July 2024 – Kaitiaki Nursing New Zealand

July 2024

Emergency nurses share woes with health minister

By Lauren Miller

August 26, 2024

After writing a concerned letter, NZNO’s emergency nurses met Minister of Health Shane Reti earlier this year, to discuss the realities of working on the frontline. As rallies over unsafe staffing in EDs continue, they share some of their kōrero here.

July 2024

Jobless nursing graduates feel ‘heart-broken and abandoned’

By Mary Longmore

August 2, 2024

Blindsided, abandoned and heart-broken — these are the feelings of some of our newest nurse graduates who missed out on hospital jobs — many of whom are heading to Australia.

July 2024

Former army medic recalls distressing memories, with return to Timor-Leste

By Andrew Macdonald

July 31, 2024

A Canterbury nurse who served as an army medic in the East Timor crisis, has just visited the now-independent Timor-Leste with her old comrades. She has distressing memories of the brutality of that conflict.

July 2024

Nursing Council drops 40-plus RN competencies in favour of six standards

By Mary Longmore

July 31, 2024

The Nursing Council has listened to nurses and dropped a proposal to make registered nurses (RNs) meet 41 separate competencies and enrolled nurses (ENs) 29, after an outpouring of concern over the workload.

July 2024

Former Te Whatu Ora chair speaks up for nurses

By Rob Campbell

July 29, 2024

Te Whatu Ora leaders say spending too much on nurses has pushed them into the red. Former chair Rob Campbell says nurses are part of the solution and must be supported with fair pay and safe staffing.

July 2024

Nurse specialist wants to help other nurses caring for rare cancer patients

By Liana Meredith

July 29, 2024

An Auckland nurse specialist describes her work with patients who have neuroendocrine cancer, after returning from an international conference on the rare and often slow-moving disease.

July 2024

Three out of five nursing students to get hospital jobs, Te Whatu Ora figures show

By Mary Longmore

July 24, 2024

Te Whatu Ora says it has employed 334 of the 535 mid-year nursing graduates who applied into supported entry roles — leaving 166 facing uncertain futures in the general talent pool.

July 2024

‘We are family’ — residents rally around nursing staff after bosses propose cutting 400 care hours

By Mary Longmore

July 19, 2024

Upset residents and their families and friends turned out to support staff striking over a proposal to cut 400 care hours a week at a Wellington aged care facility.

July 2024

Nursing students share pain, tears and laughter with heads of school

By Mary Longmore

July 18, 2024

There wasn’t a dry eye in the house recently as nursing tauira (students) spoke of their struggles, exhaustion and despair.

July 2024

‘We work just as hard’ — community nurses strike for the same pay as hospitals

By Mary Longmore

July 16, 2024

About 150 Access Community Health nursing staff went on strike around the country on this week, demanding the same pay and conditions as their Te Whatu Ora colleagues.

July 2024

‘Wonderful’ aged-care nursing is undervalued, says long-time nurse

By Alena Lynch

July 16, 2024

Long-time gerontology nurse Sally Fleming reckons working in aged care is extremely undervalued.

July 2024

JULY 2024 crossword

By Kathy Stodart

July 11, 2024

Instructions: Click on any cell to get started. Click on vertical / horizontal lines to change direction, or direction can be changed by clicking on Space / Enter key. Across and Down Clues can be toggle visible by clicking on the down / up arrows.

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

‘My God you’re influential — use it’. Call to action for nurses, kaiāwhina and midwives to push for safe staffing

By Mary Longmore

July 9, 2024

The real-life stories of nurses, combined with hard evidence on the harm caused by poorly staffed hospitals, are crucial to getting safe nurse-to-patient ratios legalised here in Aotearoa, nurse leaders heard.

July 2024

New Zealand can lead the world in culturally safe nurse-to-patient ratios

By Mary Longmore

July 4, 2024

Māori nursing leaders want Aotearoa, New Zealand, to be the first in the world to introduce culturally safe nurse-to-patient ratios, alongside clinical.

July 2024

Mid-year nurse graduate job matching ‘still underway’ — Te Whatu Ora

By Mary Longmore

July 2, 2024

Te Whatu Ora says its job-matching process for 535 mid-year nursing graduates is “still underway” and it cannot provide figures for another couple of weeks on where new nurses are going to be working.

June 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

Cancer nurses welcome multi-million medicine deal — but warn of flow-on workload

By Mary Longmore

June 26, 2024

Cancer nurses say the Government’s decision to fund 26 cancer treatments is great news — but it must also resource oncology teams to care for higher number of patients.

June 2024

Nurses ‘under-used in antimicrobial stewardship’

By Gigi Lim, Sharon Gardiner and Stephen Ritchie

June 26, 2024

Nurses should be more involved in antimicrobial stewardship, say members of an expert group working on new guidelines for antimicrobial practice.

June 2024

It’s cool to kōrero — June 2024

By Kathy Stodart

June 25, 2024

Puku — belly, stomach

10 Oct	Call to immunise now as New Zealand at high risk of whooping cough outbreak Pregnant people, babies, children and others at high risk from whooping cough are urged to get vaccinated as soon as possible, as Aotearoa New Zealand stands at high risk of an outbreak.
9 Oct	New pilot with Plunket to deliver childhood immunisations To increase access and boost immunisation rates, Health New Zealand \| Te Whatu Ora and Whānau Āwhina Plunket will pilot the delivery of childhood immunisations at a select number of sites across the country.
8 Oct	Health NZ Begins Development of National Perinatal Bereavement Care Pathway As Baby Loss Awareness Week shines a light on the heartbreak faced by many, Health NZ is taking a compassionate and hopeful step forward in transforming the support available for whānau who experience the loss of a baby.
7 Oct	Govt takes the scalpel to regional health budgets At Labour’s insistence, Te Whatu Ora financial documents have been released by the Health Select Committee today showing more cuts are on the way for our health system.
2 Oct	Orion Health and Streamliners form strategic partnership Orion Health, a global leader in digital health solutions, has announced a strategic partnership with Streamliners, creators of HealthPathways which provides an online manual used to assist with clinical assessments.
1 Oct	Rollout of new medicines across New Zealand begins Today marks the first day a range of new medicines, including cancer medicines, will start to become available in hospitals and health centres across the country.
27 Sept	New Dunedin hospital: Southerners deserve better The Government’s announcement today that it will scale back the new Dunedin hospital will negatively impact patient care, the New Zealand Nurses Organisation (NZNO) Tōpūtanga Tapuhi Kaitiaki O Aotearoa says.
26 Sept	Govt not addressing health workforce crisis The National Government is hiding the gaps in the health workforce from New Zealanders, by not producing a full workforce plan nearly a year into their tenure.
25 Sept	New programme offers step up for jobseekers seeking a career in health and wellbeing Local jobseekers have an exciting new opportunity to begin a career in Health following the launch of a new community-based kaiāwhina programme in the Hutt Valley.
23 Sept	Ministers oblivious to cuts’ effect on families The National Government is oblivious to the impact cuts to services will have on New Zealanders who are doing the hard yards caring for mentally ill family members.
19 Sept	Wānaka community to benefit from new overnight health service Health Minister Dr Shane Reti says an Overnight Acute Care Service opening in October will provide people in Wānaka and the surrounding area with the assurance of quality overnight care closer to home.
17 Sept	Dr Le Heron takes title of 2024 Alzheimers NZ Fellow Distinguished neurologist and cognitive neuroscientist, Dr Campbell Le Heron, has been made the 2024 Alzheimers NZ Fellow for his work researching and managing cognitive disorders.
11 Sept	Aged care will be worse off if redesign rushed New Zealanders needing aged care support and the people who care for them will be worse off if the Government pushes through a flawed and rushed redesign of dementia and aged care.
11 Sept	Govt takes action on mpox response, widens access to vaccine The Government is taking immediate action on a number of steps around New Zealand’s response to mpox, including improving access to vaccine availability so people who need it can do so more easily, Health Minister Dr Shane Reti and Associate Health Minister David Seymour announced today.
10 Sept	ICN launches new position statement and discussion paper setting out a revolution in the delivery of Primary Health Care The International Council of Nurses (ICN) is launching its new position statement and a discussion paper on Primary Health Care (PHC) at its Nurse Practitioner/Advanced Practice Nursing Network (NP/APN Network) Conference in Aberdeen, Scotland.
9 Sept	First cancer medicine decision following Pharmac funding boost Pharmac has decided to widen access to two medicines for several types of cancer. Pembrolizumab (branded as Keytruda) will be funded from 1 October 2024 for eligible people with advanced triple-negative breast cancer, head and neck cancer, colorectal cancer, bladder cancer, and Hodgkin lymphoma. Nivolumab (branded as Opdivo) will be funded from 1 November for eligible people with kidney cancer.
6 Sept	Health agencies working with Police on rebalancing roles for mental health responses Health New Zealand \| Te Whatu Ora and the Ministry of Health - Manatū Hauora are working with Police to change some of the ways agencies respond to mental health. The change will see an increased health-led response, supporting Police to focus on core Policing.
4 Sept	Nurses’ bargaining starts with action for safe staffing Nurses are kicking off their collective bargaining with Te Whatu Ora by taking action for safe staffing on Friday, New Zealand Nurses Organisation Tōpūtanga Tapuhi Kaitiaki o Aotearoa (NZNO) says.