Quality Account 2021-2022

Creating cultural change: Interview with Equity and Inclusion Coordinator, Barb West

At The Royal Victorian Eye and Ear Hospital we are committed to providing an inclusive and respectful environment, free from discrimination.

Barb West joined the Eye and Ear in March 2022 to support our action plans and work to further build a culture of equity and inclusion. Barb comes from a professional background in academia, landing what would have been her dream job at 33— tenured professor at a university. It was at this time she realised she wanted more from life and decided to move from her then-home in California to Melbourne. From here, Barb wrote a number of books, including a book on the history of Australia and a book about Australian culture and the workplace. Barb and her partner started their own intercultural consulting business to help organisations incorporate equity and inclusion into their workplace in an impactful way.

Importance of difference, equity and inclusion

Through her experience as an intercultural consultant, Barb has worked with a range of clients on supporting a variety of intercultural projects. These projects included working with universities to support them in appropriately welcoming their international student cohorts and working with healthcare institutions on improving their informed consent practices.

“What we found was that many patients were saying ‘yes’ but didn’t always know what they were saying ‘yes’ to. I worked a lot in upskilling this form of communication,” said Barb.

Barb later moved back into the academic world and accepted a lecturer position in Hungary, moving there just before the pandemic hit. In late 2021, Barb moved back to Melbourne where she applied for the Equity and Inclusion Coordinator role at the Eye and Ear.

“I was so impressed and delighted with the Eye and Ear in choosing me as the candidate for this role as I haven’t necessarily followed a standard career trajectory,” explained Barb.

Key areas of focus for this role include:

• Supporting further development of our Aboriginal Employment Plan, working closely with our Mirring Ba Wirring team
• Developing diversity and visibility within the LGBTQIA+ community
• Disability employment
• Implementing our Gender Equality Action Plan
• Upskilling and empowering staff with intercultural knowledge

“I hope to create a culture of celebration and adaption. I want all staff to be comfortable at work and be able to be 100% authentically themselves. Work environments with this kind of ethos create a vibrant and positive workforce,” explained Barb.

Gender Equality Action Plan

In 2020, the Victorian Government introduced the Gender Equality Act, which holds the hospital accountable for making meaningful changes in the workplace in order to strive for gender equality. An audit has been completed to determine the key benchmark statistics. The plan will focus on three key areas of improvement and change with constant consultation with the dedicated Eye and Ear working groups. Barb has commenced working through the actions and influencing change throughout the hospital.

What this means for patients

This role will highlight the importance of all forms of cultural and identity difference through increased visibility, adaptation and celebration. Enhanced cultural development training to both educate our staff and create a professional environment based on learning, adapting and the principles of intercultural communication will be undertaken.

“The overarching goal is to create long term change internally, which will filter through to our communications and actions with patients and carers,” shared Barb.

By empowering staff with knowledge, we can create better connections to our patients and approach each person with intercultural empathy and understanding.”

Barb explains that creating cultural change requires building the skills of all staff and ultimately comes down to the way in which we act and communicate.

She considers the cognitive processing differences as a good example.

“Are you a linear or a circular communicator? Most professional situations in the English-speaking world require you to speak in a linear manner. In many other languages this is not the case,” explains Barb.

Linear communication is a type of communication that moves in only one direction, whereas circular communication refers to more discussion-centric communication involving storytelling to develop context around the key message.

If our staff are skilled in identifying these types of cognitive differences when treating patients, then they will be able to adapt and become better communicators and better clinicians overall.

We will continue to share quality and improvement stories and data on this page throughout 2022. In the meantime, if you would like to learn more about what we are doing to support our patients, consumers, volunteers and staff, please read more in our Partnering with Consumers and Community Plan.