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

LIZ MANNING outlines a raft of new resources developed by the College of Nurses.

Over the past six months the college has made a significant investment into creating new membership resources. This article provides an overview of these and how they benefit college members.

Website

The website has been reviewed and redesigned with a whole new colour palette. Online navigation is simpler and presents a professional, streamlined portal to access the new and existing resources.

Nurseportfolio.nz

The college is delighted to have the opportunity to provide an ePortfolio to its members and institution partners. The whole site, including the help guides, have been redesigned to support users to create their professional nursing portfolios.

There are seven collections (templates) of Nursing Council of New Zealand (NCNZ) competencies available. A new collection, for nurses in clinical management roles, has been added and all the other collections have been completely refreshed and updated. Available collections are:

• Registered Nurse: clinical, clinical management, education, policy, research, management
• Nurse Practitioner.

The links and resources box provides you with information to help you complete your portfolio. Access is via the college website and access is free for members. Organisations who wish to set up their own pages on the site should contact the college administrator.

Professional supervision

Nursing supervision provided by nurses for nurses. The college is offering providers of professional nursing supervision the chance to have an endorsed profile on the college website.

Nurses seeking supervision can check out the supervisor profiles on the the Professional Nursing Supervision section of the website and choose which supervisor they would like to approach. Supervision arrangements and costs are between the supervisor and supervisee and are independent of the college. Supervisors do not have to be college members, but do need to be a registered nurse (RN) or nurse practitioner (NP) with an annual practising certificate. Potential supervisors can apply for selection through the new section: www.nurse.org.nz/professional-nursing-supervisors.html

Professional support resources

A suite of professional support guides is also now available on the college website. The four powerpoint presentations cover common themes and provide general advice. The presentations are:

• About the college – an overview of what the college offers.
• Portfolios – Why we do portfolios and how to set up a portfolio hard copy or ePortfolio.
• Bullying – Being bullied? Managing a bullying situation?
• Practice issues:
  • Employer: how to manage performance improvement or disciplinary processes.
  • Employee: how to engage successfully in a performance improvement process and deal with a disciplinary process.

The presentations are self-paced and provide accessible pragmatic advice and information to underpin the support the college already offers: www.nurse.org.nz/powerpoint-presentations.html

Endorsements for conferences, workshops and journals

The college already provides endorsement for conferences, workshops and seminars but is now also endorsing journal articles, supporting nursing professional development activities in Nursing Review magazine and also NZ Doctor magazine. More information is available on the relevant websites and on the college website.

Also check the college website for conference and workshop endorsement opportunities and for journal items please contact the college administrator at [email protected].

Supervisors for NP candidates

The college has created a suite of online resources for the supervisors of NP candidates in recognition that this group is often under-supported but is vital for the development of New Zealand’s nurse practitioner (NP) workforce.

The multimedia resources include five short video clips, web links, key documents and guidelines. They are aimed to concisely deliver important messages to very busy people about becoming a supervisor to an NP candidate in a variety of settings, including district health boards and GP practices.

The topics included are: Supervising to best effect; the NP scope, domains and competencies (what they are and how to use them); the NP application process (the evidential requirements); prescribing practice (reviewing practice against prescribing competencies); employing NP candidates (contractual and employment considerations).

Any health professional supervising an NP candidate – or who has been approached to be a supervisor – is welcome to view and share these resources.

The college also continues to provide workshops, indemnity insurance and networking opportunities to members – you can find out more about membership at www.nurse.org.nz.