From left: Sandra Little, ‘new cleaner’ Brendan Egan and Gaynor Donaldson.By Jim Mynard
THE ‘new man’ seen expertly mopping the ward floors at St John of God Hospital Berwick this week was not a recently hired cleaner but the hospital’s mission director, Brendan Egan.
And the job he was doing was not just for the cameras.
Mr Egan believes it does executives no harm to see how hard other staff members work, so he initiated a scheme in which he spends one full day a month working in a different section of the hospital.
So far he has worked in departments from the kitchen to answering telephones.
Last week he was cleaning.
Mr Egan said the job of mission director was to work with the chief executive and managers to develop a distinctive culture of care based on the values of the hospital – hospitality, compassion, respect, justice and excellence.
“It is an executive role, but is about the executive having a knowledge of every department and people’s roles, and how it all integrates to form the quality health care that we aim to provide,” he said.
“The only way of really doing that is by getting down and really getting into it.”
True to his aims, Mr Egan has been working in a different department for a day a month.
So far he has worked nursing in the wards, in administration, at the front desk in reception, answering the switchboard, in an operating theatre where he observed a bowel resection, in the hyperbaric unit learning about wound management, in the kitchen preparing meals and cooking, and most recently in environmental services.
“I am really continuing a tradition begun some time ago by St John of God Health Care where hospital management executives have a regular day of working in various departments,” Mr Egan said. “It has been called the ‘share the care’ program.”
“I think people appreciate management taking the time to be with them, and to actually assist them and work with them and get a better appreciation of what their jobs are and the tasks they do actually involve.”
As far as his most recent job was concerned, fulltime St John of God hospital cleaning staffers Sandra Little of Pakenham and Gaynor Donaldson of Pakenham South were full of praise.
“Brendan’s doing a very good job,” Ms Little said.
“He’s picked it up exceptionally well,” Ms Donaldson said.
