44. Julie Quade on Leading Stronger Healthcare Teams

What does great healthcare leadership look like when teams are stretched, resources are tight, and patient care is always the priority? 

In this thoughtful conversation, Julie Quade, trained dietitian and Allied Health Manager for Northern New South Wales Health, shares how her rural upbringing and early career in allied health shaped her approach to leadership. Julie reflects on the shift from supporting patients one-on-one to influencing care at scale by growing strong teams, creating psychologically safe workplaces, and helping clinicians stay focused on the patient in front of them. 

This episode is for healthcare leaders, emerging managers, allied health professionals, and anyone who wants to better understand how calm, people-first healthcare leadership can make a meaningful difference for clinicians, teams, and the communities they care for.

Julie's organisation of choice is Angel Flight, a charitable organisation coordinating free, non-emergency flights and ground transportation so people who live in rural and regional Australia can access the specialist medical treatments they need.

It Takes Heart is hosted by cmr’s Samantha Miklos and Kate Coomber and recorded at cmr’s head office in Brisbane.

We Care; Music by Waveney Yasso

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Transcript

Meet Julie Quade

Sam Miklos 0:00

Hi, I'm Sam. And I'm Kate. Today we're talking about leadership in healthcare and how it impacts far more than just the teams we work in.

Julie Quade 0:07

So if the leader can then reduce that noise, buffer them from the stress of the system, take stuff off their plate, to allow them to actually focus on good patient care because that's what I say to them. Don't worry about all the other stuff that's going on. You just be the best clinician you can be with the patient in front of you at the time.

Kate Coomber 0:27

And pop over and follow us on Instagram so you don't miss all the behind-the-scenes fun.

Sam Miklos 0:35

Alright, so today we're so happy to welcome Julie Quade into the studio today. Julie is a trained dietitian and also the Northern New South Wales Health Allied Health Manager. That's a mouthful to say too. That's a lot. Today we're going to be chatting about leadership and healthcare and how great leadership can really shape teams and impact patient outcomes. Welcome at Julie to It Takes Heart.

Julie Quade 0:58

Yeah, thanks for having me. You're really excited to be here. Where have you driven up from today? Tweed. Well, Austinville is where I live. But then I moved I went up to Tweed to just catch up with staff and do some work before I then came up here.

Sam Miklos 1:11

Up here into the studio. So let's talk about what drew you to healthcare. Because you're a dietitian. Yep. Now an allied health manager. Yeah.

Julie Quade 1:20

Why did you choose healthcare? So when I was younger, I did grow up on a little farm um out west in Tullamore and what was available was teaching a farmer's wife or nursing. So I always wanted to be a teacher until I went to boarding school. Until I went to boarding school and I did PDHP in year 11. We went down to the AOS and a dietitian came out and she spoke about the food pyramid. And I thought, wow, I could do that. Um and then I yeah, had no idea about what a dietitian was, looked into it. I was like, yes, I think that is for me. Really passionate about rural healthcare. Um and so yeah, that's why I ended up doing dietetics.

Kate Coomber 2:01

And what what kind of roles did you go into? Did you locum? Did you go and do a grad program? How did your career start out?

Julie Quade 2:09

So I always wanted to travel, so I kind of had that in mind that I wanted to locum over in the UK. And was that a talked-about thing?

Kate Coomber 2:16

Did you know that that was an opportunity?

Julie Quade 2:18

I think in high school a lot of people were doing gap years working overseas, um, and I just I just wanted to travel and see the world and I thought I'll do that through from work. So I my first year when I started working, um, I did community dietetics because I wanted to get that experience. Then I went into the hospital for the next year because I thought I wanted a broad sort of experience that then I could take over and then just get any locum then. Said yes to everything, then responsible. Yes to everything. Um and so the second year when I was in the hospital again, I said yes to eating disorders, pediatrics, everything. So that then when I went over to the UK, I had a pediatric locum, I had like a generalist role, I did community in Wales. Um so I actually then had a bit of a breadth behind me, sort of experience. So then when I went over there, I could take on different locum roles and travel. And as an allied health manager now, are you still practicing as a dietitian? No, no. I've stopped practicing probably it was 2019 it was, um, when I started to really take on just management roles and project sort of redesign roles as well. And is my stopped clinical. That you would normally stop clinical work when you step into those more senior leadership roles? Some people try to keep up their registration um with their profession and try to do a little bit of clinical as well. But I sort of made the I knew that I was sort of um finished with the clinical and I wanted to move into that leadership space um and grow more clinicians. Um so that's yeah, when I decided to make that change.

Why Clinicians Move Into Leadership

Kate Coomber 3:52

What what influenced that motivation from you know? To lead to very different. Yeah. Very different roles and yeah.

Julie Quade 4:01

I think when I first um, you know, started as a clinician, I I just I just wanted a manager, a leader who really cared about um the staff and made decisions for the collective and I didn't really find that. Um and so I thought that I would like learn the system, go into that role, and I moved from clinical because I thought I'm helping a patient one-on-one, but I could have a greater impact if I can actually influence the clinicians and this the workforce, and then that can help more patients. So I sort of thought to scale um the influence and the help that I could give, rather than just being one-on-one with a with a patient, I would move into actually managing the workforce um and then helping patient care that way.

Kate Coomber 4:53

Yeah. And how do you even know you when you talked then about um knowing that you want to work for a supportive workplace where you have great leadership? What even how do you come to know that that's what it could be or through your experience?

Julie Quade 5:09

I think um I think leadership is probably innate in me. I've got a couple of stories like when I was younger at primary school, I used to teach my 10-year-old friends when I was 10 how to drive on the farm. Um calm, problem solving, do that sort of thing. Then when I moved into um year ten, I had cadet, we had cadets, um, and we had to go on cadet camp, like for the school. And I was in charge of the catering, and I was meant to have a teacher with me, and she sprained her ankle and off she went. And then I was left like literally for the whole week organizing and cooking a team of people to then actually, you know, produce food for the whole cadet camp out in the bush. So I kind of um had some like innate leadership ability, I think. And then I guess I observed what not to do um, you know, in in w in the workplaces and thought, yeah, that's not actually how I would do things, or I think it could be done a different way. Uh, and then yeah, moved into roles where I was then able to try out the way that I would want to lead.

Sam Miklos 6:18

Do you think um 'cause I dare say, you know, I was an occupational therapist in another life. You know, a lot of clinicians go into healthcare to help people, but probably leadership isn't really on the radar in those early years, and um you know you can't be what you can't see, and obviously you experience that. Yeah. When you were ready though to take on more leadership roles at that stage, was there support training, or was that because if you're not if you don't have it innate in you, that would have been quite confronting.

Kate Coomber 6:46

Was it even supported by the team around you? Yeah.

Julie Quade 6:50

That's the beauty of New South Wales Health. They really do provide lots of um opportunities for leadership development. Um, I did like a clinical leadership program, which they don't have now, but Northern New South Wales actually has an emerging leaders program, and so um a lot of my staff are actually in that program. So they hear from the senior leaders of the organisation, they have a mentoring program, um, you know, they have sort of goals to work towards, um, and they they do that for the year, which is really good. And then I did the um heady next generation of leaders and managers again through New South Wales Health, so I could get a diploma of um leadership and management. I learned a lot through that. Um I did the rural research capacity building program, which was again networking and learning how to work with a lot of different people. Um so there was heaps of opportunities and there still is in New South Wales Health. Like if you because I think we recognise that leadership is important in such a large organization, and I think it is definitely something that um, you know, trying to foster more in the workforce.

Sam Miklos 7:55

Yeah, and getting the right people in as well, because that the way you describe that, seeing on scale the impact that you can have, you know, I think that possibly many would just sort of fall into leadership, and then being able to identify those emerging leaders and those programs and really foster that early on would just be so critical to really having such impact.

Julie Quade 8:15

Absolutely. Um yeah, it's identifying talent uh and then it's about you know fostering their growth. And we have, you know, each year we have performance development conversations, um, but you know, I have cat like monthly catch-ups with um team members or I'm coaching other staff around trying to, you know, the ones that you see have those uh skills and capabilities of to be a great leader.

What Great Healthcare Leaders Look Like

Kate Coomber 8:37

That's just gonna say about what are you identifying? How do you identify those skills in teams?

Julie Quade 8:42

Um like for me, I I look at who cares about the people. So who is more um you know, considerate and caring of the collective? So when they're sort of thinking about decision making, um, you know, they're able to um think in a system way rather than just on a linear sort of individual scale. Um but also what I look for like is those um what I call like nervous system regulation. So it's around actually, you know, are they emotionally reactive in in situations or are they sort of calming? Are they able to think when they're stressed? Um are they able to, you know, relate to people really well without discharging some of their you know frustrations? Um and I guess that's the sort of thing that I try and look for. Yeah.

Kate Coomber 9:37

And are there certain things that are really unique in healthcare? To be a leader in healthcare that that is a little bit different?

Julie Quade 9:44

Yeah, so I guess it so it what we call health is like a complex adaptive system. So, you know, there's so many different processes and systems and people and you know it can be quite, I guess, like overwhelming. So what you're looking for is people who can think strategic, um, who can, you know, take all of a complicated um you know health situation and simplify it, and then be able to communicate that um and then be able to have those interpersonal like relationships with other areas of health so that we're all then working really collaboratively and together on you know what we need to do for good patient care.

Sam Miklos 10:25

Um so yeah, that's kind of Is there a a story you could share where great leadership has had some really profound outcomes in healthcare in your region or other areas that you've worked?

Julie Quade 10:39

Uh I think um I mean on a daily basis, like you can see teams that when they don't have a great leader, um it just becomes dysfunction. I mean, often the team then adapt um to like the leader kind of thing rather than actually focusing on what they need to focus on. And so you see that, you know, every day where some teams are um, you know, karma, you know, know where they're heading, able to get on with the job that they need to, um, and then that leads to good patient care. Um and you can see where the leadership isn't great, you know, recruitment is an issue, um, you know, more complaints, um, you know, staff turnover, um, people are unhappy. Um, so you can you can really see it where in the different teams and departments that have like the great leadership or or that don't.

Sam Miklos 11:34

And you've um you've got great tenure with your team and there's not a lot of turnover. There's not been a lot that we can do to help you. Yeah. What do you do that is um that is so um that's been so great for that team retention and and attraction to your teams?

Julie Quade 11:50

Yeah. Um so I guess one thing is like you provide like the direction and clarity about where you're going. Um I do try and buffer them from the stress of the system. So New South Wales Health is, you know, it's changing, it's fast paced, it can be chaotic, um, you know, it's reactive a lot of the time. And so, you know, it's trying to, for me, be a regulated leader so that I'm not passing on that stress, that reactivity. Um, so staff know where we're heading, they can come to work, they know what's expected of them. Um, I support them in trying, well, what can I take off your plate? Like for me, leadership is about not so much facing upward and trying to please upward. For me, it's around serving the people that I work for because I feel like, and I think my workforce are who I work for, um, because if I can look after them, they can look after the patient. So then it's around, well, what can I do to serve you? What can I take off your plate? Um, what can I do to make your job easier? And rather adding stuff onto their plate, like it's trying to take stuff off. Um, and just supporting them then with their growth. Like, I really like to see, you know, where do you want to go? Like, maybe you don't even want to be in health, maybe you want to be in a different area of health. So talk to me. Like, where do you see yourself? Where do you want to go? I'm really happy to support you in that. Um, because yeah, I don't try and hold on to people. I like to see people, you know, grow and um move out, even if it is out of my strain, that's okay. Um so yeah, it's kind of um I guess being a buffer, providing direction, giving them the the tools, um, taking off stuff off their plate, um, and then supporting them to grow as people.

Sam Miklos 13:33

Like, which is so important because there's so much noise right now, you know, so much noise and all of the things like making it easier.

Kate Coomber 13:40

But but you've clearly been able to build trust because I think it's easy to say that you want to be the buffer or genuinely support their career development, even if it's out of the service or the team. But in order for people to open up and have those conversations with you, you know, that's that's a hurdle in itself, isn't it? How have you really gained their trust? For people to open up and just be honest so that you can support them in the best way that you know how to.

Julie Quade 14:06

Yeah. I think, you know, it's about psychological safety, isn't it? Um it's about that they feel that I mean it's how, especially as a senior leader too, you have to really go out of your way to make people feel comfortable because sometimes in a hierarchical system they will assume that you um aren't as approachable. So you kind of have to go out of your way to make people know that you are a normal person. I often go and actually hang out with not just my heads of department, but the clinicians on the ground. So, you know, try to know people's names, um, walk around and understand, you know, where they're working, where they've come from, you know, have a chat with them so that they see me visible, um, go to their, you know, department meetings if you can, to the huddles so that they have exposure to seeing that I am just a normal person. Um so it's about that sort of um energy and feeling that they get from you. Um and it's a f and I guess they're watching you too. So, you know, I'm not reacting, um, I'm not having emotional outbursts, I'm not making them feel unsafe that they can't speak up. I, you know, invite dissent, like I invite other opinions, I invite people to challenge that that's safe to do so. Um and so yeah, I think that's kind of how you get them to to trust. Yeah.

Sam Miklos 15:29

Have you um as a leader, has all of your leadership experience been in New South Wales Health or have you made it?

Julie Quade 15:37

Yeah, my whole career, I mean, apart from doing local work over, yeah, um, has been sort of New South Wales Health.

Sam Miklos 15:44

And do you um as a leader in you know, a big organization like there's so much change? Do you feel you can have a genuine impact on the direction and yeah, I think if you stick with your circle of influence, um absolutely.

Julie Quade 15:59

So, you know, I have lots of people um, you know, directly reporting to me and then staff that are in the hospitals and in the community. Uh and so that that's a huge influence on, you know, a huge amount of people who then I see like have little contagion, you know, they can then influence other people, there's a ripple effect. Um, you know, they can have great patient care. Uh so yeah.

Kate Coomber 16:24

I was gonna actually ask you about that, the patient outcomes. So have you seen or you know, is there some data there around patient outcomes stemming from great leadership and cohesive teams and you know when everything's moving in the right direction?

Julie Quade 16:37

Yeah, I well I think as I said before, I think if you take like the what your workforce care about patients. I mean, that's why they went into it. That's why they went into it. Yeah, they they just want to focus on patient care. So if the leader can then reduce that noise, um, buffer them from the stress of the system, take stuff off their plate, to allow them to actually focus on good patient care, because that's what I say to them. Don't worry about all the other stuff that's going on. You just be the best clinician you can be with the patient in front of you at the time. That's what I ask of you. Um and then the rest of the stuff, like the managers or myself, like we can try and you know take care of. So um, yeah, definitely I think, you know, you as I said before, you can see where the leadership isn't great. Um and then, you know, small complaints, like small incidents, um, yeah, you can see where that where the effect of that happens.

Burnout Prevention

Julie Quade 17:35

Yeah.

Sam Miklos 17:35

We're hearing a lot about burnout in the healthcare condition healthcare community, and it's definitely coming through a lot in our surveys with our locum staff, is that feeling of burnout. Yeah. Um how are you as a leader, I guess, supporting your teams, have you as a leader experienced periods of burnout? Yep.

Julie Quade 17:54

Uh I haven't as a leader, and I think that um like it's understanding how burnout occurs. So, you know, it's about managing your stress cycle, isn't it? Um you're always going to have um change, you're always gonna have other people reacting around you, you're always gonna have things that, you know, could be perceived as stressful, but I think doing that like internal work around, you know, your beliefs and uh even just movement, like so practicing, you know, um exercise and things like that, like to discharge stress, um, you know, it's sort of like the mind, the body, the heart, like sort of doing those practices to then manage your stress. Um, and then, you know, I think a lot of it comes from that internal angst that people have. And if you can do that internal work, um, then everything can go on around you in the external environment, but you've got this sort of center that you're regulated and you know, you can go through the stress cycle and come back into your window of tolerance, like um, you know, because you're not meant to be zen all the time, like you just a flexible nervous system is, you know, being activated or and then coming back into a regulated state. So it's practicing that um and having the tools to be able to bring yourself back into that regular state on a regular basis, um, and that prevents burnout. And I guess for me, that's what I've tried to do. Um, and I've tried to increase my window of tolerance too. How much stress can I tolerate? And that's by taking on new experiences, it's getting in there in an uncomfortable situation, and then signing up to a podcast. Absolutely. Um, and then you do it and you know you're okay. So you kind of update the whole, you know, psyche programming that you have. Okay, isn't it scary? Yeah, I'm okay. Um, so I think over time I've always challenged myself in different areas to then, you know, I think that helps and having a higher tolerance for stressful situations. And I'm trying to now teach that um for my managers. I had a development day a couple weeks ago, and it was about um nervous system regulation and you know, the the stress cycle and the burnout, and you know, if we have that internal sort of center, then stuff can go on stressful around us, but um we can be regulated. And I'm hoping that that then will filter down to other staff and the workforce. Um and just we can observe and see, you know, the stress and the reactivity and the pivoting that happens and the change that happens, but we don't have to get caught up in that all the time.

Kate Coomber 20:38

Um what about for people maybe who don't have a full understanding of that nervous, you know, the regulation piece, maybe talk about what does it look like when someone's not regulated? Because to some people that might be a bit of a foreign concept. Yes. Um you've obviously done a lot of self-improvement and study. Probably it sounds like a real passion piece of yours personally. Yeah. What does it look like when it's not in play?

Julie Quade 21:03

Yeah. So when you see like dysregulated leaders, um they're like, you know, talking fast, quick decision making, not using data, um, emotionally, you know, volatile, um disreactive like in situations. And there's you know evidence there that um when you're not in that regulated state, you don't have access to your prefrontal cortex as much, which that's for your high-level thinking, that's for problem solving. That's what we need for a system to have available, you know, that that sort of thinking. Um so you see it, you see reactivity, you see um decision making that doesn't really make any sense. Um, you see people taking it out on other stuff. Um, yeah, that's kind of in in the workplace. Um just that quick change that you that you often see. Yeah.

Kate Coomber 21:56

What are some quick tips that you might have when people when you need to? Be highly regulated, and it might be one of those stressful situations that's really challenging you. You know, I guess we talk a little bit here, don't we, about above and below the line, and sometimes it's really hard to be above that line when that does happen. What are some little tips that you have for yourself to make sure that you're calm?

Julie Quade 22:19

So the first thing is um just being aware of the state that you're in. So, like, am I um activated? Like, am I heading towards like out of my window of tolerance? Which for me it's you know, like fast talking. Um, I probably get more frustrated than what I normally would and want to vent possibly a little bit more. Um I'm not as focused on tasks as what as what I would normally. I'm sort of scattering, my thoughts are scattered, like I have lots of thinking going on. So when I recognize that, I go, oh, like I need to actually slow, like actively tell myself to slow. I mean, that's when that deep breathing, there's some practices that can actually, you know, bring your body back into a regulated state. It's somatic, so you know, are my shoulders like tight? Um you know, am I is my back starting to sort of get like cramped up? Like I physically have, I can feel it. That's shallow breathing. Shallow breathing, I can actually feel it in my body. And so then it's working out for you. What's your recipe to bring you back into a regulated state? Is it co-regulation with someone who you trust, like going and having a discussion around it? Is it going for a walk? Um for me, I journal a lot. So I actually, for me, if I can um make meaning out of a situation, usually with a positive spin on it, then for me that's processing for the brain, and then I can come back into, yep, I've sort of in my mind, I've solved that now, or I've I've completed that. Um so a lot of self-reflection, um, yeah, there's different ways and that everyone can have access to and it's figuring out for yourself like how you can bring yourself back into a regulated state. But for me, it's movement, it's co-regulation, it's taking time out, slowing down, like moving noise, um, removing other people, talking to me, go and have quiet time, you know, go spend some time in nature and then journaling a lot really helps me to actually, yeah, work through that um stress cycle and then be able to process whatever it was that you know activated me at the time.

Kate Coomber 24:28

And that's not just for leaders, is it? It's for you to understand your team of what works for them to make sure that you can coach and support them in the way that they need. Because as you just said, not everybody responds the same way, not everybody needs the same way to to come back into that calm.

Julie Quade 24:44

No, exactly. That's right. Very different ways of doing it as an example. Yeah, absolutely.

Kate Coomber 24:49

Which we didn't realise until fairly recently. Yeah.

Julie Quade 24:52

Um and I think you know, OT, that's kind of sometimes your bread and butter, especially with pediatric OT. It's with children, you know, learning how to regulate. Sometimes it's um swinging, sometimes it's legs up the wall, sometimes it's dry brushing, like all different things. And then as an adult, yeah, have awareness of what state you're in and then you know, taking steps to bring yourself back in there. And don't um, you know, react, um, preserve the relationships. Um, you know, don't make decisions when you're in that state. And then when you're actually back into a regulated state, then you can actually have those discussions that you need to or make decisions that you need to, and we'll be doing it all from a much smarter place. Much I was thinking about a much smarter.

Sam Miklos 25:38

A much smarter place.

Kate Coomber 25:41

People probably just don't understand that some of the perhaps some of the terms that you're referencing, but they'll understand maybe or respond to, you know, we need more think time or space to think. And everybody knows that. But yeah, it's probably the why of why do we need that space to think? And I think you're just talking about that.

Julie Quade 25:58

And I think now all of our environments are just so noisy. Yeah. There is so much going on. Everything is buzzing at us, yeah. Yeah, and because we have so much access to information and you know, it's so much noise. And I think to be able to regulate ourselves, to be able to hear ourselves think, like, you know, sometimes it's a good idea. It's really good to remove all the time.

Sam Miklos 26:19

I just need a minute to think.

Julie Quade 26:21

They don't understand.

Sam Miklos 26:22

No, no, just be quiet, just be quiet. I just need a minute.

Julie Quade 26:25

Yeah. Absolutely. And that's like your system's overwhelmed, like you your activated state. And so you need to be able to come back into a regulated state to then make good decisions, to be able to preserve relationships with people. Um, because yeah, and then be able to respond rather than react.

Learning To Quiet The Noise

Sam Miklos 26:43

You mentioned earlier around um, you know, as a leader, it's your job to, you know, protect the team, I guess, from the noise. Yeah. What are the and we we're hearing about burnout and what are the themes or the things that are keeping you as a leader up at night in healthcare? And equally what do you think is keeping your team up in healthcare?

Julie Quade 27:03

Uh I think, well, for me, not much keeps me up anymore because it's kind of room at night.

Sam Miklos 27:12

What should you be thinking about? Yeah, I guess what's the noise? I mean, what's the noise in healthcare? What are the things? Yeah, for staff and for leaders in healthcare. Yeah.

Julie Quade 27:20

It's competing priorities. Um we have so many patients that need our help and support. Um, resourcing then is getting more challenging expectations and uh yeah, priorities are just uh it it can feel overwhelming for a lot of people because we have to use our resources wisely and you know effectively. Um but there's definitely, you know, I think just a lot of chronic disease, you know, older population, um, there's a lot of yeah, demands like on on healthcare and yes, not a never-ending budget. So there's always pressure, like always on a daily basis, all the time, um, around that sort of balance between um, you know, where we put resourcing um and yeah, how we manage that like effectively. Uh and I mean it's an emotional thing, isn't it? You know, people come to health um and it's often the sometimes the worst time in their life. And so, and we want to care about everyone that that comes. Um, but when you're managing resources then, like that can that is that's a real challenge. Yeah. Yeah.

Kate Coomber 28:34

And does that mean that less people are wanting to move into leadership because they understand the pressures and it you know, that must feel like you can't win at times?

Julie Quade 28:48

Well, I think again, you know, when you asked me that question before about like can you make an impact? I think the biggest thing is yes you can if you come back to what can you influence. Um, and I think if you looked, if you sort of zoomed out and looked at that big thing, you can might feel overwhelmed. But I think you need to come back to, you know, in my day, what can I influence? And that's why I say to the clinicians, like, I just want you to focus on the patient in front of you and provide the best care that you can. Don't worry about all the other noise. Like for my managers, I say to them, I just want you to create a really great environment for your staff. Like that's your main focus, that's what I want you to focus on. And then for me, it's around where can I advocate up or where can I um you know, try to um I guess influence like where resourcing and things are are placed, um, and then how can I support my staff. So yeah, I think if you just cr try to bring it down to what is it that is my job, what is my main purpose, what can I do, um, then that becomes manageable. Um because usually, you know, I've said to a lot of my my staff, it's usually other people's things that weigh you down. It's not actually yours. Yes. And so if you can learn your boundaries, um, you know, uh only do what you like what's in your circle of influence, not take on other people's things, um, it's actually okay. Like it's actually quite manageable. It's all right.

Kate Coomber 30:14

And I guess if you you talk there about a lot of the challenges and and trying to support the team, what are also the really great things about leadership? What is what's the best thing about leading in health?

Julie Quade 30:24

Yeah, that you have the ability to to influence like patient outcomes, um, staff. I mean, we spend so much time at work. So it's really nice to be able to create an environment where people want to want to come to work and then seeing them actually develop and grow as people and then also like as leaders and maybe going into different areas of health too. Uh so yeah, there's definitely it's rewarding, absolutely, and I guess that's why I enjoy it, I want to do it, my managers enjoy it, um, because you are really making a difference like to the individual but then also to the collective.

Speaker 4 31:06

Yeah.

Future Leadership Across Allied Health

Sam Miklos 31:07

If you think about then the future of healthcare, what do you think? Do you think the skills and the capabilities will change in terms of what the leaders of the future in healthcare will need to have?

Julie Quade 31:19

Yeah, so I absolutely think like a a regulated nervous system, like being able to have flexibility with your nervous system is so important. Um, as I said before, because you then can preserve relationships, you can respond rather than react, you can have high-level thinking, like that is what is needed. Um also then we'll utilize resources uh a lot a lot more efficiently and less wastaged in this in the system. The second thing is a systems thinker. So, you know, we we have to think about what the effect is downstream of whatever decision that we make. And I think before, because sometimes it can feel overwhelming, people kind of reduce thinking to just A to B linear, whereas you it's a system and you need to understand that you make one change, it's not it's not gonna have the effect that you probably thought it was going to be. It's gonna affect multiple different things at the same time. Um, and so that that is really important. And the other thing is I think um is around that sort of not getting caught up in the emotion that often can be, you know, with with patients, with staff. Um you need to be able to uh still make good decisions um and not get caught up in some of the emotion and stuff that that can happen a lot of the time. And I think um, yeah, those three things are are what's needed as we move through like this, you know, this time of.

Sam Miklos 32:51

Yeah, I was just gonna say I'm sure too. Like Allied Health, as Allied Health Manager, you know, that comment around, you know, the impact of decisions, like it's not just an impact on the dietetics team that you've got there. And we probably haven't covered that. Like in terms of your role as an allied health manager, what healthcare teams do you look after?

Julie Quade 33:09

So I've got the occupational therapy, um, dietetics, speech pathology, social work, physiotherapy that are in the hospitals and um in the community in the allied health stream in community allied health, and then I have the community podiatry service as well, and then I have the genetic counselling service um for the district too.

Sam Miklos 33:30

So huge remit in that ability to be really calm and considered across because all of those would have competing priorities at times, and yeah.

Julie Quade 33:39

They do, and that is the biggest stress for the clinician is that I have these patients in front of me. I there's not enough of me to be able to see all of them that I want like that I need to. Um and that's hard, like when you've gone into caring and you're empathic sort of you know, clinician, that's the biggest thing that I hear from the clinician. So um yeah, it's helping them navigate that.

Kate Coomber 34:03

And what you're dealing with in terms of caseload must be really changing too, you know, with um if you're dealing with pediatrics in particular, I read the other day about the um that you know they're not the same children as there once was, you know, they're the first generation to grow up on screens, which is growing lots of different uh problems. So if you're in OT and counselling and things, are you seeing different the teams having to keep adjusting to the things that we're now faced with?

Julie Quade 34:31

Yeah, absolutely. So that's why we need to be, you know, learning and development needs to be a massive focus. Um how do you fit that in when you Well I was lucky we've actually did um employ, we've got one Allied Health Education Coordinator who I manage um Janet as well, and she's doing a fantastic job of a needs assessment of all the Allied Health staff and community allied health and what are their needs. Um and you know, that sort of goes from uh things that are across discipline, so actually, you know, trauma-based health care um and managing burnout is a big thing that people want to to know and have um education on, right then to the specialty areas. So um, you know, like ICU dietetics or and so we're trying to go how do we determine then what are the education needs of um the people in Northern for the Allied Health and then how are we going to deliver that um and make sure that we can yeah, give them the education they need for to be contemporaneous, like with their practice, because yes, it definitely is it's fast-paced, it's changing. Yes, yes.

Kate Coomber 35:38

Yes. And I think for any healthcare professional who might be thinking of a new role or why should people come to Northern?

Julie Quade 35:46

So I moved up there um only it was probably three years ago now, and I think yeah, it's it's great. I mean, just you're never bored. There's so many things to do. I mean, there's the beach if you want to, but for me it was um like bushwalking and waterfalls and like there's camping, um, people go fishing and it you can be who you want to be. I found that where I had been before, it was sort of just um one type of group kind of thing. Whereas in northern What does Northern what areas does Northern? We go from Grafton up to Tweed, um out to casino um and then Ballinar, Byron, that sort of area. So if you're into like the coastal like surfing lifestyle, if you're into rural, like out of casino, if you're into like spirituality, health and well-being, um, you know, if you're an Instagrammer, like you're an influencer. You're an influencer. It doesn't matter. You can be anything anywhere. Um, it's very eclectic. Um people are a lot more, I feel like, accepting and fluid and um yeah, it's a great place to be. And my kids have actually said that they're they're they're grateful grateful that we moved um up to the Northern Rivers because it's definitely a a nicer place to to live.

Kate Coomber 37:09

Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, I bet they have great nervous systems.

Sam Miklos 37:15

Yeah, maybe we need to really care. I reckon I do really well in Northern Rivers. Yeah, that's great.

Kate Coomber 37:20

Yeah, can I just ask you, is there one person that uh has inspired you in your leadership journey? You know, is there some you've read all the books or not necessarily even a manager or anything like that, but just someone, you know, we're always trying to read all the books and do all the things and the podcast and all the you know, who's someone that you've really looked to and that you love their work and it it's inspiring?

Julie Quade 37:44

I think I've taken little bits and pieces from everyone. I think I'm like a bow bird with that. I have read so many different books as well, but then um, you know, it's watching different people and I think I don't think there's one person. I'm uh of someone who's taken a little bit from multiple different areas and then being able to sort of formulate into I just the way then that provided clarity for me, I guess. Um so no, I kind of can't say. Like there's just multiple different um yeah, authors and books and influencers and I know what little bits I've taken from different people. Um but yeah, it for me it's it's again, I think that broad, sort of broad um huge perspective and then trying to then bring it into some clarity for me, I guess, is what I've done.

Sam Miklos 38:37

If you could just still it down to that the one thing that really makes an impact for you, what would that be? In terms of In terms of being a a great leader.

Julie Quade 38:51

I think it's it's caring about the collective for me. Yeah. It's it's not making decisions based on my personal comfort or um yeah, what's best for me. It is it is always having the collective in mind and other people in mind and like your your decisions and the effect that it has on everyone. And I think that's probably the biggest thing that we need to to change. Yeah. Yeah. That would be great.

Sam Miklos 39:18

You can see you get really emotional about that too. Oh yeah, I really do. It's so important because that's too like it is sometimes making the most uncomfortable decision, but if it's gonna have the best outcome for the collective group, particularly when that knock on effect then goes to patients, and like you said, at scale.

Speaker 39:34

Yeah.

Kate Coomber 39:35

Um that's where the trust with the team comes in, right? So when you have to make those decisions, they have trust that you've made them. That's right, with the collective. Yeah, exactly. That's right. If you don't have that, then people just think you've made crazy decisions.

Julie Quade 39:46

Yeah. And I guess that's what I've seen a lot of the time and why I wanted to become a leader was that yeah, I just couldn't understand, like why was these decisions made? And now what I've come to understand it was about their own easing their own discomfort sometimes rather than actually what was needed for everyone. And it takes courage, to be honest. It takes courage to make some of those hard decisions and sometimes you know might be unpopular. But what I found over time is if you can explain your reasoning behind it, and I guess they trust that you have thought of everything, usually then when you explain why something can't happen, um, they're okay. Yeah. People are okay with it. Yeah, once they've got that clarity. Yeah, absolutely. So yeah, no, I do. I hope that we can, yeah, develop more and more leaders who who do really care about the collective. Um, because I mean, we're all a system, aren't we?

Speaker 4 40:41

Yeah.

Julie Quade 40:41

And that's why I think one regulated nervous system can then spark another one, can spark another one. And then all of a sudden we have, you know, some regulation and harmony like in the system. Because at the moment it just seems to be, yes, that chaotic like dysregulation. Um and I guess when you're thinking about a system, one nervous system affects another. I mean it's emotional contagion, um, they've seen stress markers in staff. You know, if the leader is stressed, that can filter down to staff. So um it it's yeah, there's evidence behind it. So so important.

Speaker 4 41:15

Yeah.

Kate Coomber 41:16

I love that. So, yes, with this episode, CMR are going to be making a donation to a charity of your choice. Where can we talk about today? Uh might do Angel Flight if that's okay.

Julie Quade 41:26

Yeah, I just remember their ads, they make me cry. What do they do? They go and fly um patients and people from rural um Australia. So I guess that's where I grew up. So it's like, oh, I see that. And I yeah, it gets me teary. So I think, yeah, let's let's do Angel Flight. Perfect.

Sam Miklos 41:43

And we haven't done anything with Angel Flight before. We haven't. Julie, thank you so much for your time today. It um, you know, when you think about leadership, there's so many great things that you have said today that our leaders, even in our business here today, there are so many takeaways there. And I think when you bring it down to that regulation of the nervous system, thinking about the collective, um, certainly for me as a leader, I was like, oh yes, I feel very seeked. There were so many things you've said, and it's just been a joy to speak to you. And gosh, like that northern New South Wales region with leaders like you there. What a wonderful place to be. I can see why you don't have a need for us as an agency. Yeah, but yeah, thank you for your time.

Julie Quade 42:24

Yeah, well, thank you so much for having me. I've really enjoyed it actually, my first podcast. So thank you very much. Who knows? I don't know, but we'll see. Yeah, thank you, surely.

Speaker 4 42:35

We care for the land and sea.

Kate Coomber 42:40

We acknowledge the traditional custodians of the land of which we meet, who for centuries have shared ancient methods of healing and cared for their communities. We pay our respects to elders past and present.