Erin barker to introduce guest speaker Gaylene Juri.
Gaylene works at Portland District health in the environmental services department a part of a hospital that people don't know much about unless there's something going wrong, and a very important part of the hospital system.
Gaylene will talk about how she went from being a florist to the manager of the environmental services
- career highlights being the first florist apprentice in Portland
- Married for 33 years and together for nearly 40
- Daughter is an occupational therapist in Moama who used to work at Portland district.
- Born in Geelong and moved to Portland at the age of 12
Wanted to be a wool classer or nurse but after 2 weeks of work experience moved into floristry at 16 in 1985, and absolutely loved it. Started an apprenticeship in floristry which required travelling to Box Hill college of Tafe in Melbourne for two week blocks. Very daunting at that age despite growing up in Geelong – it was big step. Worked through very busy times of Mothers Days, St Valentines day just to name a couple. Continued with this work for some time before stepping out for a break to work in the Mitre 10 gardening department and having a child. Some of this time was spent working with her father in which she enjoyed.
In 1995 stepped back into floristry for about another ten years before receiving a call from the corporate services manager at PDH and offered a position before gaining a permanent part time job – now 20 years in the same workplace.
Environmental services is the name used in preference to hotel services or domestic services. I was trained for all areas and able to work across the facility including cleaning, laundry and portering which is taking people through the hospital to xray from the emergency department, and non-patient transport of goods or equipment all throughout the hospital.
Staff work from task sheets to ensure nothing is overlooked or missed with routine and rotating through rooms to cover the whole room. The cleaning role is very important but can be very taxing on the individual also.
After working as 2IC I eventually applied for the manger role where I have been for the last 6 years. I still work on the floor when short of staff.
I am an accredited auditor and very importantly I complete cleaning audits to check the quality of the work done, to protect people from infection through clean environments. We have been audited at 99-100% even when done by external auditors which we are very proud.
COVID was the scariest period wondering whether we would get sick from a clean or whether we missed anything. It was hard on our mental health with the constant fear of contracting covid. Mostly back to a “new normal” now with strict routine procedures in place for COVID as with any infectious disease.
Waste is another area of interest, and we are involved with all wastes including confidential waste, general waste and infectious waste with audits completed to check for appropriate contents over a 24 hour period.
Some of the other tasks include;
- Pays and rostering
- Accounts
- Policies and procedures
- Run linen supply with internal and external requisitions for linen
- Recruitment – which was very hard during covid reduced from the usual10-20 resumes then lucky to get 2-5 during COVID.
- I now work 4 days a week as my husband also – and we both feel rested and can focus on our garden over the weekend.
Things have changed over time with cleaning regimes – now water and microfibre instead of harsh chemicals. In certain circumstances – a two in one chemical is used which cuts down time and is tested to be effective and a back up device is a Nobuo machine which mists room for infections of concern. We use proven products, good technique and following procedure. Staff do enjoy what they do and take pride in their work – they are very conscious and particular with tasks set.
We do offer some flexibility now with start and finish times for young mums in the workplace.
Thanks for speaking to our club Gaylene!
