A close-knit work family the right fit for James

7 Oct 2022

How long have you worked at St John of God Warrnambool Hospital?

I’ve been working at St John of God Warrnambool Hospital for the past four years.

Why were you interested in working with us?

I was interested in working with St John of God Health Care, because I knew they were a fantastic hospital group and are really focused on excellence in what they do. 

I was also aware they had a really good structure for leadership, education, and moving up in your career.

What do you enjoy most about working with us?

I really enjoy working in St John of God Warrnambool Hospital as it’s quite a small hospital, and for me that’s really important because I get to know everyone from the people that work in the kitchen to the other nursing staff and other therapists that I work more closely with. As well as the doctors and even surgeons as well. 

That to me is really important, that it’s got a nice small community feel, it makes every day coming to work a pleasure. 

What opportunities have you received while working with us?

So since stating work with St John of God Warrnambool Hospital I’ve got to do some extra training along to way. 

We get an allowance every year for professional development that we can use for courses that are of interest. 

I’ve also recently started a Masters of Clinical Rehabilitation, and St John of God Health Care has been really helpful. They have given me additional study leave to be able to that study, which is really important to me as I work full time as well as having two little kids at home. Without that extra support it probably wouldn’t be possible to study at a post-graduate level, so that’s been fantastic.

What do you love about living in Warrnambool?

The thing I love most about living and working in Warrnambool is just the fantastic access we have to the great outdoors. We have the option on our doorstep, we have beautiful national parks; we see nature all the time.

When I go out and about to see patients in the community, it’s really great to drive in the beautiful nature scenery that we have locally.

What do you want other people to know about working with St John of God Health Care?

I think for anyone thinking about St John of God Health Care, I would say it’s a really fantastic organisation to work for. They really try to support people in becoming better, and learning new skills and becoming the best that they can possibly be. It’s a very supportive environment, we work well as a team, and it’s just a really great place to work.

Do you and your team socialist outside of work?

Within our team we get together a couple of times a year and have social events, which is really awesome to catch up with work mates outside of work.

Within the wider hospital we have a social club which also has a couple of events a year, where it’s nice to socialise with people that you may not work with on a day-to-day basis, and get to know some people outside of your team.

What does St John of God Health Care do to make you feel cared about in the workplace?

I think as a team at St John of God Warrnambool Hospital are very supportive of each other, if you are under a bit of pressure people will always check in on you and help out and share the workload where they can.

Aside from that, we also have lots of things going on in the departments, whether that’s bringing a cake for someone’s birthday, or having a footy tipping competition as a bit of fun. There’s lots of things that we do to keep everyone engaged and keep the teamwork strong. That is also really quite good for me.