2026 Excellence In Person Centred Care - Team Award
Spinal Urology Nursing Team Fiona Stanley Hospital
The Spinal Urology Nursing Team at Fiona Stanley Hospital exemplifies clinical innovation, compassionate leadership, and unwavering dedication to improving the lives of people with spinal cord injury. As the driving force behind Western Australia’s first nurse‑led outpatient Spinal Flexy + Botox service under local anaesthesia, the team has transformed access, safety, and quality of care for patients living with neurogenic bladder dysfunction.
Prior to this initiative, many patients waited more than a year for treatment due to theatre constraints. Through persistent advocacy, meticulous planning, and a commitment to “doing things better,” the team redesigned a traditional surgical pathway into a streamlined, person‑centred outpatient model. Their work has reduced wait times from 479 days to just 45, significantly improving bladder health, independence, and quality of life for spinal patients. The model eliminates fasting, hospital admission, and unnecessary anaesthetic exposure, enabling patients to attend a short 30‑minute appointment and return home the same day, an outcome patients describe as life‑changing.
The team’s continuity of care builds trust, comfort, and confidence, reflected in 100% patient satisfaction and universal preference for the nurse‑led approach. Their efforts have reduced clinical risk, freed theatre and PACU capacity, and delivered substantial cost savings to the health system. Their proactive use of live data supports sustainable service growth and has positioned the model as a benchmark for other jurisdictions.
What makes this team truly exceptional is their compassion and tenacity. They advocate fiercely for their patients, coordinate complex individualised care, and ensure every decision reflects dignity, safety, and independence. Their collaboration across consultants, waitlist teams, pharmacy, and suppliers has strengthened the entire spinal urology pathway.
Sharing their work nationally at the Health Round Table Showcase 2025, the Spinal Urology Nursing Team has shown how nurses can redesign systems, inspire change, and deliver high‑impact, person‑centred innovations. Their work is not only clinically outstanding, but also profoundly human
Midwifery Birth Centre, Royal Perth Bentley Group
The Royal Perth Bentley Group (RPBG) Midwifery Birth Centre (MBC) team is a pioneering force in maternity care, delivering Western Australia’s first publicly funded, endorsed midwife‑led continuity‑of‑care model. Since opening in December 2024, the team has transformed the experience of childbearing families by offering a model rooted in safety, autonomy, partnership, and true woman‑centred care. As endorsed midwives practising to full scope, including prescribing, diagnostics, and admission privileges, the MBC team provide seamless continuity from early pregnancy through birth and the postnatal period. Every woman receives her own known midwife, with 24/7 on‑call support and ongoing care until six weeks postpartum, fostering deep trust, confidence, and emotional security.
Professionally, the team’s achievements are remarkable. During commissioning, they authored and reviewed more than 150 governance documents to embed midwifery‑led principles into RPBG’s organisational framework. This work was highly commended by the Australian Council of Healthcare Standards. In their first year, the team have supported over 100 women, welcomed 69 babies and achieved outstanding clinical outcomes: an 80% waterbirth rate, 90% continuity of care, 100% Net Promoter Score, and significantly lower rates of caesarean, induction, and episiotomy than national averages. These outcomes reflect excellence in promoting physiological birth, enhancing maternal wellbeing, and protecting choice.
What truly distinguishes this team is their compassion, advocacy, and resilience. They have navigated operational challenges, scepticism, and service redesign with unwavering belief in the model and steadfast dedication to the women they serve. They work collaboratively with obstetric, neonatal, and allied health teams and personally accompany women who require transfer, ensuring continuity remains intact across settings. Women describe their care as “healing,” “next‑level,” and “life‑changing.”
The MBC team is proudest of the community they have created, one built on trust, respect, partnership, and the belief that every woman deserves continuity, dignity, and evidence‑based midwifery care. The team are not just shaping a service they are shaping the future of public midwifery in Western Australia
WA Virtual Emergency Department (WAVED)
The WA Virtual Emergency Department (WAVED) nursing team are pioneers in redefining emergency care for Western Australians. Based within the State Health Operations Centre, they deliver WA’s first virtual emergency service providing timely, high‑quality care to adults and children in their homes, when clinically appropriate. Since its launch in 2023, WAVED has reshaped emergency nursing practice, demonstrating advanced clinical judgement, exceptional communication skills, and compassionate, person‑centred care in a new digital landscape.
As frontline virtual clinicians, WAVED nurses assess patients via video, triage across multiple referral pathways, monitor for deterioration, and guide families through uncertainty with warmth and clarity. Their role blends the sophistication of traditional emergency nursing with innovation in digital health, enabling patients to receive safe care without the distress, cost, or barriers associated with hospital attendance. This model has significantly enhanced equitable care through improved access for people with disability, chronic illness, neurodivergence, mobility issues, and those in regional and remote communities.
Professionally, the team is proud of their role in transforming a system. Their input directly influenced the design of the Virtual Care Connect platform, building technology capable of supporting safe virtual triage. Their collaborative partnerships with St John WA, residential aged care, homeless healthcare, Silver Chain, primary care and palliative services have created new patient pathways that keep people safely at home. Patient experience remains at the heart of their work which is reflected in outstanding feedback and 100% satisfaction in key domains such as trust, safety, and willingness to recommend WAVED to family.
Personally, the team is proudest of the moments where virtual care has provided dignity, comfort and choice, whether supporting a vulnerable elder to remain at home at the end of life, easing a child’s distress, or reassuring a family late at night. These quiet acts of compassion reflect the heart of WAVED nursing: innovative, courageous, and deeply human.
