About Inspired to Care

We feel welcome. We feel valued. We feel safe. These are St Vincent’s Health Australia’s person-centred care principles, and they are at the heart of the Inspired to Care program.

Inspired to Care is the tangible expression of our Mission and Values and is strategically aligned with enVision2025. Our purpose is to celebrate and encourage excellence in person-centred care, shine a light on areas where we can do better, and maintain a strategic Group-wide view of person-centred care.

Our shared principles

SVHA's person-centred care principles were co-designed with 70 staff representatives drawn from every state and Division.

The principles reflect the distinctive brand of compassionate care that St Vincent’s is so well known for, and represent our promise to the community that every person who experiences our care will feel welcome, valued, and safe.

Inspired to Care is one of four Group-wide programs which fall within the overarching SVHA Inspired by You brand framework.

Inspired to Care focus areas

The Inspired to Care program has a number of key areas of focus aligned with each principle. Read more here.

Download a copy of the Inspired to Care guide and Inspired by You guide.

'Inspiration' is the foundation of SVHA's brand. Our brand is a commitment, a promise we make to ourselves, and each other. A promise about the standards we uphold in how we do business and how we relate to each other.

It presents the ‘why’ behind the ‘what’ – the purpose behind everything we do.This purpose comes from our Values, our Mission to care for the poor and vulnerable and our Creed that upholds the dignity of each and every person. And all these elements find their foundation in the scripture ‘the love of Christ inspires us’. This inspiration is focused through our organisation-wide strategy enVision2025 to achieve our strategic goals and desired future.

The four organisational development programs which will help us live up to our brand promise are:

  • Inspired to Care: Our focus on delivering exceptional, compassionate care.
  • Inspired to Serve: Our commitment to playing our part in the overall mission of SVHA.
  • Inspired to Lead: An ongoing call to lead others and ourselves in service to our mission, values, vision and strategy.
  • Inspired to Shine: An unswerving intent to play our part in creating a safe, respectful, values-based work environment for all.

Toby Hall talks about inspiration and SVHA

"The whole thinking around inspiration at St Vincent's really comes from the Sisters of Charity and their reason for being. They use a Bible verse 'Caritas Christi Urget Nos', which means the love of Christ impels us, or the love of Christ inspires us. There's a message in there from the Sisters to us saying 'this is not just a job, this is something we are inspired to do – we're inspired to care, we're inspired to serve.

Serving, seeing, and striving for something greater sets the direction, but the inspiration is how we feel inside – it's the drive that we have to get out and do what we do and put others first, and that's what inspiration is about to me.

This is the heart of St Vincent's – it's not about a job description, it's about people's needs and it's really standing up and saying we're going to step in and respond to people's needs. Now that is inspiring, that is service, that is going beyond the call of duty to say that 'I'm there for people when they need me'. And there's so many things throughout the organisation where people say 'I'm going to put me aside, I'm going to put our patients first and think about their needs, not mine', and if it's outside the job description, if it helps with care, then it's a good thing to do.

This program, this thinking, links to enVision2025 and a concept of serving something greater. St Vincent's is a brilliant organisation – you lead great people. This is taking on the next step to say ‘let's be even greater’.

We want people when they come to St Vincent's, is to be inspired by the fact that this place is different. They need to see it, feel it, touch it, and it needs to be ingrained from our staff through to all our patients. Get inspired to say we can be the best in the health industry in Australia – we can lead better, we can serve better, we can care better – and when people come here they will see a defined difference at St Vincent's, which says to them there is something special here. If we can do that it will be a great place to work and patients will come here and we can serve them and care for them, which is what our heart and Mission is all about.

We're not just inspired by our patients, we're inspired by our colleagues, those around us, those who walk with us. If we really truly live up to our inspiration it's much easier to serve, so let's get to the point where we're at our best and try to be our best as long as we can, as much as we can across the whole organisation. Your team will be inspired by you. Tell the stories, get them to tell their stories, and let's celebrate the greatness of St Vincent's Health Australia."