Peer-led early intervention— St Vincent’s Health Australia’s Ethos Program
St Vincent’s Health’s Ethos program (Ethos) was introduced in 2017 to address entrenched cultural issues in the health sector by building a culture of respect and safety in the workplace.
Ethos is a peer-led early intervention program which encourages a culture of speaking up, recognises staff who exhibit positive behaviour and addresses behaviour that undermines staff and patient safety.
The Ethos program is designed to remove barriers to speaking up by providing an avenue which is fast, fair and transparent. It supplements, rather than replaces, existing measures for disciplinary processes.
Ethos provides staff with training and information on responding to inappropriate or unsafe behaviours at an early stage and preventing them from reoccurring. Staff can submit reports about positive or negative behaviour they have observed through an online tool, with the option to remain anonymous.
When a negative report about a worker is made, it is assessed by the Ethos triage team which makes a decision about the most appropriate response. If the triage team decides a report is actionable, the worker involved will usually receive feedback about how their behaviour was perceived in the form of an informal, respectful and confidential ‘Ethos message’. This is a conversation designed to deliver informal feedback to a worker and offer an opportunity to reflect on ways they may behave differently in the future.
Repeated reports of ‘lower level’ conduct will trigger a higher level of intervention. This is essentially an Ethos ‘message’ conversation involving an ‘Ethos messenger’, the worker involved and their line manager.
Reports of conduct including sexual harassment that are sufficiently serious to warrant disciplinary action will be referred to Human Resources and ordinary disciplinary processes will apply.