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

Reduced smoking and fewer teenage mothers may have helped contribute to the lowest perinatal death rate since reporting began in 2007.

The government has switched its health-focused "Better Public Services" targets away from rheumatic fever and immunisation rates to broader antenatal and avoiding child hospitalisation targets.

World first research showing sore throat clinics in South Auckland schools helped dramatically drop rheumatic fever rates justifies the hard work put in by nurses and whānau workers, says nurse leader and co-researcher Lizzie Farrell.

A new study of Australian woman getting the flu vaccine while pregnant has added to the safety evidence of immunisation during pregnancy.

With kids about to return to school, the Asthma and Respiratory Foundation NZ is calling for preventive action to reduce the annual spike in asthma hospitalisations.

Safe Sleep Day is on December 4 to help ensure babies sleep safely this summer. A safe sleeping advisor tells Nursing Review that nurses often have special opportunities to ask the questions that can make a difference to vulnerable families.

CAMERON TAYLOR of Clown Doctors shares while a smile is good medicine on the ward as  April 7 is New Zealand Smile Day.

$40 million of the Green’s proposed $100 million School Hub policy is earmarked for nursing services in primary schools.

Five student nurses joined a research team going back into three South Auckland schools to measure the impact of regular classroom visits focusing on sore throats and skin infections.

The promise of free prescriptions and GP visits for pre-teens next year is being cautiously welcomed by the health sector but other sectors have leaner pickings.

New "NitBuster" teams will help alleviate pressure on hard-pressed public health nurses in schools allowing them to concentrate on more serious health issues, says Julie Chapman of KidsCan.

The country's first child and youth NP, PAULA RENOUF, says a decade on, some things have improved but still too many children are falling through the cracks.

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.

Not all people are ‘typical’ males or females. Nurse educator CRAIG WATERWORTH is keen to raise awareness amongst nurses about intersex people so they can be better supported.

NURSING REVIEW talked to nurse researchers and an infection control nurse specialist who share stories of fighting infection before antibiotics, the 'H-bug' epidemic of the 50s and today.

Simple activities developed to help teachers calm anxious kids in post-quake Canterbury are soon to be shared more widely to help nurses, parents and teachers boost child wellbeing around the country. Nursing Review talks to mental health nurse MICHELLE COLE to find out more.

A new national health target is underway on screening and referring obese four-year-olds. FIONA CASSIE finds out more and whether this is enough to help curtail the 10 per cent of Kiwi kids who are now clinically obese – fat to the point that their health is likely to be at risk.

Nursing Review reports that nurses need to put away their own prejudices or guilt about weight and start conversations that will help families find a healthy way forward.

From January 2017 both boys and girls will be offered free vaccine protection against human papillomavirus (HPV), which causes genital warts, cervical and some other cancers.

Chickenpox, the last of the common vaccine-preventable childhood diseases, is to be added to the free childhood immunisation schedule from 1 July next year. NURSING REVIEW finds out more.

With New Zealand just about to add another vaccine to its childhood immunisation schedule Nursing Review looks back at other major milestones in the 75 years or so since the first routine vaccinations were offered to Kiwi children.

Hawke’s Bay nurses were recently tested when Havelock North was hit by what’s believed to be the country’s worst ever waterborne disease outbreak – more than 5,000 people brought down with gastric illness. FIONA CASSIE shares the stories of some of the nurses involved and some of the lessons they learned.

Seeing vulnerable children and stressed families on the paediatric ward gave ANNE HODREN the drive to nurse in the community to improve child health through prevention and early detection.

LEAHA NORTH knew when she was a girl playing hospital with her dolls that she wanted to work with children. After returning from a lengthy OE mostly spent paediatric nursing, she is also keen to work on reducing Māori health inequalities.

PROFESSOR JANE KOZIOL-McLAIN, a longstanding researcher into family violence, is leading a research team currently working with young people to develop a ‘healthy relationships’ smartphone app to be piloted in schools next year.

A safe sleeping advisor tells Nursing Review that nurses often have special opportunities to ask the questions that can make a difference to vulnerable families.

Thousands of children turn up each year in hospitals with respiratory and skin conditions. Many of them return to damp, cold or overcrowded houses that further aggravate or caused the conditions in the first place. FIONA CASSIE talks to two nurses whose focus is working with families to prevent the adverse effects of sub-standard housing on child health.

Kidz First public health nurses see the reality of how Auckland’s housing crisis impacts on often struggling families. Seven nurses and their clinical nurse manager Lizzie Farrell share stories of some of the families they work and walk alongside.

Housing researcher NEVIL PIERSE talks to Nursing Review about getting the hard statistics and evidence to back healthy housing initiatives.

Nursing Review talks to paediatrician Cameron Grant about some of the take-home messages around childhood immunisation in the longitudinal Growing Up in New Zealand study.

Research on a ‘smart inhaler’ that moos, miaows or rings out pop tunes and makes kids with asthma use their preventer more often won young hospital pharmacist Amy Chan the recent Medicines New Zealand 2015 Value of Medicines award.

Rotorua is well on the way to having a New Zealand-first  – if not a world-first – combination of a child health hub and a public library.  FIONA CASSIE talks to Gary Lees, the director of nursing for Lakes District Health Board to find out more.

Follow a day in the life of recent graduate nurses Courtney Fermanis from early morning crossfit to door-knocking as an outreach immunisation nurse for her iwi.

That patient with the persistent cough or wheeze may be mislabelled asthmatic. And that COPD patient prescribed a steroid inhaler may only be increasing their risk of pneumonia. Nursing Review talks to respiratory physician associate professor Jeff Garrett about misdiagnoses and misclassifications that can result in misprescribing for some airway disorders.

*Blanket screening for family violence in primary health is the dream of family violence intervention champion Debs Higgins of Hastings Health Centre.*

Canterbury's paediatric oncology NP Jan Millar helps families keep their heads above water while they are being swept along by the turbulent current that is child cancer.

’Tough customers’ are now turning up for appointments more and more often since primary health care NP Jane Dutton joined Whanganui’s Castlecliff Health nearly six months ago.

Rotorua nurse Bev Gray is retiring after 50 years of nursing including setting up the city's first coronary ICU to public health nursing and says, given the chance, she would choose nursing all over again.

The mother of two children by the age of 17, Uputaua Suniula is now a nurse  helping to turn around the health of teenagers and children in Porirua.

Anne Sisam is a public health nurse hero working with vulnerable families in a caravan park in West Auckland to empower them to keep healthy.

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.

Zack McCracken was a nurse for 15 years before she left to pursue her love of acting. Now she combines her passion for theatre and healthcare by working as a clown doctor.

A toolkit of quick, fun activities for kids first developed to help quake-stressed parents is now a free smartphone app available across the country.

Is one-off advice on pelvic floor exercises enough to keep urinary incontinence at bay? This edition’s critically appraised topic (CAT) looks at whether pelvic floor muscle training makes a difference.

Young people walking through the door of Youth One Stop Shops around the country are offered a holistic, wraparound service that many nurses aspire to. FIONA CASSIE learns that it comes at the cost of a continuous funding struggle to keep the – often nurse-led – youth health services running.

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.

Heather Laxon's job as a school nurse at Mangere College is a lot more complicated than the stereotype of patching scraped knees. Read on to discover the complexities the modern school nurses faces.

FIONA CASSIE talks to nursing leader and Children's Team member Sonia Rapana about her role in the Children's Team initiative to help children not only survive but also thrive.

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

Vulnerability is a common thread through many articles in Nursing Review this edition.

Janine Spence's day begins early, very early, huddled in a blanket studying for her Masters degree before her children wake. Her working day is filled with children and families as co-ordinator of B4 School Checks and outreach immunisation for mostly vulnerable families without their own GP.

The first public health nurses went into primary schools in the 1920s and still work there today. How many, and how much time this often stretched-thin workforce can spend in schools, were talking points in parliament this year. FIONA CASSIE finds out more about the debate and new initiatives for nurses in primary schools from Kaitaia to Aranui.

The MOKO project: from itchy kutu-infested head to playground advocate

Mana Clinic: the way it could and should be?

Aranui Neighbourhood Nurse: Kids open the doors to families in need

More than 150 children have been hospitalised this year with pertussis (whooping cough) and three babies in all have died since the outbreak began in August 2011. TRISH WELLS-MORRIS, education facilitator for the Immunisation Advisory Centre* puts the argument for all those caring for infants – be it as nurses, parents, or grandparents ­­– to be immunised against the disease.

Being at the right place and right time is the focus of our child & youth health stories this edition.  We look at nurses working in the playgrounds and classrooms of high needs primary school communities and working alongside young adults with type 1 diabetes on a university campus.

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.

CLINICALLY APPRAISED TOPIC (CAT): Does taking vitamin supplements help women with fertility problems?

CLINICALLY APPRAISED TOPIC (CAT): What nursing-led intervention has been proven to help protect vulnerable Kiwi children?

Paula Renouf became the country’s first nurse prescriber in June 2003. Nursing Review caught up with her on travelling sabbatical in the United States’ Pacific North West and asked her to reflect back on the decade that’s followed.

One issue that prescribing reform will hopefully improve is the current grey area over when a nurse is ‘advising’ or ‘prescribing’ an over-the-counter (OTC) medicine like paracetamol.

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.

We look at a day in the life of Sue Glover - one of the country's new Registered Nurse First Surgical Assistants working with mostly children before, during and after their heart surgery.

Taranaki’s Waves youth health service is still seeking to re-open but its founding nurse practitioner Lou Roebuck is seeking a fresh start.

Plunket Nurse Maria Browne's day starts with waking three teenagers before heading off on the bumpy roads of post-quake Christchurch. Read on to find out more...

The White Paper for Vulnerable Children was a major new policy plank for 2012 and training all ‘front line professionals’ in detecting child abuse and neglect is one of its key aims. FIONA CASSIE finds out more about why child protection training is important for nurses.

Nursing leaders are concerned at the failure to mention nursing or to address poverty and resource issues in the Government’s new Children’s Action Plan.

Youth health NP LOU ROEBUCK and Professor JENNY CARRYER, patron of youth one-stop shop, WAVES, ask why a popular health service helping thousands of young people can’t get funding.

Just a sore throat … too many families now know some sore throats last a lifetime. FIONA CASSIE talks with some of the passionate pioneers of school throat-swabbing campaigns as the national Rheumatic Fever Prevention programme rolls out.

*Wielding a big needle once a month doesn’t make Sandra Ball many friends with her young rheumatic fever patients.*

*It was in South Auckland that school-based sore throat clinics were first trialled in New Zealand.*

Sharon Myoji Schnare, a United States-based family and women’s health nurse practitioner addressed the recent primary health care nurses' conference* about the brave new world opening up to nursing.

Sue Schroder walks to work knowing her twin pre-schoolers are in her husband's good hands.  She then sets to work with the mostly young women clientele providing information and support on contraception to STIs...

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

A busload of kids draped in bandages hop and stumble into Starship, some crying, some not. And probably some giggling, as the “injured” are not accident victims but students of a local school roleplaying to test Starship emergency department’s contingency plans.

Following the recent release of the green paper on vulnerable children, nurse practitioner ANGELA BATES and PROFESSOR JENNY CARRYER look at the role of nursing in child protection.

From July 1 the Ministry of Health has added iodine as a recommended supplement for pregnant and breastfeeding women, with subsidised tablets available. Dr Pat Tuohy, the ministry’s chief advisor on child and youth health says: “Pregnant and breastfeeding women have increased iodine requirements and in spite of a good diet and mandatory fortification of bread with iodised salt (introduced late 2009) they remain at risk of inadequate iodine intakes. Not enough iodine can result in impaired brain function and impaired growth and development in the unborn baby and young infant. Drug-buying agency PHARMAC is now subsidising a New Zealand-made iodine tablet providing the recommended 150mcg daily dose, which can be prescribed or bought over the counter at pharmacies. Iodine deficiency problems in New Zealand lead to table salt being iodised in 1924 and the level increased in 1938, but the ministry says recent research indicated further intervention was needed to stop iodine deficiency disorders from once again widely affecting the New Zealand population. The re-emergence of iodine deficiency is thought to be due to increased consumption of commercially prepared food mostly made with non-iodised salt, the declining use of iodine sanitisers by the dairy industry and generally reduced salt intakes.

Youth health NPs GILL ALCORN and REBECCA ZONNEVELD report back on the work of nurse-managed health centres in the US.

Six-month-old Brian Shortland (with the help of dad Richard Shortland) receiving the 1000th vaccination from Kim Hunter.

Plunket nurses are to replace pen and paper with a new high-tech IT system that could enable parents to update a child’s file online.

This month’s clinically appraised topic looks at a major study’s findings into the long-term effectiveness of the HPV vaccine

As schools go back this month so will public health nurses as they start the second year of a cervical cancer vaccine “catch-up” programme in schools. FIONA CASSIE finds out more