During NAIDOC Week, we’re shining the spotlight on our First Nations team members from across Monash Health to celebrate their integral contribution to our health service.
Meet Maia Sanderson, who is a Palawa woman and NICU Nurse on secondment with the Aboriginal Health and Engagement team. “I work in NICU at Monash Children’s hospital, and two days a week I work in my secondment role in Aboriginal Health and Engagement as a Project Lead.”
“It’s been a really positive experience for me,” says Maia. “We’ve got a strong network in our team and everyone’s so supportive, which has helped me to adjust to a completely different role.”
As Project Lead, Maia has developed a Community of Practice with 15 health services around Australia to improve the recruitment and retention of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander employees, who are chronically underrepresented.
The Community of Practice had their first meeting in June. “It’s been a long process with a lot of planning to get to this point. Our group is made up of people from Diversity and Inclusion teams, People and Culture, people from the education space, and importantly Aboriginal Elders. We’re there to discuss what’s working and what can make positive changes and remove some of the barriers we find when recruiting Aboriginal staff.”
“We have the opportunity to share what we’ve learned, but also learn from other leaders in this space, like St Vincent’s in Sydney.”
During her secondment, Maia has also had the opportunity to work on other projects, like a business case for culturally safe birthing suites across Monash Health’s birthing sites. “I never pictured myself to be someone working in an office behind a computer. But it’s actually so much more than that, and that’s one of the unexpected takeaways. Each of these small changes is making Monash Health a more culturally safe place for our team, our patients and our families.”
However, Maia isn’t ready to hang up her nursing scrubs yet.
“I’ve loved this work, but I’m also really passionate about my nursing role in NICU,” says Maia. “Ideally, I would work half my time in NICU and half in Aboriginal Health and Engagement.”
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people play an integral role at Monash Health. This profile is part of a series during NAIDOC Week to showcase and celebrate some of our First Nations colleagues.