Professional – Kaitiaki Nursing New Zealand

April 2026

From hospital to home — the power of good written information after discharge

By Claire Samuel, Sieun Kim, Kiran Karaka, Francine Llanillo, Lorenzo Marcelo, Chenhao Yang & Kim Ward

April 17, 2026

A simple, well-written pamphlet can make a huge difference to patients after discharge. Auckland university nursing students explain why simple language cuts readmissions.

March 2026

Remote, but not alone: How nurses’ telehealth system enables safer heart-failure care

By Daman Kaur and Margaret Coghlan-Talbot

March 17, 2026

Nursing is an art with science, which resonates in our practice daily, say two Hawke’s Bay nurses, who are speaking at an upcoming digital health workshop.

March 2026

‘Peeling the onion’: An intensive brief intervention service for young people

By Michela Fox

March 16, 2026

Mental health nurse section committee member Michela Fox shares the secrets of a successful youth mental health service. Experience, complementary knowledge — and the nursing spirit of collaboration are key.

February 2026

Safeguarding supervision — easing the risk of nursing stress and burn-out

By Fiona Sharpe

February 24, 2026

Working as a Well Child/whānau nurse for almost 30 years I have enjoyed seeing families grow and thrive.

February 2026

Empowering nurses to deliver patient-centred analgesia

By James Camacaylan, Lisa Clince, Erica Gleeson & Grant McCullough

February 20, 2026

Hip fracture patients suffer considerable pain, and this can worsen when surgery is delayed. Upskilling a nursing pain management team to deliver the fascia iliaca block has been shown to improve patients’ pain management and reduce reliance on opioids.

January 2026

After 25 years of NPs in New Zealand, where are we now?

By Deborah L Harris and Eileen McKinlay

January 26, 2026

Twenty-five years on, New Zealand’s first nurse practitioners (NPs) have proven their worth — but obstacles remain, our first-ever NP finds.

January 2026

Expanding primary health student placements: Lessons from a hub-and-spoke model

By Karla Breen Rickerby

January 21, 2026

A pilot “hub and spoke” programme allowed nursing students to experience a wide range of primary health clinical placements in their final year.

January 2026

From concept to screen: a step-wise approach to creating health education videos

By Tracy Klap, Jacqui Grannetia, Stephen James and Maureen Coombs

January 15, 2026

Health education videos are increasingly being used to provide information to patients and whānau as they navigate their way through health services.

October 2025

A useful guide to help you meet your new competencies

By Pipi Barton

October 30, 2025

Are you unsure how best to show you’re meeting the new cultural safety requirements embedded in the Nursing Council pou (competencies)? Nurse educator Pipi Barton provides a guide that you can download and share.

October 2025

‘There is joy in nursing, and we want to find it’

By Shivann Ramaekers and Helen Rook

October 3, 2025

Share your joy — two nurse researchers want to hear about your uplifting experiences in nursing.

July 2025

No, it’s not all in their head — how to avoid ‘diagnostic overshadowing’ for patients with a mental health history

By Anthony O’Brien, Carolyn Swanson, Debbie Peterson, Ruth Cunningham and Stefan Heinz

July 1, 2025

Do people with a mental health and addictions history get a raw deal when presenting to health services with physical symptoms? This can happen where the clinician is not alert to the problem of ‘diagnostic overshadowing’.

May 2025

Small steps, big impact: How to activate wellbeing in our patients

By Sophie Ball

May 26, 2025

Simple straightforward tools can work well to improve patients’ mental health in primary care.

March 2025

‘Recovery capital’ in addiction treatment: What is it, and why is it important?

By Brent DONCLIFF

March 31, 2025

Health professionals have a vital role in putting addicts in touch with the inner and outer resources that will support them on the road to recovery.

December 2024

Youth with type 2 diabetes: Screening, complications and management

By Elisa Wong, Priya Joseph, Catherine Bacon and Barbara M Daly

December 12, 2024

Type 2 diabetes is getting more and more common among young people, but the condition is challenging for them to manage, and for whānau and health professionals supporting them.

January 2025

Demystifying the cardio-protective diet — a tool for nurses

By Jo Janssen and Denise Taylor

October 22, 2024

Masses of conflicting information about diet can flummox nurses giving advice to cardiac and diabetes patients. This article summarises the best quality evidence for a cardio-protective diet, and also presents a concise tool for nurses to use for education purposes.

August 2024

Medicines and older Māori — ‘It is through shared conversations that I understand’

By He Ako Hiringa

July 10, 2024

How do kaumātua view the medicines service they receive and how could it be improved? What ethnic variations are there in this service? This educational course focuses on medicines and older Māori and is relevant to nurses in primary care, alongside pharmacists and GPs.

July 2024

Migrant nurses’ experiences in the workplace — what support do they need to thrive?

By Dana Taylor

June 27, 2024

To thrive in the workplace, internationally qualified nurses need professional development, protection from bullying and good communication skills, a New Zealand researcher has found.

June 2024

Antimicrobial stewardship in Aotearoa: Striving for safe, effective and equitable antimicrobial use

By He Ako Hiringa

May 30, 2024

Pharmacist Sharon Gardiner presents an overview of antimicrobial stewardship (AMS) and antimicrobial resistance (AMR) — watch this webinar and earn CPD time.

May 2024

Asthma education through the eyes of your patients

By He Ako Hiringa

April 24, 2024

In this webinar, Asthma NZ nurse educators Bekitemba Maseko and Ann Wheat highlight the importance of asthma action plans.

May 2024

What can you do to prevent the oversupply of medication?

By He Ako Hiringa

April 11, 2024

Large amounts of unused medications accumulate in people’s homes. Health professionals, including nurses, have an important role to play in reducing this medicinal waste and its harmful effects on the health budget, the environment and public safety.

Daily doses – uncut news

16 Apr	Tribute to Professor Lester Levy’s service to healthcare Health New Zealand Chief Executive Dr Dale Bramley is paying tribute to Health NZ Board Chair Professor Lester Levy, who finishes in the role at the end of the month.
10 Apr	Chronic health care assistant short staffing harming vulnerable patients Te Whatu Ora’s attempt to cut costs by requiring health care assistants to carry out cohort patient watches is harming vulnerable patients and staff, NZNO says.
9 Apr	New group education clinics speeding up knee and hip surgery care Health New Zealand is rolling out a new group education approach for people waiting for hip and knee surgery in north and west Auckland, resulting in more patients being seen sooner.
25 Mar	National Diabetes Roadmap launched to improve care, prevention, and quality of life Health New Zealand has launched a new National Diabetes Roadmap (‘the Roadmap’) to improve care, strengthen prevention, and support better health outcomes and quality of life for people living with diabetes.
24 Mar	ACT should leave nursing to professionals and medical evidence Tōpūtanga Tapuhi Kaitiaki o Aotearoa NZNO Kaiwhakahaere Kerri Nuku says ACT MP Todd Stephenson has dismissed the Nursing Council’s draft code of conduct - which proposes strengthening cultural safety, whānau-centred care and te Tiriti o Waitangi obligations - as political ideology.
23 Mar	UK report reflects ICN warnings on international recruitment ripoff — now countries must act together The International Council of Nurses (ICN) warmly welcomes a new report from the UK All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Global Health and Security that recognizes the huge sums saved by high-income countries who recruit abroad and acknowledges the severe harms caused by unethical recruitment from fragile source countries left without nurses.
20 Mar	HPV self-test boosts cervical cancer screening ‘across the board’, new study confirms Making human papillomavirus (HPV) self-testing available to all women increases the number of people screened for cervical cancer, a new study led by researchers from Te Herenga Waka—Victoria University of Wellington has confirmed.
19 Mar	ICN at CSW70: Violence against nurses is a gendered crisis threatening global health The International Council of Nurses (ICN) has warned that violence against nurses is a global gendered crisis that threatens health systems, patient safety and workforce sustainability
17 Mar	Additional winter health care workers a drop in the ocean of need The Government’s announcement today of 378 extra staff to help hospitals cope with winter demand is a drop in the ocean of what patients need, NZNO says.
12 Mar	Funding change will ensure more consistent emergency care for New Zealanders A simple change in how ambulance medicines are funded is set to create more consistent emergency care.
9 Mar	Questions over dilapidated and cramped renal unit forced to ration dialysis The Health Minister must explain why after years of concerns from nurses about Christchurch Hospital’s barely functioning dialysis unit, he only stepped in late yesterday when life-saving treatment had to be rationed, NZNO says.
3 Mar	Hospitals and health workers should never be targets The right of health care workers to provide care during international conflicts must be protected, Tōpūtanga Tapuhi Kaitiaki o Aotearoa NZNO says.
2 Mar	Public and Mental Health Nurses settle collective agreement Health New Zealand welcomes the ratification of the two Public Service Association (PSA) Public and Mental Health Nurses collective employment agreements for Auckland and the Rest of New Zealand.
27 Feb	Whakatāne Hospital to resume secondary obstetrics and gynaecology services Whakatāne Hospital will resume secondary obstetrics and gynaecology services from 8am on 13 April 2026.
26 Feb	Counsellors warn NZ is normalising crisis levels of youth distress Youth mental distress has become entrenched, suicide remains a national tragedy, and our systems are failing to intervene early enough, says the New Zealand Association of Counsellors (NZAC).
26 Feb	Record uptake nearly doubles advanced nurse education scholarships A record 235 primary care registered nurses will begin advanced education this year – nearly doubling the number originally planned – following strong demand for the Government’s new Registered Nurse Primary Care Scholarships, Health Minister Simeon Brown says.
19 Feb	‘Top Up’ to deliver faster access to support Seven grassroots mental health initiatives supporting small and hard-to-reach communities have received funding to deliver faster access to support, Mental Health Minister Matt Doocey announced today.
18 Feb	Pharmac proposes funding new treatments that could transform early care for people with chronic lymphocytic leukaemia, a type of blood cancer People in New Zealand living with chronic lymphocytic leukaemia (CLL) could soon benefit from funded access to targeted treatments under a new proposal from Pharmac.
13 Feb	Te Whatu Ora’s embarrassing U-turn over proposed car park plan Te Whatu Ora needs to go back to the drawing board and prioritise worker safety after reversing plans to charge hospital workers market rates for car parks, NZNO says.
11 Feb	Stark differences in COVID-19 vaccination rates between Māori and non-Māori, research finds A new study analysing COVID-19 vaccine uptake has found markedly lower vaccination rates among Māori, which researchers link to existing inequities in healthcare access.
9 Feb	ICN’s call for International Nurses Day 2026: empower nurses to save lives ICN has announced the theme for International Nurses Day (IND) 2026: Our Nurses. Our Future. Empowered Nurses Save Lives. This focus sends a clear message that to maximize the full life-saving impact of the nursing workforce, we must empower nurses with safe, fair work environments and full nursing practice, influence, and leadership.
5 Feb	Global nurse leaders gather in Japan to address urgent workforce crisis Nursing leaders from Japan and around the world are gathering in Yokohama this week for two major nursing events that are advancing the global conversation on how countries can protect, retain and invest in their nursing workforce as pressures mount across health systems worldwide.
4 Feb	Midwives to deliver more vaccinations to help protect families Midwives are now able to offer a wider range of funded immunisations, supporting families from pregnancy through the early months of a child’s life, Health Minister Simeon Brown says.
30 Jan	Opening of E Tū Wairua Hinengaro – Mason Clinic Health New Zealand has marked the opening of E Tū Wairua Hinengaro, a new purpose-built facility at Auckland’s Mason Clinic designed to strengthen and modernise forensic mental healthcare in Aotearoa.
29 Jan	NZNO disgusted by nurse’s killing in the US Tōpūtanga Tapuhi Kaitiaki o Aotearoa NZNO has expressed disgust at the shooting and killing of nurse Alex Pretti on a Minneapolis, US street on Saturday morning by federal officers.
27 Jan	New national group forms to support public healthcare in Aotearoa Kaitiaki Hauora - Together for Public Health has been formed as a national group bringing together patients, health workers, iwi and Māori health representatives, unions, advocacy organisations, and community groups, with backing from a growing number of organisations across the health sector.
22 Jan	Pharmac proposes to fund life changing treatments for people with cystic fibrosis Pharmac is proposing to fund new treatment options for people living with cystic fibrosis with eligible mutations, including young children, from 1 April 2026.
05 Jan	Nurses pay tribute to Dame Poutasi The passing of Dame Karen Poutasi has seen Aotearoa lose one of its foremost health leaders and a woman of high integrity, Tōpūtanga Tapuhi Kaitiaki o Aotearoa NZNO Kaiwhakahaere Kerri Nuku says.