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A third generation mental health nurse who loves her work – and also loves taking to the slopes on her mountain bike or snowboard to keep work/life balance – is Lake’s nominated nursing hero.

NAME: Dianna Last
DHB: Lakes
JOB: Clinical nurse specialist, mental health, Whare Whakaue Inpatient Unit, Rotorua

A third generation mental health nurse who loves her work – and also loves taking to the slopes on her mountain bike or snowboard to keep work/life balance – is Lake’s nominated nursing hero.

Mental health nursing is in the blood for Rotorua clinical nurse specialist Dianna Last.

Her grandparents worked as psychiatric nurses, at the former psychiatric institution Seaview Hospital in Hokitika and her mother worked as an enrolled nurse. She’s been working for Lakes DHB’s mental health and addiction services for eight years, after six years overseas. 

She chose Rotorua because it was a central location for her sporting passions of mountain biking and snowboarding and started part-time at iCAMHS, the infant, child and adolescent mental health service, and part-time on the inpatient unit at Lakes DHB, before moving to full-time on the inpatient ward and into the role of clinical nurse specialist.

Dianna says she enjoys the range of skills needed to work in an acute unit, including therapeutic engagement, de-escalation, assessing mental state, treatment and medication and working with families.

“Building rapport with patients is core to all interventions. Managing self-stigma, for patients, is as difficult as the stigma more broadly associated with mental illness.”

A recent practice research project led by Dianna and her senior nurse colleagues was the development of a specific inpatient model of care that drives the therapeutic alliance.

She also helps mentor the three new graduate nurses in the inpatient unit, co-facilitates a weekly STEPPS group therapy session at Te Ngako, the DHB’s adult community mental health service in Rotorua, and fills in as acting clinical nurse manager for the inpatient unit when required.

Dianna has completed two papers towards her master’s in nursing, and aims to become a nurse practitioner in the mental health area.

Work/life balance is important to Dianna, and her outdoor sports help her achieve this. In the workplace, Dianna says that emotional competence is key for nurses working in the acute area of mental health, as it helps minimise the impact of workplace stressors on personal lifestyle.

“You have to be able to separate work and your response to things that happen in the workplace.”
The leadership role requires a strong focus on maximising patient autonomy while managing the multiple risks associated with acute psychological disturbance.

The negative in her role is the constant pressure on the 14 beds in the unit, and the challenges of having to triage patients out prior to them being optimally ready to leave the ward.