Research from Tonga Twinning Program published

8 Jul 2019

^{left to right: Michelle Franc, Alex Demidov, Maureen Waddington, Carolyn Mornane.}

19 July 2019 

After a lot of work through the collaboration of St John of God Ballarat Hospital, the Ministry of Health in Tonga, and Federation University Australia the research paper was created. 

About the research paper 

The paper presents the findings from an exploration of the experiences and perceptions of the Tonga Twinning Program through the voices of those key-stakeholders situated in Tonga who engaged with the program.

Director of Mission Integration, Maureen Waddington, said having the research paper published was important to the Twinning Program and congratulated Carolyn Mornane, Michelle Franc, and Maureen Waddington from St John of God Ballarat Hospital for their hard work and dedication to the program and also Blake Peck and Daniel Terry from Federation University Australia for their work on the research paper.

“Knowing where and how our work lands is important, because relying purely on our experience of our work is not enough," Maureen said.

"This Tongan Twinning Research project has confirmed the mutual value of our relationship with our Tongan health community, colleagues and friends.”

If you would like to read the Tonga Twinning Program Research Paper, you can access it online or download the paper.

About the Tonga Twinning Program

The Tonga Twinning program has been running since 1992, and is a partnership between St John of God Ballarat Hospital and Ministry of Health in Tonga.

The program has seen more than 130 Tongan Ministry of Health employees have experience placements in Ballarat. Their visits are across a variety of areas in the hospital which include nursing, infection control, and medical records. 

The program also allows the hospital to donate important medical equipment and supplies to Vaiola Hospital, which they would not have access to any other way.