A former Nursing Council manager, a nursing professor and a Starship nurse advisor are the newly elected members of the Nursing Council.
The three successful candidates, Barry Ayling, Catherine Byrne and Jo Ann Walton were announced in late September.
Nursing Council chief executive Carolyn Reed said just over 5100 of the 47,643 eligible nurses who were sent ballot papers took part in the election. The 10.8 per cent turnover was down on the more than 6000 (14 per cent of eligible nurses) who voted in the first election in 2009. There were 22 registered nurse candidates for the three elected places on the nine-member council.
Barry Ayling, the council’s registration manager from 2004 to 2007, said in his candidate profile that he could bring to the council a strong understanding of the legislative and political environment the profession worked in. He currently works as a perioperative charge nurse manager at Christchurch Hospital.
The second new face on the council is Jo Ann Walton, professor of nursing and head of Victoria University’s graduate school of nursing, midwifery and health. Walton said in her candidate profile that in a time of “real demand for health workforce reform” it was important to make sound choices about future roles on the basis of nursing judgment and concern for public health and welfare.
Catherine Byrne, a nurse advisor at Starship Children’s Hospital, was re-elected to the council. She said in her profile that she was committed to the provision of a sustainable and adaptable nursing workforce and was well versed with the challenges and realities of everyday practice. Byrne was first elected at the 2009 election when there were 23 candidates for just two places. The second elected member, Roxanne McKerras, resigned and was replaced in the interim by the next highest polling candidate under the single transferrable voting system (STV),
Janet Hewson. The 2009 elections followed the Minister of Health announcing that year he wanted three of the six professional members to be elected by 2011.
Reed said that the health regulation authorities had set up a working party to respond to a 2011 ministerial directive and Health Workforce New Zealand proposal to reduce board and council members and merge “the backroom” staff of authorities like the Nursing Council as a cost-saving measure. “The Nursing Council’s perspective is that they need to be convinced that a combined secretariat would reduce or maintain the annual practising certificate at the same level, and any proposal that had a flow-on effect of raising the APC wouldn’t be supported by our council.”
