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

The nursing union NZNO has tabled its intent to pursue a pay equity claim for district health board nurses.

Nurses' contract claims are being costed as bargaining gets underway between the 20 district health boards and nurses' union NZNO – with urgent action to address understaffing top of the nursing agenda.

Nurse practitioner training shouldn't still need to rely on goodwill and keep facing funding uncertainty, say NP training providers.

Restructuring and heavy workloads have seen nursing morale fall in the latest NZNO biennial nursing survey but despite this few nurses are indicating signs of burnout.

About 3500 nurses have so far taken part in the country's first nursing fatigue survey but researchers are keen for more – particularly mental health nurses – before the survey closes at the end of March.

Importing overseas nurses is a major factor in driving down wages and pay equity in the aged care sector, says nurses union NZNO.  The hard-hitting discussion paper on nurse migration also advocates halving New Zealand's reliance on overseas nurses by 2030.

Increased patient demand and untaken annual leave contributed to some district health board's nursing budgets blowing out last year, according to nursing directors. More at-risk patients requiring 1:1 watches and shorter patient stays were also contributing to pressure on nursing budgets, the directors of nursing told Nursing Review.

Submissions closed this week on NZNO's draft position statement that advocates for individuals have the right to the option of assisted dying. Right to Life, a pro-life organisation, has responded by saying it was "very concerned" that NZNO wasn't defending patients against the "threat of euthanasia and a culture of death".

Job offers for new graduate nurses were back up slightly after plateauing last year but around 650 nurses will once again start the summer job-hunting. 

After a decade in the making the bill that removes legal barriers that have hindered nurse practitioner and nurse practice was finally passed by parliament this week.

Nurses from the Philippines were this year once again New Zealand's biggest source of new overseas qualified nurses, according to the latest Nursing Council statistics

The number of Kiwi nurses seeking to work across the Tasman is up again this year after dropping to a new low last year.

A national online survey into nurse fatigue is launching this week and shift working nurses are being urged to share their work and sleep patterns.

About 30 per cent of postgraduate nursing students are self-funding their studies a snapshot survey has revealed.

International student fees bring in $1 billion a year. Do our 19 nursing schools limit how many international fee-paying student nurses they enrol? Nursing Review reports its survey findings. 

Finding new graduates jobs and retaining overseas-trained nurses is a workforce dilemma that joint winner of the Young Nurse of the Year award Dr Jed Montayre can see from both perspectives.

Canada's nursing unions will be putting a case for a similar safe staffing system to New Zealand's, says Canadian Federation of Nurses Unions' president Linda Silas.

Shift working nurses will be surveyed about fatigue-related errors during a major research project to develop a cutting-edge approach to managing nurse fatigue.

With bumper numbers of new nurses graduating in recent years, a new nursing forecast model indicates that fears of a nursing shortage hitting as early as 2020 is now looking less likely.

Requiring unimmunised nurses to wear masks in high 'flu season is backed in a Ministry of Health letter to district health board chief executives.  The letter also hints that voluntary immunisation may not work.

Helping strengthen the voice of Pacific nurses in New Zealand is one aim of the new Pan Pacific Nurses Association launched last night in Auckland.

The district health board that suspended two unvaccinated nurses last 'flu season for refusing to wear a mask is currently sticking to its controversial policy.

The summer is ending with 852 new graduate nurses in work but 547 remain in the talent pool still hoping for a new graduate placement.

The long-awaited 'barriers' bill is being revised after the select committee hearings proposed new amendments allowing NPs to supervise registered nurse prescribers.

Nurses have a key role in reducing the threat of antibiotic resistance that could cause 10 million deaths annually by 2050, says the new Kiwi leader of the International Council of Nurses Dr Frances Hughes.

Nursing is back up a notch as a 'good' job prospect in the latest Occupation Outlook report. But the government's annual career advice report is less optimistic about nursing graduates' income prospects, which they rate as similar to health care assistants (HCAs) and less than early childhood teachers.

Nursing Review asked Health Workforce New Zealand for an opinion piece on HWNZ's recent and future plans and on nursing's role in that work and vision. Chair DES GORMAN and acting director RUTH ANDERSON responded.

Some of the country's largest hospitals are increasing their New Year intakes of new graduate nurses but another, Hutt Hospital, has cancelled its usual February intake.

Nearly 50 would-be nurse practitioners have applied for just 20 places in the first dedicated NP training programme.

Removing legal barriers hindering nurse practitioners – such as those stopping NPs writing sick leave certificates or prescribing controlled drugs – are a step closer following a parliamentary vote yesterday.

A second attempt to get nurse endoscopy training underway – to help boost the colonoscopy workforce prior to introducing  national bowel cancer screening – is set to start in 2016. An attempt at fast tracking nurse endoscopist training was announced in mid-2014 by then Health Minister Tony Ryall. Training was due to start early 2015 but was stalled and recently a second start date was set for 2016.

The long awaited go-ahead has been given to piloting a dedicated training programme for 20 would-be nurse practitioners in 2016.

More than 250 new graduate nurses have been struggling to find work in practice areas that remain open to migrant nurses.

Public hospital nurses are being asked to give union NZNO a "clear steer" on whether they will accept or reject a 1% pay offer now and 2% in following years.

Auckland's three district health boards have between them employed 29 per cent of the country's next generation of nurses.

More graduate nurses have gained new graduate positions than this time last year – but bumper application numbers means 570 would-be nurses are still job hunting. 

Nursing has dropped a notch from being a 'good' job prospect to a 'fair' one in the latest Occupation Outlook report released by the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment.

Safe staffing is high on the agenda for national nurse pay talks underway as the days tick down to the current public hospital pay agreement expiring on 28 February.

Recent DHB pay talks settled by other unions indicate NZNO nurses are unlikely to receive a generous pay offer during these negotiations.

Nursing leaders are angry and frustrated at moves to exclude nurse practitioner-led services from being eligible for general practice-only funding.

The number of new graduate nurse jobs has stayed static at around 900 for the third year running despite the number of nursing graduates growing 25 per cent in the same time period.

A debate over the reasoning skills of nurse practitioners prompted groundbreaking research indicating NPs diagnostic skills are just as good as doctors.

More work is on the cards after a meeting last night to address Dunedin nurses staffing concerns ended inconclusively.

The number of new graduate nurses placed in work through the “one-stop job shop” has risen to 777 by late February, according to the latest Ministry of Health statistics.

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

Despite the ‘rock star economy’ the job market for new grad nurses is tougher than ever with more applicants and less jobs than the same time last year.

New nurses working in surgical wards will no longer be eligible for the voluntary bond scheme.

Nearly half of the about 500 new nurses that graduated in July 2013 were still jobhunting in November, Ministry of Health statistics show.

A last minute boost to the new scholarship funding has seen 13 practices serving high need South Auckland communities take on new graduate nurses.

More than 400 nursing graduates missing out on jobs in the latest job round has prompted nursing union NZNO to launch a petition calling for jobs for all graduates.

Concern about new nurses struggling to find work has prompted a review on whether New Zealand’s doors should still be wide open for overseas nurses.

Visas issued to migrant nurses coming to work in the aged care sector increased by nearly 25 per cent last year – despite advertised jobs decreasing by 22 per cent.

Concern about unemployed young Kiwi doctors is prompting the government to consider dropping GPs and junior doctors off the essential skills migrant list.

Nurses from India are again New Zealand’s biggest source of overseas qualified nurses, with migrant nurses from the United Kingdom at an all-time low.

The number of Kiwi nurses seeking to cross the Tasman has dropped sharply by about a third and is at the lowest level for about a decade.

A nurse educator is seeking New Zealand-registered Indian nurses for her PhD research into the experiences of this quickly growing part of the nursing workforce.

The Nursing Council has nearly completed recertification audits on about 350 Indian diploma-qualified nurses that followed a year of controversy and protests over the registration process.

Six months since graduating nearly 230 new nurses are still job hunting and have signed up for a second chance to win a place in a new graduate programme.

The army, the dole or nursing? NP ANDY McLACHLAN reflects on falling into the career that turned him from a boy into a man. And the need to attract more men and more Māori and Pacific into nursing.

How many of the bumper crop of new nurses are still job-hunting will be much clearer next week.

The number of new nurses graduating is 33 per cent higher than five years ago and there is still no reliable tool for forecasting whether cohorts are still growing.

A review to consider closing New Zealand doors to overseas nurses  – because of homegrown new graduates struggling to find work  – has come out against taking that step.

More new graduate nurses offered jobs this November than the previous two years - but still nearly half of applicants will start the summer job-hunting.

Nurse practitioners could better evolve their practice to meet community needs if a proposed generic scope of practice goes ahead, says Nurse Practitioners New Zealand chair Jane Jeffcoat.

Treasury highlights the "critical importance" of focusing on patient safety and not just narrow government targets, in its briefing to the new Health Minister.

Both Treasury and the Ministry of Health are advising the new health minister to push ahead with the long awaited bill to remove barriers to health workforce flexibility.

The "extremely slow" progress by Health Workforce New Zealand in responding to the fast looming nursing shortage has been criticised by nursing union NZNO.

The Nursing Council can finally announce - after election results got caught up in a two-month limbo – that one new face and two sitting councillors have been elected to council as nurse representatives.

Fewer unemployed new nurses than expected have taken up the chance to apply to be third time lucky in getting a new graduate position.

Nurse and general practice co-owner KIM CARTER believes one of the biggest barriers stopping nursing from making a bigger difference in primary health is nurses' attitude to money.

New Health Minister Jonathan Coleman has confirmed he's following in his predecessor's footsteps in being supportive of expanded nursing roles.

More nurses could be getting the right to prescribing from early next year – if the current Nursing Council application is given Cabinet approval.

Opening up prescribing to suitably qualified nurses in primary health and other specialties is a step closer with a formal application being lodged by the Nursing Council with the Ministry of Health.

Nurses nationwide are invited to take part in a major online survey hoping to pinpoint the real differences between a staff nurse and a specialist nurse’s daily work.

A young Plunket nurse working extensively with migrant families won the inaugural NZNO Young Nurse of the Year at an awards ceremony last night.

The Nursing Council has rejected its proposal that nurses trained in India and the Philippines sit an exam and face tougher English language requirements to nurse in New Zealand.

Rolling out the physician assistant role based on the “sweeping conclusions” of a flawed evaluation of a flawed trial was not wise or safe, says a damning critique by nurses’ organisation NZNO.

Filipino nurses are fast becoming a mainstay of the New Zealand health and aged care sector. FIONA CASSIE gained some insights into the nursing culture in the Philippines – a country estimated to have up to a staggering 200,000 unemployed nurses – during a brief visit to Manila, including why we shouldn’t take this workforce for granted.

FIONA CASSIE talks to Filipino nursing leaders about Filipino pay and working conditions, what makes them stay and how they hope to entice others to stay or return to the Philippines.

Nurse educator LYNLEY DAVIDSON outlines the impact a training framework for Waitemata District Health Board’s healthcare assistants has made on both HCAs and patient care.

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.

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.

A baby boom, not retiring nurses, is one of the major nursing workforce issues in China. Chinese nursing director Zheng Ying Wang reflects on other differences and similarities in nursing practice between our two countries.

JENNY CARRYER reports back on the issues, goals and tasks on the agenda of the national nursing taskforce.

Nurse manager PETER WOOD believes that a new move to start the day with an ED huddle – instead of a negative meeting focusing on breaches of the ‘shorter stay’ ED target* – has been a positive culture change for Whangarei Hospital.

PROFESSOR JENNY CARRYER reports on a snapshot survey of how many postgraduate nursing students currently self-fund their studies. 

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.

When is a nurse at risk of jeopardising being a ‘good nurse’ in their eagerness to be a ‘good neighbour’ or ‘good teammate’? PATRICIA McCLUNIE-TRUST uses a case study to work through some of the professional boundary issues that nurses can face.

Nurses driving home from work probably know whether a shift felt ‘safe’ or ‘unsafe’. PhD researcher RHONDA McKELVIE wants to talk to nurses about the forces influencing safe, or unsafe, staffing.

In the latest battle in the pay parity war, the NZNO has presented a number of interventions to the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues on behalf of iwi provider nurses and health workers. 

The nursing sector has its collective fingers crossed that it is only months away from nurse prescribing being opened up to more than just nurse practitioners and diabetes nurse specialists, including nurses working in other long-term conditions. Nursing Review reports.

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.

How nurses responded to the challenges of post-quake Christchurch was the focus of a research project by the Joint Centre for Disaster Research. Nursing Review reports on centre researcher ZOE MOUNSEY’s presentation to the recent People in Disasters conference, where she shared insights on nurses’ coping mechanisms.

Research into insights gained by a ‘rapid scan’ survey of Nurse Maude’s district nurses 18 months after the February 2011 Canterbury earthquake was also shared at the People in Disasters Conference.

Ensuring health leaders are in touch with what’s happening at the bedside is a major motivation of Counties Manukau’s Patient Safety Leadership Walk Rounds. Counties Manukau nursing and improvement leaders Jacqui Wynne-Jones, Lynne Maher and Bev McClelland contributed to this article, outlining the background, format and results of leaders ‘walking the wards’.

To be a force for change nurses need to be part of a resilient health system. The sub-theme for this year’s International Nurses Day (IND) on 12 May is ‘Improving health systems’ resilience’. Nursing Review looks at the IND kit* on the theme and the tragic consequences when systems fail.

How culturally safe is your practice? In the first of a short series of articles on cultural safety, Katrina Fyers and Sallie Greenwood focus on the skills of developing reflective writing to foster self-awareness and support culturally safe practice.

Find out more about kiwi nurse Dr Frances Hughes who is the southern hemisphere's first CEO of the International Council of Nurses. She took her up her Geneva-based post in February and on her 'bucket list' is learning another language...

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.

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.

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.

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.

As registered nurse prescribing inches closer, MARK JONES and JILL WILKINSON argue that prescribing innovations could be better and faster in the future if the Queen wasn’t involved. They are calling for the proposed new Medicines Act to see a handover in power for deciding nursing’s prescriptive authority from the Queen (ie, the Crown) to the Nursing Council.

Nursing Review ended the year by asking a wide range of nursing and health leaders to assess and fill in a ‘report card’ on how they believed nursing and health fared in 2015. 

Is New Zealand ready for new graduate nurses with master’s degrees? Fiona Cassie reports on the advent of graduate-entry nursing programmes.

Since Nursing Review published this shift work article earlier this year, New Zealand researchers have released a major literature review of the error rates of nurses working 12-hour shifts. 

Three Waikato DHB frontline staff were suspended this winter for refusing to wear a mask after declining the flu vaccine. FIONA CASSIE looks at the sometimes fraught issue of infection control campaigns that aim to reduce the risk of influenza by increasing the vaccination levels of nurses and other healthcare workers.

Nursing Review updates the next steps towards widened registered nurse prescribing in, hopefully, 2016.

How does a young nurse’s income stack up against those of his or her peers who become teachers or lawyers? Do we lose more young nurses overseas than other professions? Why does the average income of nurse graduates plateau and fall after five years? FIONA CASSIE reports on two Ministry of Education studies about young graduates’ incomes and destinations.

It is now around eight years since funding for postgraduate nursing study was decentralised to district health boards.

A positive evaluation of a Health Workforce New Zealand-funded physician assistant (PA) pilot in primary health has been released. HWNZ has no plans to take further steps to initiate a PA training programme but more US-trained PAs are being sought by practices and an application for regulation of the role is in the pipeline. FIONA CASSIE reports.

Ten years after introduction, nursing entry to practice (NETP) programmes are now seen as the established norm but demand for places outstrips jobs available. FIONA CASSIE reflects on a decade of NETP and talks to nurses about the very first NETP intakes.

The Nursing Council of New Zealand recently released the latest report in its Nursing Cohort longitudinal study, which includes an update on the number of nurses registered in the 2005/06 year who are still nursing in New Zealand. While the numbers, including new data on nurses first registered in 2012/13, are worryingly low, it’s not all doom and gloom. FIONA CASSIE reports.

Two years on, Canterbury’s Gerontology Acceleration Programme (GAP) is seen as having a positive impact directly and indirectly on the aged care nursing workforces involved.

Professional isolation was highlighted as an issue for the aged residential care sector in Waikato back in 2011.

Dunedin’s criminal courts are home turf for Patsy-Jane Tarrant, who recently gained a doctorate in her specialty field of forensic mental health.

Patients shared stories across the Auckland isthmus recently during the inaugural region-wide Patient Experience Week. LYNNE MAHER tells FIONA CASSIE why nurses and other health professionals need timely reminders that patients seek courtesy, communication and compassion as part of good clinical care.

Keeping nursing procedures up to date can be a tedious and neverending task. For the past three years, however, the five Midland region DHBs have been using a ‘Kiwified’ online nursing procedure service that is shortly to go live across the South Island. FIONA CASSIE finds out more.

Nursing Review caught up with Minister of Health and former GP, Hon Dr JONATHAN COLEMAN, recently to talk about his plans to move more funding from the secondary to the primary health sector, and his views on the nursing and physician assistant roles.

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.

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.

On 28 February the fourth national MECA pay agreement between 20 district health boards and the New Zealand Nurses Organistion expired. FIONA CASSIE backgrounds the talks and some of the history leading up to the latest negotiations.

Can you halve the time student nurses spend on the ward or with a nurse in the community and still train a clinically competent nurse? A major US study has proven you can by replacing half the traditional clinical placement hours with quality simulation scenarios. 

"One nurse … six bells ... maths doesn't work" – New Zealand's first missed care research finds, not surprisingly, that missing patient care is a reality in Kiwi nursing, although relatively rare. FIONA CASSIE talks to research leader Dr Clare Harvey about the trends found, including the high level of 'working-when-sick' reported and its link to increased missed care.

FIONA CASSIE reports on KERRI-ANN HUGHES’ initial research findings into the support and barriers that help and hinder nurse managers in their work.

If your ward is chaos, the best argument for more staffing is hard data, says Cherrie Lowe, the Australian nurse founder and CEO of patient acuity software system TrendCare. FIONA CASSIE reports on Lowe's presentation to the recent NZNO nurse managers conference, including a major benchmarking study analysing 9.9 million nursing shifts.

It is 30 years since a group of Auckland Māori nurses hosted the first national hui for Māori nurses and the Te Kaunihera o Ngā Neehi Māori o Aotearoa (National Council of Māori Nurses) was incorporated. FIONA CASSIE talks to a founding member of Te Kaunihera, Linda Thompson*, about some of her personal memories of those early days.

One of the motivations for founding Te Kaunihera three decades ago was to see more Māori enter and graduate from nursing schools.

LINDA THOMPSON a founding and current executive member of Te Kaunihera (The National Council of Māori Nurses) writes about the early days of Te Kaunihera  - the council that was founded 30 years ago in the wake of a challenge that there were too few Māori Nurses.

Better meeting the health needs of young people is a major aim of a new nursing framework.  FIONA CASSIE finds out more about the National Youth Health Nursing Knowledge and Skills Framework, which outlines the essential skills all nurses should have, as well as those specialising in working with youth.

Nurses nationwide are invited to take part in a major online survey hoping to pinpoint the real differences between a staff nurse and a specialist nurse’s daily work.

One of my first reporting tasks for Nursing Review was photographing striking Christchurch nurses in early 2002 – I recall my toddler son waving at them from his buggy.

Some nursing students shouldn’t ever become nurses. But failing them is easier said then done – a process not helped by the looming possibility of facing not only unhappy students but also their parents and lawyers. FIONA CASSIE talks to Sally Dobbs about her doctoral research into nurses failing nurses-to-be.

Public Hospitals had matrons, but publicly funded, privately owned general practices have no such nurse leadership tradition. In 2014, more than a decade on from the Primary Health Care (PHC) Strategy launch, nursing leadership in the sector remains ad hoc. FIONA CASSIE finds out more and why there are calls for PHC nursing to have a consistent leadership structure across the country – and soon.

Are today’s directors of nursing “disempowered” and “disconnected”? Kerri-Ann Hughes’ PhD research attempts to “make sense” of where (and if) nursing power sits in New Zealand’s public hospital system.

Catch them young. Waikato DHB last year launched a leadership programme for high-flying nurses who stood out in their new graduate year. Some are now moving on to do their PhDs and other DHBs are adopting the model. FIONA CASSIE finds out more about the unabashedly “elitist” programme.

Nursing Review once again asked some nurses from across the country in senior roles to tell us what path they followed to where they are today. They each have a good story to tell, from schoolgirl volunteering to careers being diverted by motherhood, and of job options closed in their chosen area but opening in another, plus the importance of role models and mentors. They share tips on career planning and the skills, qualities, and qualifications helpful in their roles.

If New Zealand is to cut back the death rate from our second biggest cancer killer – bowel cancer – we need a bigger endoscopy workforce. After some years of investigation and preparation, Health Minister Tony Ryall fast-tracked the pace recently by announcing training of New Zealand’s first nurse endoscopists is to get underway early next year. FIONA CASSIE talks to Jenni Masters and Ruth Anderson about the big steps required to shift from wanting a new nursing role to making it a viable reality.

Role modeling by nurse leaders and pushes by a mentor helped Mental health nurse educator KATHY MOORE’s career “fall” into place.

Rest home nurse manager SUE MILTON sewed the seed for her passion for gerontology during volunteer work as a school girl.

PHO clinical manager BARBARA VARDEY says until recently she has been an ‘accidental tourist’ along her career path.

Surgical nursing director NICKY GRAHAM’s initial career path diverted from paediatric to adult surgery and she hasn’t looked back.

Health Workforce New Zealand was yet to set the funding pool and priorities for government-funded postgraduate nursing study as Nursing Review went to press.

Meet new graduate nurse Megan Lyell and share a frustrating day in the life of the full-time job hunter and part-time emergency response attendant on Auckland's North Shore.

One of faith community nurse Noreen Wright’s flock jokingly calls her the “toe pruner”.

"India NZ’s biggest migrant nurse source""Sharp drop in NZ nurses crossing Tasman" "Record new graduate nurses registered" "NNO vision for 100% graduate nurse employment by 2018"

For a decade now, New Zealand nurses have had to declare each year that they continue to be competent to practise safely. DR RACHAEL VERNON, a leading researcher into New Zealand and other nations’ continuing competence frameworks, says such frameworks can predict and imply a nurse is safe to practise, but never guarantee.

TAIMA CAMPBELL introduces some human resources advice for nurses – both employers and employees – on some approaches to resolving employment dilemmas.

Is a nurse showering a patient or brushing their hair an indulgence we can longer expect in today’s hectic wards? Is team nursing and delegation of more and more personal care to health care assistants the logical and inevitable next step? FIONA CASSIE finds out more about models of care in today’s acute hospitals.

There are probably fewer more challenging tests of teamwork than a 6.3 magnitude earthquake turning your ward into an indoor waterfall, followed by having to evacuate patients on mattresses down a sodden stairwell in ongoing aftershocks.

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.

Traditional models of care also don’t fit non-traditional forms of acute care services.

Training health care assistants is a “win-win” both for the unregulated workforce and for patients, says the nurse leader of Waikato District Health Board’s training programme.

Five years down the track, implementing Safe Staffing Healthy Workplace Unit’s safe staffing tools in public hospitals is still a steady work in progress. FIONA CASSIE talks to unit director LISA SKEET about early pockets of success, TrendCare naysayers, and the need for DHBs to turn hard data into more nurses on the floor.

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.

Once again, to celebrate International Nurses Day, Nursing Review invited district health boards across the country to contribute stories on nursing ‘heroes’ in their region. We received stories on some of the unsung, innovative, compassionate, high-achieving and dedicated nurses that make up the New Zealand nursing workforce.

The number of new graduate nurse jobs has stayed static at around 900 for the third year running, despite the number of nursing graduates growing 25 per cent in the same time period.

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.

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.

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.

The number of new graduate nurses placed in work through the “one-stop job shop” has risen to 777 by late February, according to the latest Ministry of Health statistics.

NEWS BRIEFS including:Mid-year graduating nurses still job-hunting at year’s end/ interRAI funding/ Greens up ‘nurses in schools’ policy/ Registration medal shortage/Nursing Appointments

Missed care, rushed care, and tick box care plans … Researcher BERT TEEKMAN set out to find out was happening to bedside nursing and decided your average ‘med/surg’ nurse was definitely more sinned against than sinning under today’s managerial-focused health system. FIONA CASSIE finds out more.

We profile two nurses still nursing 20 plus years on after graduating in the early 90s when jobs were even tougher to get than now.

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.

NEWS

JO ANN WALTON* argues that the public ­­– and some health colleagues – still need to be educated on the vital role of both “essential” and “inessential” nursing care.

The cost savings of replacing retiring nurses with new graduates is being pointed out to district health boards (DHBs) by the Chief Nurse’s Office.

The long-awaited nursing supply report indicating a nursing shortage hitting from 2020 onwards provides some time to plan, says Nursing Council chief executive Carolyn Reed.

The army, the dole or nursing? NP Andy McLachlan reflects on falling into the career that turned him from a boy into a man. And the need to attract more men and more Māori and Pacific into nursing.

Michael Geraghty, Nurse Practitioner in the Adult Emergency Department at Auckland City Hospital, calls for a zero tolerance policy against violence and verbal threats in our hospitals.

JO ANN WALTON defends New Zealand nursing after being alarmed by a visitor’s comments. The Victoria University nursing professor and Nursing Council member gives her own appraisal of kiwi nursing.

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.

18 months on, FIONA CASSIE checks up on Taranaki’s radical new ‘hands-on’ nursing degrees to see how the ‘modern apprenticeship’ is bedding in.

Director of nursing SONIA GAMBLEN asks whether being a good nurse qualifies you to become a manager and leader, and she reflects on what characteristics and skills that nurse leaders need to foster or acquire.

Aged care has one of the fastest ageing workforces. Getting new blood into the workforce is an obvious need and a pilot underway of providing extra support for new graduates entering residential aged care is one step being taken. FIONA CASSIE finds out more.

With a workforce crisis looming in aged care nursing, Christchurch is headhunting and helping the new generation of aged care nurses to fast track their careers. Fiona Cassie finds out more about the Gerontology Acceleration Programme (GAP).

NGAIRA NGAIRA HARKER reflects on the importance of supporting Pasifika nursing students.

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.

The lack of nurses around the table in negotiating the new PHO agreement – coming into force July 1 – doesn’t make sense, said Cathy O’Malley, the deputy director-general of health leading the negotiations.

The Nursing Council has “reservations” about a proposed merger proposal and is releasing a consultation document in early July seeking nursing and other stakeholder feedback. By FIONA CASSIE

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.

About 75 per cent of new graduates had nursing jobs by March down on last year’s 85 per cent employment rate, according to the latest graduate survey.

A pilot of student nurses working first as health care assistants could be underway in the United Kingdom before the end of year despite major reservations from nursing leaders.

The country’s once Magnet health service – Hutt Valley District Health Board – is being criticised for ‘eroding’ nursing power under its new merged leadership structure with neighbouring Wairarapa DHB.

NEWS briefs including: *New nurse leaders appointed/ *About 200 nurses affected by migration changes/ *New STI resource for health professionals***

Just over half of overseas-trained nurses are still nursing in New Zealand six years after registering here, a longitudinal cohort study has found.

Des Gorman, chair of Health Workforce New Zealand (HWNZ), says that he’s losing sleep worrying about the looming nursing shortfall. FIONA CASSIE talks to him about his disappointment at last year’s nursing criticism of HWNZ’s performance and why nursing will be a top priority in 2013.

Des Gorman rejects nursing criticism that HWNZ’s innovations have been poorly planned and taken a fragmented approach.

Nursing and Health Workforce New Zealand agree on the urgency of nursing issues and are gingerly moving forward after meeting in the wake of nursing’s severe criticism of HWNZ’s performance to date.

When Geoff Annals stepped into the NZNO chief executive’s job in 2001 – a year of strikes and strife – it was a fill-in post for three months. Leaving nearly 12 years later he talks to FIONA CASSIE about some of the good, the bad, and the cyclical in nursing in that time.

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.

Most young nurses are passionate about their career choice ­ for now, at least. As many feel little long-term loyalty to a profession that leaves them feeling tired, stressed, and underappreciated, FIONA CASSIE talks to researcher Dr Isabel Jamieson about the workforce implications of her survey of more than 350 Generation Y nurses.

Dr Frances Hughes doesn’t court disasters but they have a habit of finding her. The former chief nurse was in New Jersey on a Fulbright scholarship studying post-disaster lessons when Hurricane Sandy hit. FIONA CASSIE reports on her latest literal lesson.

*HWNZ ‘trivialising’ nursing concerns /*Poaching’ of ENs to Oz could grow /*Nursing Council ‘effective’ but needs greater transparency /*Three-way contest now for NZNO presidency / Appointments****

The push to merge the Nursing Council’s regulatory and support services with the 15 other regulatory authorities continues with a detailed business case being developed.

US-trained physician assistants will be at work in five medical centres from Huntley to Gore by the end of the year, Health Workforce New Zealand has confirmed.

All non-prescribing nurse practitioners may have to upskill to be prescribers within two years to align with new legislation.

Extra support is to be offered to 24 new graduates entering the aged care workforce in 2013 in the trial of a new style graduate programme.

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

Regional training hubs − what are they, and what role will they play in new graduate and postgraduate nurse education?

The past two decades have drawn on factory theory to measure and improve nurse productivity. FIONA CASSIE talks to Nicola North about the need to take a ‘big picture’ systems approach to ensure the mistakes of the 1990s are not repeated.

BEV MacKAY and JANE ANDERSON report on an action research project exploring using iPads to enhance teaching support for NorthTec nursing students on clinical placements.

Economic uncertainty has seen the nursing workforce swell in recent years. An economic upturn could see the workforce deflate just as rapidly.

Sonia Gamblen talked to 13 clinical nurse managers about the often ad hoc and haphazard path from bedside nurse to ward leader. Her research findings prompted a call for improved leadership and management training for nurses and her own local solution.

Safe staffing tools could help ameliorate unsafe workload concerns raised recently in the second union survey of Auckland health workers to link unsafe staffing with underfunding.

Better patient workload prediction and improved rostering of staff to match can help meet the challenging demands of the modern health care system, says Jane O’Malley, Ministry of Health Chief Nurse.

Research indicating nearly half of nurses have considered quitting their job because of moral distress hit a chord recently. FIONA CASSIE talks to researcher Martin Wood about moral distress and why we can’t keep ignoring its toll.

The country has its first nurse practitioner in addiction, Louise Leonard. All she needs now is an NP job. FIONA CASSIE reports.

NZNO chief executive Geoff Annals first career choice was farming. Find out how he got from a high country farm to the head of the country's largest nursing organisation and union.

RRR PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT ARTICLE: The rhetoric around self-management for people with long-term conditions recognises that they themselves are the most concerned and constant contributor to their own care and that what they know is an untapped resource. At the same time, professionals are being advised to share decision-making, but does this go far enough? For the person living with a long-term condition, part of their work is to manage relationships and interactions with an array of health professionals and other helpers – amongst them, nurses. Just as professionals look for interest and engagement from those they care for – whether identified as patients, clients, consumers, or service-users – that expectation is mutual. In this learning activity, we’ll look at what shared decision-making means, especially for people with long-term conditions*.*

The first “league table” ranking nursing schools’ performance in supporting Māori nursing students shows wide disparity in student success rates.

The first social media guide to help Kiwi nurses avoid stepping over the professional line in their online life has been released.

To date, only 31 per cent of nurses and 22 per cent of doctors signed up three years ago to the "popular" voluntary bonding scheme have stepped forward to claim payouts.

SAFE STAFFING/ HEALTHY WORKPLACE: We report on a new electronic ‘tick-box’ tool that instantly signals hospital wide if your busy ward needs nursing help.

Tauranga Hospital’s ‘busy’ emergency department used to often find itself at 150 per cent capacity on a daily basis. (See also "How Busy is Your Ward")

It has taken a decade of hard work, lobbying, frustration and personal sacrifice to build a critical mass of 100 NPs.Nursing Review marks the milestone by asking nursing leaders to reflect on the role’s past and future and by profiling the work of some NPs.

Patch protection a barrier to physician assistants by Fiona Cassie

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.

Taranaki’s radical new nursing degree sees first year students into hands-on practice from just week two of training. Nursing Review finds out more.

What is your ‘instinctive style’? A trial of a personality test by one of the country’s largest general practice group indicates nurses gravitate to roles that reflect their ‘innate strengths’.

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.

Working long and irregular hours increases the risk of harmful drinking, according to recently released research from the Australasian nurse and midwives e-cohort study.

A pilot of prescribing by diabetes nurse specialists was safe, effective, and popular with patients according to a newly-released evaluation report

BRENDA WRAIGHT of Health Workforce New Zealand and chief nurse JANE O’MALLEY share their overview of nursing workforce strategies past and into the future.

*Kathy Holloway’s timely PhD research has helped shape New Zealand’s first national process for endorsing specialty standards. Fiona Cassie reports.*

The latest statistics confirm steady growth in the nursing workforce for the second year running – despite more nurses seeking work across the Tasman.

For the first time Auckland nursing schools are reporting that mid-year students are struggling to get new graduate positions as the job market tightens.

Nursing workforce issues will be “front and centre” after an early medical workforce focus, says Health Workforce New Zealand director Brenda Wraight.

The current ‘lull’ in the nursing shortage is international but short-term and the shortage will return worse than ever, says the American past president of the international Honour Society of Nursing.

Recruiting a new Chief Nurse is back under way after a decision not to shunt the position sideways and down a notch – at least not yet.

Setting up a system to “track” bonded nurses and doctors is part of the inaugural annual plan of Health Workforce New Zealand.

Standing orders consultation

Increased interest in nursing appears to have continued this year with nursing schools reporting bulging programmes and waiting lists.

American-trained physician assistants are to be recruited for a pilot of the role at Counties Manukau District Health Board in early 2010.

Frustration over legal barriers to a diabetes nurse specialist prescribing pilot is prompting exploration of alternative pathways.

More than 90 per cent of new nurses are successfully completing Nursing Entry to Practice (NETP) programmes, according to the Clinical Training Agency.