Clinical nursing tutor Mereruia Rikihana is pulling together a voluntary team of nurses to “march and mahi” with tens of thousands of people who are expected to take to the streets of Wellington next week for Hīkoi mō Te Tiriti.
“The technical medical plan for the hīkoi will be confirmed at a logistics meeting tomorrow, but the idea is to have stations of paramedics, and Māori wardens, at every 200 metres.
“And nurses, who can be clearly identified, walking with the people – ready to give first aid, CPR and other help if any marchers suddenly fall ill,” says Rikihana, who is the Wellington regional chair for the tangata whenua arm of NZNO.
The Ngāti Raukawa ki te Tonga and Ngāti Konohi mother, who teaches at the Bachelor of Nursing (Māori) course at Whitireia and WelTec, is part of the Pōneke team helping to organise all technical and logistical aspects of the hīkoi which will travel by foot at least 2kms from Waitangi Park to Parliament grounds on Tuesday.
“We are hearing reports of more than 30,000 people taking part in the hīkoi in Auckland yesterday and we are expecting even more to turn out in Pōneke for their final activation or march to Parliament.
“We are expecting this to be the biggest hīkoi or political demonstration Wellington, and the nation, has ever seen so we want to make sure everyone is safe and we have some nurses there.
“We realise many of our nurses are under the pump in their bread and butter jobs, so we don’t want to pressure any of them. If an hour or two is all they can spare, then kei te pai that’s okay. We will be so grateful.”
So far, Mereruia has managed to pull together a few nurses but more were needed.
“At the same time the hīkoi starts on Tuesday, hundreds of nursing students nationwide will be sitting their exams, so we will not be putting any pressure on them.”
Any nurses, and certified first aiders, interested in volunteering, should email Mereruia as soon as possible.