Our Dedicated Staff

The Village’s approach to resident-directed and centred care and service delivery is a sound and well-established process that is the cornerstone of our organization. Our organisational structure highlights this with the residents at the top of the structure, then front-line staff, Team Leaders, Executive, and the Board. This ensures that all that is done in the service is for residents and clearly establishes the priority and place that residents hold.

Our residents have a (natural) desire to be cared for by trained and competent staff. To ensure that this is the case and with resident safety as the core focus, the Village has developed a comprehensive education program that includes an extensive and broad range of services that are available to all levels of staff which create real and attainable professional development and career pathway possibilities:

• Level III care traineeships
• Trainee Enrolled Nurse Program
• Customised Clinical Programs – eg palliative care, clinical update courses for RNs, On and Off the Job Competency Based Training
• English Classes
• Leadership and Management Programs
• Undergraduate and Postgraduate Courses and Scholarships
• Leadership Development Programs

The positive outcomes of our commitment to staff education are confirmed by the results in the various satisfaction surveys – both resident and staff, comments system and the benchmarking program (94% of residents indicated that the care staff appear competent whilst providing care, 96% are very satisfied with the care they receive). In addition, the focus on staff education has resulted in improved resident satisfaction with care and lifestyle services, improved resident care outcomes, reduced infection rates, reduced manual handling incidents and reduced workers compensation rates.

The formation of strong links with Australian Catholic University, Northern Area Health Service and Registered Training Organisations has enabled the organisation to provide accredited, relevant competency-based courses as well as undergraduate and post graduate learning opportunities.

The training and staff development program is underpinned by the organisation’s strategic plan and is reviewed and enhanced annually. Input into the annual education program is from the following sources:

• Regulatory Compliance
• Needs analysis undertaken in each specific work area in the village
• Feedback from staff and resident meetings
• Incident /Accident forms
• Quality and Benchmarking program
• Evidenced-Based Practice and Best Practice Guidelines
• Suggestions and Complaints from residents, relatives, staff and other stakeholders
• Individual or remedial education programs are generated from staff performance appraisals, workplace assessments, incident forms or individual staff requests and comments and complaints.

The organisation firmly believes that having skilled and dynamic staff is imperative to it’s success as a leading Aged Care facility therefore education is viewed as an investment rather than a cost. It is for this reason that all education is provided at no cost to the employee. Employees are encouraged to attend sessions within their designated working hours however those who attend any education session outside their usual working hours are paid also. Repeat sessions are conducted to enable maximum staff to have access. All staff who attend external courses, conferences and workshops are fully supported financially as well as given study leave to attend. Staff are encouraged and supported to present papers on projects they have been involved in during the year.