From nurse education, clinical, or workforce issues through to healthy living, Nursing Review has it covered.

Nurse’s health across the Tasman falls between “poor” and “average”, with many feeling stressed and unhealthy, according to a survey of 6000 nurses.

*Nurses are asked to be "kind and non-judgemental" in series of videos released on a new website aiming to help nurses better understand and help smokers stop.*

Nursing Review asked some nursing leaders to share some of their best time management tips.

Anxiety and depression are expected to be the leading causes of missed work days worldwide in the next five years. International research indicates that nurses already have higher levels of depression and anxiety than the general population. Nursing Review explores the issue.

Annette Milligan, a nurse entrepreneur who has run stress management courses and seminars for 27 years, shares some of her top stress-proofing tips.

Nursing Review reports on three nurses – one a racing car driver and two motorcyclists – and why they believe their passion for wheels is good for their wellbeing.

Moving a patient without harming them or yourself is basic, but not simple, care. Getting it right requires not only good training, equipment and bedside spaces but also a good workplace culture. Nursing Review finds out more.

Visiting American nursing professor Margaret Hansen has set out to establish whether delivering complementary therapies – like nature and music – through mobile technologies is a feasible way of reducing anxiety and pain for surgical patients.

When people are suffering from a mental illness, eating healthily often falls by the wayside. But what if nutritional deficiencies are a contributing cause in the first place? Nursing Review talks to psychology professor Julia Rucklidge about the links between nutrition and mental illness.

Bullying is prevalent in New Zealand workplaces and the ‘caring profession’ is far from an exception. Nursing Review reports on some challenging research on nurse bullying, some nurse leader thoughts on bullying and a nurse manager’s project to encourage nurses to be kinder to each other.

Nursing Review talks to nurse manager MIKAELA SHANNON about a project to encourage and role model caring and kindness between nurses.

A nurse is naturally often the ‘go to’ person when someone in the family or whānau is diagnosed with a long-term or chronic condition. PATRICIA McCLUNIE-TRUST explores the issues involved. 

Workplace cyberbullying is an insidious form of bullying that can stalk you from the hospital to home via the phone in your pocket. Researcher Natalia D’Souza wants to talk to nurses who may have experienced unwanted aggressive behaviour via any form of electronic media from text and email to social media and instant messaging. FIONA CASSIE reports.

One of the articles in this edition quotes that oft-shared airline safety advice to “put on your own oxygen mask first before assisting others”.

Nurse researcher JOCE STEWART believes some fun and camaraderie in the ward can only be healthy for both nurses and patients. Nursing Review shares tales of laughter, mischief and collegiality amongst nurses in the 1970s and 1980s from Stewart’s thesis oral history research.

Nursing Review looks at the extra expectations that are often placed on Māori and Pacific nurses and shares some advice for nurses and workplaces on how to avoid the risk of burnout.

Loma-Linda Tasi got tired of teaching nursing students about Pacific people’s negative health statistics. The nursing lecturer, co-ordinator for year two of Whitireia Community Polytechnic’s Bachelor of Nursing (Pacific), decided she had to start somewhere to make a difference and a good place to begin was with herself and her students.

Back in 1908, one of the country’s first Māori registered nurses and midwives, Akenehi Hei*, struggled to get the government to pay for her work. More than a century later, nurses working for Māori and iwi health providers are still struggling with pay equity issues, says Kerri Nuku, kaiwhakahaere of Te Rūnanga o Aotearoa NZNO.

Nurse turned life coach JAN AITKEN reflects on how well nurses look after themselves and offers some advice on self-care for nurses.

FIONA ROWAN asks how well the caring profession cares for its own when nurses lose loved ones and shares findings from her survey of 70 bereaved nurses that indicate New Zealand could do better.

LYNDA LOVATT – a nurse turned personal trainer – shares tips on being ‘match fit’ for the physical demands of nursing.

More than 1,000 New Zealand women are diagnosed with gynaecological cancers every year and around 400 die of them – the majority from ovarian cancer. Nursing Review seeks to raise awareness of this female-only group of cancers, including why labelling ovarian cancer the ‘silent killer’ is not helpful, what obesity has to do with endometrial cancer, and how a vaccine can save lives. FIONA CASSIE reports.

The number of women who die from cervical cancer in New Zealand has dropped dramatically by 60 per cent since 1990. The human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine, available free to all young women under 20, may in the future see even fewer women lost to this most preventable and most high profile of the gynaecological cancers.

A “very, very distressing” cancer that nobody talks about. This is how Christchurch gynaecological oncologist Bryony Simcock opened her address on vulval cancer to last year’s NZNO Women’s Health section conference.

PATRICIA McCLUNIE-TRUST looks at caring for nursing colleagues who are close to the edge and shares insights gathered from her research into Health Practitioners’ Disciplinary Tribunal misconduct cases.

Challenges faced by India-trained nurse educator Reen Skaria prompted her to ask fellow overseas-trained nurse educators about their experiences of teaching in New Zealand. She shared her research findings, and some of her respondents' frank reflections, at last year’s Australasian Nurse Educators Conference (ANEC). Nursing Review reports.

Are nursing students more empathetic than their medical colleagues? Former nurse and medical education advisor Dr Peter Gallagher* and colleagues set out to test this hypothesis. Nursing Review reports that the findings may surprise.

Is mindfulness clinically effective? Check out this edition’s Critically Appraised Topic (CAT)

Is your New Year resolution to have a better “work-life balance” in 2016? As a Christmas and Summer bonus we have updated and re-published our first ever RRR professional development article & activity that looks at just that topic. 

The last edition of Nursing Review contained an article called ‘Fad diets: what do dietitians say about the latest crop?’ that looked at some of the latest dietary trends; in particular, the Paleo diet, the 5:2 intermittent fasting diet, the no-sugar approach and the low-carb, high-fat (LCHF) approach.

When it comes to smoking cessation tools, it seems there are mixed signals around e-cigarettes. Some argue they could be lifesavers for tobacco smokers struggling to quit; others argue they are a smokescreen for a new generation of problems. *So what knowledge should nurses have on the subject? Nursing Review attempts to clear the air.* 

Any diet that bans fruit has to raise eyebrows. The same goes for a diet that advocates lashings of cream and butter with every meal. The demonising of one food group as the source of all dietary evil, or the fixation on another as a saviour, is often the key selling point for the latest fashionable weight loss diet.

Letters to the editor re: hand gel and skin care

Shiftwork isn’t natural, and long-term it isn’t healthy – but it is essential for modern health care. So the challenge is to minimise the risks and maximise any lifestyle benefits. FIONA CASSIE talks to a sleep physiologist and nurse leaders to find out how to do just that.

Sexuality is central to being human but is not always a topic we are ready to discuss indepth over a cup of coffee or raise with our patients. Nursing Review asked Mary Hodson, a therapist specialising in emotional and sexual intimacy, to share some thoughts on maintaining your sexual wellbeing.

Four years on, Christchurch’s nurses are still driving on bumpy roads to workplaces that are often temporary or under repair before returning to a home that may still be cracked or leaking. And with a $650 million rebuild, redevelopment and reshuffle of hospital services underway over the next four years and increasing demand for mental health services, it seems there is little relief in sight.

FIONA CASSIE talks to SUE TURNER, manager of Canterbury’s All Right? wellbeing initiative, about one small silver lining of the quakes – people’s awareness of their own mental health – and how All Right? is helping people restore and maintain their personal wellbeing.

Nursing Review takes a quick look at the science of laughter before getting down to the serious stuff of sharing some nursing humour.

Looking after our skin often comes a distant second to extramural study, full-time work and looking after family in the busy world of today’s nurses. Cosmetic nurse LARA MOLLOY shares some practical and quick skin care tips for nurses on the go.

Is a smartphone app more successful in increasing physical activity than setting goals? Step up and check out this edition's critically appraised topic (CAT). 

There’s a slippery slope between going the extra mile for a patient or their family and crossing the threshold into inappropriate behaviour. Nurse-turned-solicitor ROBIN KAY explores the boundaries of this tricky issue.

The word ‘advocate’ is sprinkled across both New Zealand nursing’s Code of Conduct and Code of Ethics.

Asking a hospital aide to shower a surgical patient with wound dressings, drains, drips and feeding tubes is no easy step for nurse or aide.

CAMERON TAYLOR of Clown Doctors shares why a smile is good medicine on the ward - for nurses and patients.

Staff were happier and care rationing less likely to occur when staffing levels met CCDM criteria during a nursing shift, a research report released last year found.

You can’t tell at a glance whether somebody walks to work every day, swims three times a week, or is a keen tramper – nor whether they live on coffee and adrenalin or three healthy balanced meals a day. But at first glance we’ll, often subconsciously, make a judgment on whether somebody is ‘skinny’, ‘fat’, or some nebulous ‘in-between’ using our own scale of whether someone has an ‘unhealthy’ (or unfashionable) physique.

Promoting healthy lifestyles is bread and butter for today’s nurses, but recent research indicates Kiwi nurses are more likely to be obese then their patients. FIONA CASSIE discovers more about nursing, obesity, and weight management.

When orthopaedic nurse Helen Bloomer talks to her overweight patients about weight loss, she can see them thinking “what would that skinny runt know”.

So should employers be walking the talk by supporting their nurses to maintain a healthy weight by supporting healthy lifestyle choices?

So you want to say no, or want someone else to say yes, and you feel you have right on your side. You don’t want to be a doormat but neither do you want to be seen as bossy or demanding. Communications specialist ROBYN WALSHE shares some tips on how to assertively – not aggressively – put your case.

Nursing Review talks to two nurses about their out-of-work passions.

Forget about crunchies and taut abs – exercising your pelvic floor and transversus abdominis have rewards all of their own. FIONA CASSIE talks to nurse-turned-personal trainer Lynda Lovatt about exercise to protect and strengthen your pelvic floor for new mums, the middle-aged, and vigorous athletes.

NICOLA RUSSELL challenges each of the country’s 47,000 or so registered nurses to this year step up and take action – small or large – in a collective effort to make a difference for the patients they care for.

JUDY SECCOMBE looks at nursing attitude to those who are ‘different’ and challenges kiwi nurses to be more welcoming to new colleagues from different ethnicities, cultures, or countries.

It is 50 years since College of Nurses co-chair and nursing lecturer JUDY YARWOOD donned a starched nursing cap for the first time. She reflects back on those five decades plus on caring and care ‘rationing’ for today’s nurse.

JO ANN WALTON writes from London about lessons to be learned from yet another NHS bad news story – this time one where ‘bullied’ health staff falsified cancer patient waiting lists to keep funding flowing.

College of Nurses co-chair TAIMA CAMPBELL argues that climate change is a public health and nursing issue as much as an environmental issue. Read on to find out more.

We look to nurses as learners, educators, and leaders in this edition. Read on about teaching fledgling nurses in the classroom and on the ward, fostering leadership skills, nurses sharing their career tales, and milestones past and future in the recognition of competence and professional development.

Wintec nurse educator JACKIE McHAFFIE shares a tale or two about the role of storytelling in teaching nursing.

Last year 46 per cent of district health board nurses got vaccinated against the flu – less than the 48 per cent average for all DHB heath workers. This article explores the debate around the value, ethics, and efficacy of health professionals getting the annual flu vaccination and looks at some of the statistics, research, and prevailing attitudes around the sometimes contentious topic.

JO ANN WALTON reflects on the state of nursing in the wake of the United Kingdom’s damning Francis Inquiry and the need to reiterate respect, kindness, and dignity as nursing core values.

Christchurch nurse MICHAEL McILHONE reflects on just what is a typical nursing working day and asks when working long hours becomes counterproductive both personally and professionally.

International Nurses Day

To celebrate International Nurses Day this year Nursing Review invited district health boards across the country to contribute stories on nursing ‘heroes’ in their region. We got stories back on just some of the unsung, innovative, compassionate, high achievers and dedicated nurses that make up the New Zealand nursing workforce.

You’re as old as you feel. Whether nurses feel wiser or worn -  more and more are nursing into their 60s and beyond. Persuading even more baby boomers to delay retirement is increasingly high on the agenda as we face the double whammy of an ageing population – more nurses due to retire at the same time as more demand for health services. Nursing Review looks at what nursing can do to better support older nurses to keep nursing.

Reluctant to miss out on her OE, Carolyn Sengelow headed off to London to nurse nearly 40 years after starting her nursing training.

The alarm goes off at 5am, and not long after, Margaret Woodcock is taking the brisk 20-minute walk to the train station to catch the 6am train to work.

Had a good night’s sleep recently? No? You are not alone – about one in four Kiwis have chronic insomnia at some point in their lives.

Want to get fitter and stronger but short on energy and time? FIONA CASSIE talks to nurse-turned-personal trainer Jo Stark about squeezing exercise into your life minute by minute.

Eating healthily ain’t rocket science. And it isn’t about fad diets either. But it does take organisation. Nurse-turned-life coach Jan Aitken shares tips for becoming a healthier eater.

College of Nurses co-chair JUDY YARWOOD shares some touchstones or life lessons for today discovered by a friend while following an ancient pilgrim’s trail.

How should nurses behave? The Nursing Council recently released its 21st century guide to what patients should and shouldn’t expect from their nurse. FIONA CASSIE looks at what’s new in a new Code of Conduct underpinned by traditional values

Reading, Reflection, and application in Reality. By Shelley Jones. A professional development activity proudly brought to you by Nursing Review

While this year’s International Nurses Day is focused on the relationship between evidence and action, thousands of nurses around the world celebrate in very different ways.

About one in seven nurses smoke. Should they know better? Quitting is easier said than done. FIONA CASSIE talks to smokefree nurse advocates and nurse smokers about the battle to quit. And shares some top tips and research for nurses wanting to quit.

*Nurses' share their own stories about the battle to quit smoking*

A pilot study into erratic eating in shiftworking nurses and doctors raises questions about the health risks of shiftwork. FIONA CASSIE talks to researcher Anne Jaquiery.

People often start to appreciate their feet once something goes wrong. Nursing Review talks to AUT podiatry professor Keith Rome about foot health and how good footwear maintains it.

FIONA CASSIE talks to Faye Cobden-Grainge about a Manukau Institute of Technology pilot study getting nursing students to ‘walk the talk’ of health promotion.

Nursing Review talks to Professor Jenny Carryer – who has an enduring research and personal interest in the topics — about eating, exercise, body-size, and health.

Annette Milligan, a nurse entrepreneur who has run stress management courses and seminars for 24 years, shares some of her top stress-proofing tips.

RRR PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT ARTICLE:  Work-life balance? We attach great cultural significance to the close of one year and start of another, whether dated by the Gregorian or Chinese calendar, Matariki or a more personal anniversary. Times of transition prompt review and reflection, prediction, and planning. Many of us will have taken stock of last year, wondered how we did it all, and resolved to better balance ‘work’ and ‘life’. In this learning activity, we’ll take a look at what work-life balance means – theoretically, critically and personally – by reviewing some of the themes most relevant to the experiences of nurses in New Zealand.   BY SHELLEY JONES

A lack of funding has seen the longitudinal e-cohort survey of New Zealand and Australian nurses come to a halt after only five years.

JUDY YARWOOD muses over the French ‘healthy’ lifestyle.