Explore Central Queensland

[Text on screen: Why join the team at CQ Health? Great People, Great Place to Work. Link to website: www.cq.health.qld.gov.au]

>>Peter:

I moved up to Rockhampton in 2003 and what attracted me was the great opportunities in a regional area in Queensland. I'm a Queenslander originally, had lived in New South Wales and overseas, and was really keen to get back to a regional area and lots of opportunities arose.

>>Kim:

Emerald's a really vibrant little community. I know that one of my biggest fears coming here was being isolated from family and friends, but once you start working in a small community hospital, you definitely build up such a great rapport with all the staff and I know I can walk down the hallway now and be able to say hello to everybody by name and they know me as well.

>>Belinda:

Everyone is so friendly and embracing. I really enjoy the culture here in the rural environment. They make me feel immediately part of the team. I'm actually surprised that I didn't know how much I'd settle into a small town.

>>Tracy:

The biggest encouragement to stay with Queensland Health is the people that I get to work with. I've been working at Biloela Hospital for two years now, and it's both a really busy place and exciting place to work but also a place where you feel like the people that you work with are your family in a way.

>>Sian:

I feel like health professionals here in Blackwater are quite well respected, and that respect is also returned to the members of the community.

>>Sherry:

Already having ties in the community in regards to family but also sporting endeavours, staying here and working in my community has been the obvious choice, and that has been made easier by my leadership encouraging me to further my career and ensuring that I'm keeping my training and my skills up as well.

>>Jenny:

My colleagues are friendly, they're positive towards me, I get good response from people, I feel accepted and there's a lot of opportunities here.

>>David:

Probably the biggest draw card to working out here is the fact that it is a centre of excellence for rural generalism. It's the place to be if you want to be a rural generalist trainee. You get the experience and the exposure to make you a better doctor. You'll see cases that will prepare you for your training, and you really do get to see a full breadth of practice.

>>Peter:

So there's a really supportive learning and development culture within the HHS. There's management development programs, clinical leadership programs available at any level.

>>Corey:

It's a very large organisation, very diverse, and there's lots of different pathways you can go down to to help your career.

>>Bernadette:

We like to support you for any additional education, if you are undertaking any postgraduate studies.

>>Anneka:

The commitment of management to ensuring that my skills are up to date with current guidelines and protocols is fantastic. I'm actually on my way to Brisbane in a couple of weeks to spend two weeks in a neonatal nursery, taking care of sick babies to upskill myself and ensure that I'm able to provide that care out in Emerald.

>>Thomas:

The universities here include the CQUniversity which has its own range of topics of advanced specialisation and reputation. There are flights to any part of the country from here, and Brisbane is just an hour away by a flight.

>>Mollie:

So Destination 2030 has really been about improving ourselves as a hospital and strategically breaking down everything so that we're constantly improving the great care we provide to our great patients.

>>Hitesh:

We're talking more about our vision and our values now, which is great. We are thinking about how we can make this place the best for our patients and continuously striving to improve this place for our staff.

>>Joanne:

There’s been a massive culture change within CQ Health. There's been a very important four standards that we live by: Respect, Commitment, Care, and Integrity. That's really the basis of our values that we provide to our patients and and how we act and how we act to also each other.

>>Sahitya:

I'm very impressed by the organisational culture because they're very responsive, they're very forward-looking, they want to know what your concerns are and they want to hear, listen, investigate it, and put supports in place.

>>Thomas:

Leadership has been able to look at not just in terms of clinical service delivery, they looked at things like what provides satisfaction to the staff and making sure that there is a good voice for the staff to be able to feedback and that's reflected in the staff surveys and the outcomes that are being seen in the staff saying they are feeling respected and valued.

>>Shastee

What's kept me working in CQ is the great people that we work for, it's always nice to be working for a great organisation, there's been lots of opportunities for career progression and succession planning for staff out here which is great, particularly in the rural areas.

>>Clay:

When everything starts working together, patient care can only prosper from that.

>>Bernadette:

So Banana is the 'Shire of Opportunity', and certainly that rings true for career advancement within health and certainly with CQHHS.

>>Annette:

In the past there's been an increase of Indigenous jobs and a lot of opportunities for Indigenous staff and working towards this will help to close the gap.

>>Timothy:

It's a real community up here, and it's good to sort of have a lot of support when you're starting off in a new career.

>>Corey:

I've got flexible work arrangements, within work, which helps me with life outside of work as well.

>>Mollie:

I'd heard that the region was beautiful, really close to the southern Great Barrier Reef and that my scope of practice would be much more vast here because it's a regional area than if I was based in Brisbane, which is where my family's from. I was just really attracted to improving my experience and knowledge by coming to a regional area.

>>Jenny:

I feel like I fit in here and I feel there's a lot of opportunities for me.

>>Tom:

It's not what I expected it's a great laid-back place to live, with everything you need - the beach is 20 minutes away and the organisation is great to work for, there are good career development opportunities, come and try it what's the worst that can happen?

>>Bernadette:

"It sounds too good to be true." I hear this all the time, and it's not too good to be true, it's real, it's real. It's actually life changing.

>>Peter:

I had a five-year plan to move here and to move back to a metropolitan region but really, Central Queensland has captured my heart, it's a great place to live and grow and develop as a clinician and I see myself staying here for many years ahead into the future and I hope you'll come and join me.

[Text on screen: Come and join our team at CQ Health. Great People, Great Place to Work. Website address: www.cq.health.qld.gov.au. Copyright Central Queensland Hospital and Health Service 2023.]