what to expect, but my anxiety levels were still high. Following reports of Health NZ’s endless restructuring and destructuring didn’t help. They didn’t even seem sure what to call themselves.
But the experience at North Shore Hospital overturned the doubts and fears of all the years. The preparation that began weeks before the operation was meticulous and detailed, and the orthopaedic surgery on the day went well. The skill and professionalism of the surgeon, anaesthetist and nurses was impressive and the care I received back in the ward, from nurses, physiotherapists, occupational therapists, orderlies, the tea man (not lady), reception staff and pharmacist was unfailingly courteous and encouraging.
I’m grateful for all that, but what impressed me most of all was the kind of culture the hospital has managed to create and sustain despite all the cutbacks, staff shortages and budget crises we hear so much about.
I know a bit about building work cultures, having worked in hospitals here and overseas, government departments, fish factories, newspaper offices, churches and schools. I know how hard it is to keep them safe, focused and effective, inclusive and accountable.
What North Shore Hospital has achieved didn’t happen overnight or by chance. It’s the end product of years of reviewing, refining and refocusing on what matters most.
What they’ve ended up with is what I enjoyed last week. Having braced myself for an ordeal, I experienced a pretty well seamless experience that left me feeling reassured and hopeful. No small achievement in these troubled times.
The work culture they have built is a complicated affair. It includes a huge emphasis on staying safe and well informed about what’s happening to you medically, even how to complain if you have to. Just to be sure, a pamphlet about how to do that is handed out at reception as you arrive!
And the exercises post-op, the equipment I needed, the things I needed to avoid doing were all explained clearly and patiently, repeatedly if necessary.
Watching from my bed the staff coming, going, interacting without tripping over each other or colliding their trolleys and blood pressure machines was like sitting in a well-run airport terminal without the queues. There’s a lot of moving parts to make this culture work efficiently when all’s going well. And when it’s not, the emergency protocols switch in rapidly. Happily I didn’t have to test them.
North Shore Hospital has achieved an impressive culture. But the best thing about it for me was not simply its efficiency and medical results. It was the atmosphere, the vibe it managed to create in the midst of all that technology and scientific complexity.
It could have been anonymous and formal, a recipe for fraught feelings and emotional unease. Yet the overwhelming impression it left on me was one of ordered calm and confidence. Professional and still personal. No one lost their cool, nobody treated a work colleague with anything less than respect, from the highest to the lowest on the pecking order. Everyone seemed to know what they were doing and if they didn’t, they’d quickly consult with someone who did. I can’t think of another institution where that happens so well.
And if all that is not enough, the staff that looked after me seemed to enjoy what they were doing and take pleasure from each other’s company in all its diversity – ethnic, gender, age-wise, 20-year-olds happily working alongside 70 plus.
If you’re ever worried about how well our radically multicultural Auckland is working together these days, drop into North Shore Hospital sometime and feel the vibe.
Elizabeth Bluck is a retired hospital and occupational health nurse living in Pakiri.
