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

Anzac nurses across the Tasman recently commemorated the Banka Island massacre -  the tragic story of nursing bravery that is to Australia military nursing what the Marquette tragedy is to New Zealand military nursing. BOB COTTON retells the story of the 21 Australian nurses who lost their lives 75 years ago in the massacre as well as the only nurse who survived to tell the tale.

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.

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.

After nearly 50 years in nursing and 35 years in nursing education JUDY KILPATRICK is set to retire at the end of the year. The self-declared “happy chappie” talks to FIONA CASSIE about a lucky career spanning starched cuffs, life-threatening illness and major milestones for the nursing profession.

More than 52,000 nurses are practising across New Zealand and every nurse has a story. To mark International Nurses Day on 12 May, Nursing Review invited district health boards across the country to contribute stories on some of their nursing ‘heroes’ to celebrate the diversity and talent of just some of those nurses. In return, we have received tales of nurses, both unsung and high fliers, making a dedicated difference to the communities they serve. Read on and enjoy.

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...

Finding a bed pronto for the guy clutching his chest while another patient's screams fill the waiting room is just part of the working day for Christchurch ED nurse Erin Dooley. Follow a day in her life as she switches from a FAST (focused assessment and supportive treatment) role to facing what seems a never-ending queue as triage nurse in one of Australasia's busiest emergency departments.

Nurse researcher JOCE STEWART believes some fun and camaraderie in the ward can only be healthy for both nurses and patients. Nursing Review shares tales of laughter, mischief and collegiality amongst nurses in the 1970s and 1980s from Stewart’s thesis oral history research.

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.

Nurse turned life coach JAN AITKEN reflects on how well nurses look after themselves and offers some advice on self-care for nurses.

LYNDA LOVATT – a nurse turned personal trainer – shares tips on being ‘match fit’ for the physical demands of nursing.

More than 1,000 New Zealand women are diagnosed with gynaecological cancers every year and around 400 die of them – the majority from ovarian cancer. Nursing Review seeks to raise awareness of this female-only group of cancers, including why labelling ovarian cancer the ‘silent killer’ is not helpful, what obesity has to do with endometrial cancer, and how a vaccine can save lives. FIONA CASSIE reports.

Grant Brookes is the newly elected president of the New Zealand Nurses Organisation. Find out what motivated him to combine the 'gentle art of nursing with the rougher one of political activity'  Also what magazine he is most likely to browse in the supermarket checkout...

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 taonga Putiputi O’Brien RN QSO passed away in August aged 93. NGAIRA HARKER, HEMAIMA HUGHES and KERRI NUKU pay tribute to this special nurse.

Sue Clynes' clientele is the poorest of the poor living with heartbreaking conditions of the face and jaw. Find out more about her life living and working on board the Africa Mercy hospital ship as the volunteer nurse leader of the maxillofacial team.

One hundred years ago the first ever contingent of the New Zealand Army Nursing Service sailed out of Wellington clutching bouquets and waving multicoloured streamers. FIONA CASSIE tells the tale of how nursing fought hard for the right to accompany their boys to war and, like them, serve while battling heat stroke and dysentery in the East and trench foot on the Western Front.

In October 1915 the then infant New Zealand Army Nursing Service suffered its greatest ever disaster, then or since. A torpedo struck the transport ship SS Marquette, leading to the death of 10 nurses and to great feats of bravery and tenacity by the 26 surviving nurses. FIONA CASSIE draws on nursing histories to recreate the tragic tale. 

Lorraine Hetaraka-Stevens is the first nursing director for the country's largest PHO, ProCare. Check out who inspired her to go nursing, her wish list for nursing and why she'd like to head to Vietnam some day.

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.

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.

Sexuality is central to being human but is not always a topic we are ready to discuss indepth over a cup of coffee or raise with our patients. Nursing Review asked Mary Hodson, a therapist specialising in emotional and sexual intimacy, to share some thoughts on maintaining your sexual wellbeing.

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.

FIONA CASSIE talks to SUE TURNER, manager of Canterbury’s All Right? wellbeing initiative, about one small silver lining of the quakes – people’s awareness of their own mental health – and how All Right? is helping people restore and maintain their personal wellbeing.

Nursing Review takes a quick look at the science of laughter before getting down to the serious stuff of sharing some nursing humour.

Looking after our skin often comes a distant second to extramural study, full-time work and looking after family in the busy world of today’s nurses. Cosmetic nurse LARA MOLLOY shares some practical and quick skin care tips for nurses on the go.

KATHY HOLLOWAY looks at e-health from a nursing perspective and the need to remember that the ‘e’ should stand not just for ‘electronic’ health but for ‘enhanced’ health.

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. 

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.

New Zealand College of Mental Health Nurses President Anne Brebner describes her career progression, what she loves most about being a nurse leader, and how she would improve the New Zealand health system.

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.

College of Nurses co-chair TAIMA CAMPBELL argues that climate change is a public health and nursing issue as much as an environmental issue. Read on to find out more.

Gisborne nurse Janet Askew loves her garden, being a grandma, and working in some of the world’s worst trouble spots. A decade of working in war-torn Sudan to natural disaster-hit Indonesia recently won her Red Cross’s highest international nursing award ­– the Florence Nightingale Medal. She tells FIONA CASSIE why she loves her work.

It is two years since the first quake victim was carried into Christchurch Hospital’s emergency department – a young girl scooped up by a stranger from the rubble. FIONA CASSIE talks to ED nurse researcher SANDY RICHARDSON about her personal research project collecting more than 90 stories from staff working in ED on 22 February 2011 – and why after the heroic phase comes the flat.

More about insomnia

Wellington nurse NICKI BABBAGE writes about her fortnight’s experience with low-tech theatre nursing in an isolated town in the Papua New Guinea highlands.

The country’s first registered nurse first surgical assistant graduates not only have a hands-on role at the operating table but also before and after their patient is wheeled into theatre. Nursing Review finds out more.

Nurses need to get dementia care right across all sectors, not just residential aged care, believes Scottish nursing professor June Andrews.

MICHAEL BLAND and JOHN CLAYTON outline a project to provide up-to-date nursing procedures online to all nurses in the Midland region.

Once a week, a group of Auckland gerontology nurse specialists and NPs gather together to share and learn.

Seeing the elderly in their own homes was a key to the success of an early intervention pilot for a specialist gerontology nurse role in primary care. Nursing Review finds out more about the piloted role and its future.

FIONA CASSIE interviews two nurses appointed to the country’s first NP intern positions in the residential aged-care sector at providers Bupa and Selwyn.

Mannequins can now convulse, blink, pee, sweat and respond to intravenous drugs. FIONA CASSIE finds out more about simulation – both low-tech and high-fidelity.

A recent UK Nursing Times editorial argues it is little wonder that patients don’t follow treatment regimens when nurses are so divided over the ‘flu vaccine.

Diane Bos and fellow Christchurch immunisation coordinators recently addressed the National Immunisation Conference on lessons learnt from the Christchurch quake for the vaccine cold chain. FIONA CASSIE talks to Bos.

The random audit process to see how well New Zealand is at keeping the cold chain has now gone digital.

A needle-free vaccine delivery system may be a step closer after major investment into an Australian researcher’s pioneering work

A cleaner accidentally pulling the plug on your vaccine fridge over the weekend could see thousands of dollars of vaccine lost. FIONA CASSIE finds some cold chain tips from Karen Green of the Immunisation Advisory Centre (IMAC).

web p BruceYarwood2 Bruce Yarwood is a bloke and a practice nurse. If that combination is not rare enough, the practice he works in is dedicated to men’s health. Fiona Cassie finds out more about this army nurse manager turned men’s health specialist.

web p BernieKushnersmile

web 88852494 Taking practice nursing into the home – to ease the rehab of elderly patients – was the aim of a Nurse Practitioner Facilitation project by Rotorua NP-in-the-making Vicky Gaunt. Fiona Cassie reports.

web 103922163 Stroke is one of the first focuses for The Health Roundtable. Hilary Boyd, a consultant for the Australasian organisation which all our district health boards are signed up to, outlines the stroke initiatives and the Roundtable’s role.

For nearly two decades the WONS health trust has been reaching out to Auckland women who otherwise fall below the radar of the health service. FIONA CASSIE talks to WONS founding trustee, nurse and CEO Ruth Davy about their work.

Better funding is needed to improve the health workforce’s support of women after miscarriage, says midwife Cassie Kenney whose PhD looked at miscarriage.

2010 marks the 100th anniversary of Florence Nightingale’s death and the 150th anniversary of the publishing of her Notes on Nursing. Nursing Review pays tribute to the mother of modern nursing, to mark the International Year of the Nurse and International Nurses’ Day – Florence’s birthday. FIONA CASSIE looks at the life, works and words of the world’s most famous nurse

So what does Florence Nightingale mean to nurses working today? Nursing Review asks nursing leaders what they remember or use from Nightingale’s teachings and how relevant they believe these to be in the 21st century 

You need a sense of humour to be a nurse, says Michelle Holman. But not many write for laughs. Fiona Cassie talks to Holman – a published Kiwi romantic comedy novelist and nurse

FIONA CASSIE talks to DEB GILLON, one of the country’s newest NPs in one of the rarest roles – an aged care NP in the community

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

In 1909 New Zealand nurses formed the first national voice for nursing. For much of its first 100 years this voice recoiled at becoming a union but eventually evolved into the dual professional and industrial roles of today’s New Zealand Nurses Organisation. Fiona Cassie in 2009 looked back at NZNO's history.

WENDY DUCKETT found herself specialising in a particularly antipodean field – skin cancer – soon after arriving in New Zealand. FIONA CASSIE finds out more about the nursing voice on the Skin Cancer Collegiate Association