Aotearoa’s 1000th nurse practitioner stoked to join ‘kick-ass’ circle

“It’s extremely significant for nurse practitioners, but not so much about me,” said Hutchinson, who qualified in December.

“I feel really proud but ultimately really humbled to be stepping into that circle — because it does feel like a circle where everyone’s got their own strengths and superpowers.”

She said it felt a little like joining a “good coven of witches, everyone doing their good work and being really kick-ass people”.

Hutchinson’s own journey began in 2006, when she trained as a nurse through Massey University in Wellington.

‘Nurses consistently step up and step out for our population to fill the breach and they deliver.’

But it was at Otago Polytechnic, where she completed her degree, that she met an inspiring tutor who was adamant newly-established nurse practitioners (NPs) were the future.

“She was so passionate about it and to me it seemed so daunting — that people would be working independently.”

Hutchinson went on to work at Wellington Hospital in post-surgery recovery, neurosurgery, cardiothoracic surgery and intensive care over the next few years.

And along the way, her interest grew in the “sociological aspects of nursing, relationships and the human experience of life”.

“Not necessarily so much the tasks and hands-on work but people’s journey through their lives and the fact that everybody wants to be a healthy functioning person to be able to achieve what they want to achieve in their lives.”

She did her masters of nursing while working at a supportive sexual health service, then — with her wise tutor’s words bubbling up from the past — took the leap when a colleague resigned.

After an “unbelievably challenging” year-long nurse practitioner training, Hutchinson qualified at the end of 2025, making history.

“It was 10 times harder than most grad papers, as it’s a synthesis of all the papers at the same time,” she said.  “It’s like a remodelling of your brain — a birthing process!”

But three months into her newly expanded practice, she is finding it “incredibly rewarding . . . stretching beyond collecting the evidence and developing the confidence to put a name on everything you see”.

“It’s really great to be expanded and interested and engaged in the more complex care.”

Hutchinson is already diagnosing conditions such as acute pelvic inflammatory disease, proctitis and skin conditions, as well as caring for people living with chronic disease like HIV or syphilis.

“I’m plugging syphilis testing for all women of reproductive age, especially wāhine Māori and Pacific!”

Later this year, Hutchinson is also starting work in gender-affirming care, alongside another NP.

‘Awhi each other along and support each other and use each other’s help and knowledge – because you’re all there to get the job done.’

Hutchinson, whose grandad is from Atiu in the Cook Islands, also loves working with the Pasifika community, in her sexual health role — but notes there is no single Pacific culture.

“Everybody’s approach to virginity, sex and gender and sexual orientation is different on every island and culture — but it’s also different because of Christianity and popular culture.”

‘Remember why you’re here’

Those early NPs, in the past 25 years, had forged the way for today’s generation Hutchinson said.

“It’s amazing what the NPs have done and continue to do to make it easier for the NPs coming through. They were feeling in the dark — there was an enormous amount of frontierment, just out in the middle of nowhere scraping it together.”

Her message to patch protectiveness from some doctors worried their roles will be lost to NPs is this:

“Remember why you’re there.  All of us should be here really to address the health needs of the population and those needs are not being met. Nurses consistently step up and step out for our population to fill the breach and they deliver on what they try to do.”

NPs were not “mini doctors” but “super nurses” with a very broad, person-centred brief.

“You’re always looking not just at the person but behind them, beside them —  for all the factors that might contribute to the success of their care or the failure of their care.”

Whether GP, NP, specialist, clinical nurse specialist or nurse prescriber, she suggests: “Awhi each other along and support each other and use each other’s help and knowledge – because you’re all there to get the job done”.