Waikato nurse Tracy Chisholm
We are striking because we know that nurses play an integral part in the New Zealand health system. The lack of respect for the health of New Zealanders and the nursing community by this government needs to be called out.
For me it’s about safety – the safety of our patients. How do we provide culturally safe care without the nurses to do it? How do we educate, prevent deterioration and further harm without the nurses to provide it? How do we meet the government’s health kaupapa without the nurses?
Rotorua nurse Lyn Logan
We are striking because Te Whatu Ora’s constant financial constraints impact the care we provide our patients. When we are under-resourced and understaffed, we do not have enough healthcare workers to give the best care, and our patient’s care will suffer as a result. NZNO members are standing up for a better health system for our patients, whānau, and our country.
For me, it’s about informing the public who use health services, and my community, that if I do not strike then I am not committed to improving health services in my region. I want to give our community the best care I can when they come into the hospital – at present I cannot do this.
The Government and Te Whatu Ora are not listening to health-care worker27who are on the frontline, so striking is the only way I can raise awareness of the issues I face with unsafe staffing and inequity. If we rise up together, we can make a difference and try and change how things are at present.
Hutt Valley nurse Nathan Clark
We are striking because it’s about patient safety, ensuring we have enough skilled health-care workers at the patient’s bedside, in the community, in people’s homes and where they are needed.
We have been fighting and advocating for years for safety for our patients. As health professionals we know that nurses at bedsides and safe staffing provides for a better outcome, better patient care and patient experiences when receiving health care services.
We are striking because we want to put our patient needs at the forefront by seeking increased staffing levels, commitment to the identified care capacity staffing increases and a wage that reflects our skills and knowledge and to retain our workforce.
Christchurch nurse Debbie Handisides
For me this strike is for our future nurses and health care; to not lose the gains we’ve made for nurses and patients in Aotearoa.
We have fought for years for nurses to be paid equally to a male comparator, but Te Whatu Ora is only proposing 1 per cent which doesn’t even meet the household cost of living. So why would anyone pick nursing as a career if they can’t pay their household bills.
The future of health care sits on nurses’ shoulders because we care with our hearts. Yet the Government just talks about budget targets saving lives, yet it’s actually doctors and nurses that save lives, and are the ones that care so much. We’re fighting by striking for a better funded health-care system to save people’s lives.
Tauranga nurse Helena Joyce
I am striking because as a nurse I see how dangerous it is when we are short-staffed, nurses get overworked and then make mistakes like medication errors. Years of effort have gone into CCDM and now they are throwing it away.
What happens next year when they start a new ward or do some changes to a ward – how then are management going to decide how many nurses are needed? There seems to be no point in throwing this out except to make us understaffed.
Waitemata nurse Troy Stewart
We are fed-up with the constant undervaluing of our complex and comprehensive work as nurses, and the disrespect being shown towards our understanding of what we need to do our job properly.
We feel that Te Whatu Ora’s suggestion that we are only worth a net pay cut and that we don’t know how to represent how understaffed we are is insulting and irresponsible. Why would anyone be willing to roll over and accept a precedent that would undermine the wellbeing of our health system founded on telling the workers that hold the system up that they are worth less than nothing?
Whakatāne nurse Tracy Black
For me, it’s about the safety of my people – culturally safe staffing saves lives.