We had hoped to hit the ground running and achieve some of the goals set in our first meeting, particularly around growing kawa whakaruruhau – cultural safety.
Sadly, COVID-19 disrupted our hopes. Despite this, we commend our student representatives for their hard work and advocacy over the year.
We tried to respond to students’ needs head-on, using Zoom to discuss issues. But when we finally were able to fly to Wellington in December to meet face to face, we accomplished so much more and collaborated seamlessly – as we had hoped to from the beginning.
At our first meeting in January this year, via Zoom, our intention to build a more solid foundation through more collaboration, became clear. We hope to keep building on this momentum, and have established a strategic and work plan to keep on track.
Bullying
Our key areas of focus include bullying, increasing our student advocacy and re-establishing relationships with other NZNO member groups.
We recognise that bullying continues to be a huge issue faced by student nurses regularly. We all want this to be resolved and see a new nursing culture evolve in which bullying plays no part.
The NSU, with the support of NZNO researchers, will also be surveying students throughout the first six months of the year about a range of topics from bullying and kawawhakaruruhau to the impact of COVID-19. Results will be shared at the heads of schools meeting in July.
We are also working on two remits. One is to restructure NSU rules and expectations, as we feel some of these are outdated and do not suit our needs.
The other aims to encourage students to retain their NZNO membership throughout their studies and careers.
Last year we were sad to lose one of our most bubbly and passionate student representatives
Last year we were sad to lose one of our most bubbly and passionate student representatives.
We would like to acknowledge Trudi Kent for the time she shared with us. She is missed dearly by all who had the pleasure of knowing her.
We would also like to acknowledge the leaving members. At the end of last year and start of this year, we have had to say goodbye to many of our year-three students, who are now registered nurses.
We are all very proud of you for reaching registration and we wish you all the best with your careers.
This year the NSU, including Te Rūnanga Tauira (TRT), has a full team of chairs and vice chairs.
It has been a long time coming, but we all look forward to helping drive the NSU towards a successful future.