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

Rural nurses are being surveyed and urged to vote for a working group to up the profile of nurses working rurally from small town hospitals to remote communities. 

Increased patient demand and untaken annual leave contributed to some district health board's nursing budgets blowing out last year, according to nursing directors. More at-risk patients requiring 1:1 watches and shorter patient stays were also contributing to pressure on nursing budgets, the directors of nursing told Nursing Review.

As we head into the summer party season a snapshot survey shows New Zealand has double the rate of alcohol-related presentations in emergency departments than across the Tasman.

A national online survey into nurse fatigue is launching this week and shift working nurses are being urged to share their work and sleep patterns.

The phenomenon began in early May with some dancing Kiwi cops posting a challenge and not long after nurses, doctors and paramedics around the country joined in. Check out some nurse dance moves in the Running Man Challenge videos from local DHBs.

Kiwi nurses have upped their game, with the latest national statistics showing that nurses are cleaning their hands nearly 85 per cent of the required times.

After nursing patients with chronic kidney disease for more than two decades, Suzanne Joynt has seen the comfort and support that advance care planning (ACP) about end-of-life care can provide for patients and their families. So when her stepfather was diagnosed with a terminal illness, she hoped other nurses would be aware of its benefits too.

The district health board that suspended two unvaccinated nurses last 'flu season for refusing to wear a mask is currently sticking to its controversial policy.

Investing in a national prevention programme could save 30,000 New Zealanders suffering a pressure injury each year, recommends a major report. The KPMG report, The Case for investment in: A quality improvement programme to reduce pressure injuries in New Zealand, was released recently by the Health Quality & Safety Commission, ACC and the Ministry of Health.

As the country heads back to work and school, memories of the festive season may already be starting to fade. For some, however, memories of a holiday trip to ED may not be forgotten so easily. Emergency nurse practitioner MICHAEL GERAGHTY shares an emergency nursing perspective of the summer silly season.

A second attempt to get nurse endoscopy training underway – to help boost the colonoscopy workforce prior to introducing  national bowel cancer screening – is set to start in 2016. An attempt at fast tracking nurse endoscopist training was announced in mid-2014 by then Health Minister Tony Ryall. Training was due to start early 2015 but was stalled and recently a second start date was set for 2016.

Nursing union NZNO is recommending nurses accept the 20 district health boards' new pay deal that includes an increased wage offer and a shorter contract term.

KIM CARTER on why nurses may need to step out of their comfort zone to ensure good care for all clients across the spectrum of sexuality and gender identity.

Cardiology NP ANDY McLACHLAN shares his career-changing first experience of death and contemplates nursing, humanity and the ‘great circle of life-death’.

ROSEMARY MINTO calls for nurses to be informed and take a lead in educating men and their whānau about prostate cancer. The NP, who sadly lost her own father to the most commonly diagnosed cancer in men, is a member of the Prostate Cancer Working Group, which is soon to release a long-awaited best practice pathway for prostate cancer testing and management.

More than 250 new graduate nurses have been struggling to find work in practice areas that remain open to migrant nurses.

The 'flu vaccination uptake amongst hospital nurses keep steadily increasing but still varies radically across the country.

Requiring non-vaccinated nurses to wear masks when caring for patients is into its third 'flu season in Northland and is being widened to cover all clinical areas.

Public hospital nurses are being asked to give union NZNO a "clear steer" on whether they will accept or reject a 1% pay offer now and 2% in following years.

JANE HANNAH, a heart failure nurse specialist, says some families expect her to arrive in 'black robes and carrying a sickle' when referred for an 'end of life' discussion.  But she says anxiety falls and patients are more satisfied with their care after having a 'conversation that counts

Becoming a facilitator rather than a dictator of care…CHERYL CALVERT, a gerontology nurse specialist, shares the profound difference becoming an Advanced Care Planning facilitator has made to her practice

Tales of the days of nursing hostel curfews, starched caps and when 'doctors were God' can be heard online with the launch of New Zealand's first nursing oral history archive.

OPINION: The perpetually curious ANDY McLACHLAN (an Auckland cardiology NP) wonders about sharks in swimming pools and whether it may be time for a fresh look at the nurse practitioner role

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

MICHAEL GERAGHTY, Nurse Practitioner in the Adult Emergency Department at Auckland City Hospital, calls for a zero tolerance policy against violence and verbal threats in our hospitals.

A review to consider closing New Zealand doors to overseas nurses  – because of homegrown new graduates struggling to find work  – has come out against taking that step.

Palliative care nurse advisor ANNE MORGAN asks whether feeding the dying is the right thing to do or simply the easiest option when faced with families who see withdrawing nutrition as "cruel" or "starving the person to death".

Treasury highlights the "critical importance" of focusing on patient safety and not just narrow government targets, in its briefing to the new Health Minister.

Opening up prescribing to suitably qualified nurses in primary health and other specialties is a step closer with a formal application being lodged by the Nursing Council with the Ministry of Health.

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.

Former barman and now ED nurse practitioner MICHAEL GERAGHTY wonders when Kiwis will grow out of defining a great night as waking up feeling sick with no memory of the previous night and no cash in their wallet.

Getting hospital patients out of their pyjamas and into clothes has became a worldwide social media-led movement. FIONA CASSIE finds out about #endPJparalysis and the Christchurch nurse leader behind it.

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.

Three nurses from diverse specialties share case studies of using telehealth technology to make life simpler for their patients.

RENAE PORTER, a third year nursing student at Te Whare Wānanga o Awanuiārangi, reflects on the clinical, cultural and personal experience following the release of a tūpāpaku (deceased person’s body).

TRISTIN SLATER, a third year student nurse at the University of Auckland, reflects on trying to administer a tetanus injection to an attack victim.

Moving a patient without harming them or yourself is basic, but not simple, care. Getting it right requires not only good training, equipment and bedside spaces but also a good workplace culture. Nursing Review finds out more.

Visiting American nursing professor Margaret Hansen has set out to establish whether delivering complementary therapies – like nature and music – through mobile technologies is a feasible way of reducing anxiety and pain for surgical patients.

A baby boom, not retiring nurses, is one of the major nursing workforce issues in China. Chinese nursing director Zheng Ying Wang reflects on other differences and similarities in nursing practice between our two countries.

Seventy-five years after the ‘wonder drug’ penicillin saved its first patients, we could be heading toward a post-antibiotic era in which common infections once again kill. Nurses have both a vested interest and a vital role in preventing this. FIONA CASSIE reports.

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.

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.

Nurse manager PETER WOOD believes that a new move to start the day with an ED huddle – instead of a negative meeting focusing on breaches of the ‘shorter stay’ ED target* – has been a positive culture change for Whangarei Hospital.

This edition’s Clinically Appraised Topic (CAT) asks whether a cold spray helps to ‘chill out’ the pain of inserting IV cannula.

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.

Nursing Review talks to nurse manager MIKAELA SHANNON about a project to encourage and role model caring and kindness between nurses.

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.

Graduating in a tight job market saw JO PRIOR cross the Tasman for her first job. That job sparked an interest in emergency nursing into a passion that has seen her working within or near an ED for most of her career.

“Get a master’s degree” is the single most important piece of career advice, believes clinical nurse specialist KATRINA O’LEARY, who discovered her love of study on arriving in New Zealand and is now contemplating her PhD.

MARIANNE TE TAU’s career to date is being guided by the philosophy of reflective practice, pursuing professional development and being patient/whānau-centred.

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.

Nurses driving home from work probably know whether a shift felt ‘safe’ or ‘unsafe’. PhD researcher RHONDA McKELVIE wants to talk to nurses about the forces influencing safe, or unsafe, staffing.

Chubby, obese, fat, bariatric, heavy. Finding the right words is just one of nurse researcher Caz Hales’ projects for improving the care of very large patients. FIONA CASSIE finds out more.

Every day around 24 New Zealanders –75 per cent of them aged over 65 – have a stroke. These 9,000 or so ‘brain attacks’ a year are the major cause of serious adult disability in the country, but stroke nursing is a specialty still relatively in its infancy in New Zealand. FIONA CASSIE finds out more from nurses working in the field.

Nurse-turned-lawyer Robin Kay looks at the value of good clinical notes and gives some guidance on how to write them.

Carey Campbell is director of nursing for Southern Cross Hospital's 800 nurses and chair of the private surgical hospitals directors of nursing group. Find out about her career to date, her wishes for the nursing workforce and why she wonders whether her love of fishing is compatible with one of her favourite movies...

Ensuring health leaders are in touch with what’s happening at the bedside is a major motivation of Counties Manukau’s Patient Safety Leadership Walk Rounds. Counties Manukau nursing and improvement leaders Jacqui Wynne-Jones, Lynne Maher and Bev McClelland contributed to this article, outlining the background, format and results of leaders ‘walking the wards’.

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.

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

FIONA ROWAN asks how well the caring profession cares for its own when nurses lose loved ones and shares findings from her survey of 70 bereaved nurses that indicate New Zealand could do better.

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.

The number of women who die from cervical cancer in New Zealand has dropped dramatically by 60 per cent since 1990. The human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine, available free to all young women under 20, may in the future see even fewer women lost to this most preventable and most high profile of the gynaecological cancers.

A “very, very distressing” cancer that nobody talks about. This is how Christchurch gynaecological oncologist Bryony Simcock opened her address on vulval cancer to last year’s NZNO Women’s Health section conference.

New Zealand’s ageing population is experiencing an upsurge in common age-related eye diseases. Clinical nurse specialist VICKY MIYEONG YOU reports on an innovation at Greenlane Eye Centre that has seen nurses trained to deliver collaborative specialist treatment for one of these diseases – wet macular degeneration.

As the country heads back to work and school, memories of the festive season may already be starting to fade. For some, however, memories of a holiday trip to ED  may not be forgotten so easily. Emergency nurse practitioner MICHAEL GERAGHTY shares an emergency nursing perspective of the summer silly season.

Paperless capture of vital signs is another step closer at Canterbury District Health Board with the rollout of electronic patient observations software and an early warning score (EWS) system now underway in the first ward. Nursing Review reports

Since Nursing Review published this shift work article earlier this year, New Zealand researchers have released a major literature review of the error rates of nurses working 12-hour shifts. 

Is your New Year resolution to have a better “work-life balance” in 2016? As a Christmas and Summer bonus we have updated and re-published our first ever RRR professional development article & activity that looks at just that topic. 

To glove or not to glove? Is it ‘nobler’ and safer for nurses to increasingly wear gloves when caring for patients? Fiona Cassie finds out the answer from British infection control researcher Dr Jennie Wilson.

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.

Debridement can be simple and slow or quick and complex. FIONA CASSIE finds out from wound care nurse specialist Emil Schmidt some of the ‘whys’ ‘wheres’ and ‘hows’ of simple debridement – and when to call in the experts.

Attempts to have pressure injury data regularly collected and reported as a nationwide quality indicator have been unsuccessful to date. But four district health boards decided not to wait for the rest of the country. FIONA CASSIE finds out about the Northern Region’s successful campaign to reduce harm from pressure injuries. 

This edition's critically appraised topic (CAT) looks at research into a new addition to an established technique to restore a steady rhythm to a rapidly beating heart.

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.

To’a Fereti shares her ‘accidental’ career path to be clinical nurse director in charge of 600 nurses – the first Pacific nurse to hold the post.

Nursing mentors have been instrumental in helping clinical nurse specialist JESSICA ONGLEY along her career path towards her ultimate goal of becoming a nurse practitioner.

What do today’s modern libraries offer nurses who walk through their doors or, more frequently, login online? FIONA CASSIE talks to district health board librarians VIV KERR and PETER MURGATROYD.

How does a young nurse’s income stack up against those of his or her peers who become teachers or lawyers? Do we lose more young nurses overseas than other professions? Why does the average income of nurse graduates plateau and fall after five years? FIONA CASSIE reports on two Ministry of Education studies about young graduates’ incomes and destinations.

It is now around eight years since funding for postgraduate nursing study was decentralised to district health boards.

The last edition of Nursing Review contained an article called ‘Fad diets: what do dietitians say about the latest crop?’ that looked at some of the latest dietary trends; in particular, the Paleo diet, the 5:2 intermittent fasting diet, the no-sugar approach and the low-carb, high-fat (LCHF) approach.

When it comes to smoking cessation tools, it seems there are mixed signals around e-cigarettes. Some argue they could be lifesavers for tobacco smokers struggling to quit; others argue they are a smokescreen for a new generation of problems. *So what knowledge should nurses have on the subject? Nursing Review attempts to clear the air.* 

Any diet that bans fruit has to raise eyebrows. The same goes for a diet that advocates lashings of cream and butter with every meal. The demonising of one food group as the source of all dietary evil, or the fixation on another as a saviour, is often the key selling point for the latest fashionable weight loss diet.

Nursing Review talks to pain management NP Sue King about not only the pain associated with the more common long-term conditions but also about chronic pain as a long-term condition in its own right – and how nurses can best help their patients manage it.

After two decades in aged care without any study, Sabya Mohan is now enrolled for not one but two diplomas and is on the clinical nurse specialist pathway. She tells FIONA CASSIE how Waikato’s LARK leadership programme, and her change project on catheterisation, reinvigorated her career.

Find out more about one of this country's most experienced directors of nursing: her drivers and her fundamental nursing philosophy.

Penguin & whale spotting at lunchtime...Caryn Braun spent the Antarctic summer as a flight nurse at McMurdo Station for the United States Antarctic Programme. Find out about the day in the life of a nurse in Antarctica.

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.

Waikato Hospital's Melody Mitchell says being a Māori nurse in management (managing 270 surgical nursing staff) gives her a unique opportunity to articulate her community’s needs.

Hand hygiene compliance has almost quadrupled in Middlemore Hospital's emergency care department since Debbie Hailstone provided evidence to staff of the bugs lurking on their phones and keyboards.

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.

US-born Kiwi-trained nurse Brittany Jenkins is a West Coast hero for developing a resuscitation service for health practitioners stretching from Karamea to Haast.

The hero nomination of home dialysis nurse Sue Patience is the result of her dedicated support of patients caught by last year’s Auckland power outage and her earlier work for evacuated Christchurch earthquake dialysis patients.

This International Nurses Day, nurses are being asked not to leave health system finances just to the bean-counters in the back room. Instead, the International Council of Nurses (ICN) says nurses should be actively engaged in thinking about how each dollar can be best spent to improve health care. Nursing Review reports.

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. 

Patients shared stories across the Auckland isthmus recently during the inaugural region-wide Patient Experience Week. LYNNE MAHER tells FIONA CASSIE why nurses and other health professionals need timely reminders that patients seek courtesy, communication and compassion as part of good clinical care.

Tales of the days of nursing hostel curfews, starched caps and when “doctors were God” can be heard online with the launch of New Zealand’s first nursing oral history archive.

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.

LIZ MANNING shares some simple tips on how to keep your nursing portfolio manageable, succinct, and of a good quality.

This edition’s critically appraised topic (CAT) looks at how best to reduce the risk of delirium in elderly patients without turning to drugs.

Nursing Review caught up with Minister of Health and former GP, Hon Dr JONATHAN COLEMAN, recently to talk about his plans to move more funding from the secondary to the primary health sector, and his views on the nursing and physician assistant roles.

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.

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.

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.

On 28 February the fourth national MECA pay agreement between 20 district health boards and the New Zealand Nurses Organistion expired. FIONA CASSIE backgrounds the talks and some of the history leading up to the latest negotiations.

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. 

The vision for the end of 2014 was for all New Zealanders to have electronic access to their core personal health information*. The reality is that it is still some time away. NURSING REVIEW gives you an update on where sharing electronic health records between patients, practices, pharmacies, hospitals, and other health professionals is up to.

The country's first public hospital is a step closer to farewelling the paper chart at the end of the bed and replacing it with electronic recording of nursing observations and automatic alerting of a high-risk early warning score (EWS). FIONA CASSIE finds out more.

JODIE and PETER WOOD report on how a Whangarei Hospital orthopaedics ward developed a customised electronic whiteboard to give nurses patient details at a glance and help free up more time for direct patient care.

Whangarei nurse PETER WOODS outlines how using a smartphone cut out the 'middleman' and got ED patients more quickly allocated a ward bed.

"One nurse … six bells ... maths doesn't work" – New Zealand's first missed care research finds, not surprisingly, that missing patient care is a reality in Kiwi nursing, although relatively rare. FIONA CASSIE talks to research leader Dr Clare Harvey about the trends found, including the high level of 'working-when-sick' reported and its link to increased missed care.

FIONA CASSIE reports on KERRI-ANN HUGHES’ initial research findings into the support and barriers that help and hinder nurse managers in their work.

If your ward is chaos, the best argument for more staffing is hard data, says Cherrie Lowe, the Australian nurse founder and CEO of patient acuity software system TrendCare. FIONA CASSIE reports on Lowe's presentation to the recent NZNO nurse managers conference, including a major benchmarking study analysing 9.9 million nursing shifts.

Thelma Glasgow started training at Rotorua Hospital with her twin sister back in 1964 and 50 years later the theatre clinical nurse educator is still nursing fulltime. Find out about her nursing day now and nursing days in decades past.

Fingers may be small but wounds to them can be disproportionately painful and debilitating. FIONA CASSIE seeks first aid advice for nurses from emergency NP Margaret Colligan on crushed fingers and other common finger wounds.

Every year, more than 20,000 claims are made to ACC for burn injuries. Burn clinical nurse specialists Deborah Murray and Jackie Beaumont see many of the worst of them. FIONA CASSIE gets advice from the pair about first aid and management of minor burns for nurses in the community and discovers there is no such thing as a ‘simple’ burn.

Returning Red Cross nurse Donna Collins says the true heroes of fighting Ebola are the national nurses who have lost colleagues, faced eviction by landlords, and have been ostracised by their villages, yet they keep turning up for work each day. Back safely from Sierra Leone, Donna talks to FIONA CASSSIE about the testing, sometimes fearful, but ultimately very satisfying mission to help the Ebola-stricken nation.

As Nursing Review went to press, three nurses in Western hospitals had acquired Ebola after caring for patients originally infected in West Africa. Though the chance of an Ebola victim arriving in New Zealand still remains very slim, both the Ministry of Health and the Infection Control Nurses’ College believe the devastating West African epidemic is a good wake-up call.

MARGARETH BROODKORN takes a look at the chequered history of hand washing and asks whether today's health professionals have progressed that much?

CYNTHIA WENSLEY in this Clinically Appraised Topic (CAT) looks at whether or not enriching tube feeding with immune-boosting nutrients reduces infection.

If New Zealand is to cut back the death rate from our second biggest cancer killer – bowel cancer – we need a bigger endoscopy workforce. After some years of investigation and preparation, Health Minister Tony Ryall fast-tracked the pace recently by announcing training of New Zealand’s first nurse endoscopists is to get underway early next year. FIONA CASSIE talks to Jenni Masters and Ruth Anderson about the big steps required to shift from wanting a new nursing role to making it a viable reality.

Can we do more to prevent readmissions after hospital discharge?

Surgical nursing director NICKY GRAHAM’s initial career path diverted from paediatric to adult surgery and she hasn’t looked back.

Not ignoring “just a smoker’s cough” and other symptoms could see more of the 2000 Kiwis diagnosed with lung cancer each year living longer and better quality lives. FIONA CASSIE talks to lung cancer and respiratory nurse specialists about how nurses can play a part.

Is a nurse showering a patient or brushing their hair an indulgence we can longer expect in today’s hectic wards? Is team nursing and delegation of more and more personal care to health care assistants the logical and inevitable next step? FIONA CASSIE finds out more about models of care in today’s acute hospitals.

There are probably fewer more challenging tests of teamwork than a 6.3 magnitude earthquake turning your ward into an indoor waterfall, followed by having to evacuate patients on mattresses down a sodden stairwell in ongoing aftershocks.

Asking a hospital aide to shower a surgical patient with wound dressings, drains, drips and feeding tubes is no easy step for nurse or aide.

Traditional models of care also don’t fit non-traditional forms of acute care services.

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

Five years down the track, implementing Safe Staffing Healthy Workplace Unit’s safe staffing tools in public hospitals is still a steady work in progress. FIONA CASSIE talks to unit director LISA SKEET about early pockets of success, TrendCare naysayers, and the need for DHBs to turn hard data into more nurses on the floor.

Do community exercise programmes for the elderly reduce injuries as well as falls?

Missed care, rushed care, and tick box care plans … Researcher BERT TEEKMAN set out to find out was happening to bedside nursing and decided your average ‘med/surg’ nurse was definitely more sinned against than sinning under today’s managerial-focused health system. FIONA CASSIE finds out more.

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.

NEWS

Surgery can be traumatic enough for a patient without an infection setting them back weeks, months, or even disabling them for a lifetime. LINLEY BONIFACE* of the Health Quality & Safety Commission backgrounds the national campaign to prevent surgical site infections and the role that nursing plays.

Skin tears affect our most vulnerable – the very old and very young. Wound care consultant Elizabeth Milner outlines a STAR approach to skin tears.

Helping prevent and heal faster debilitating and costly leg ulcers is the aim of the first trans-Tasman clinical guidelines for venous leg ulcers. Two years on from launching the Australasian guidelines, the push is on to get wider implementation. Some of Australasia’s experts in the field provide an update.

PAULA MCKINNEL of the New Zealand Wound Care Society sets the scene for November 21’s worldwide Stop Pressure Injury Day.

Does using maggots on sloughy ulcers make a positive difference?

Disaster veteran and nurse leader Frances Hughes shares the findings of her Fulbright research into post-disaster responses and building resilient RNs.

JO ANN WALTON* argues that the public ­­– and some health colleagues – still need to be educated on the vital role of both “essential” and “inessential” nursing care.

Michael Geraghty, Nurse Practitioner in the Adult Emergency Department at Auckland City Hospital, calls for a zero tolerance policy against violence and verbal threats in our hospitals.

Former barman and now ED nurse practitioner MICHAEL GERAGHTY wonders when Kiwis will grow out of defining a great night as waking up feeling sick with no memory of the previous night and no cash in their wallet.

ANDY McLACHLAN – Scotsman, cardiology NP and past-consumer of deep-fried pizza and hamburgers the size of your head – recently got lectured by an after-hours pharmacist while picking up his type 2 diabetes medication. As a reformed character with great blood sugar, cholesterol, a BMI of 24 (and only succumbing to the occasional pink iced bun) McLachlan suggests sensitivity is needed for when and how health professionals’ offer lifestyle advice to patients.

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.

18 months on, FIONA CASSIE checks up on Taranaki’s radical new ‘hands-on’ nursing degrees to see how the ‘modern apprenticeship’ is bedding in.

Director of nursing SONIA GAMBLEN asks whether being a good nurse qualifies you to become a manager and leader, and she reflects on what characteristics and skills that nurse leaders need to foster or acquire.

Find out what Nursing Council chair, neonatal ICU nurse, nursing school lecturer and nurse consultant Dr Deborah Rowe squeezes into her spare time. And what she dreams of doing in Ireland someday.

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.

Gary Lees came to New Zealand to take up his current position as nursing director of Lakes DHB and went on to become chair of nurse leaders group NENZ. Find out how an interest in psychology lead him to nursing, how he helps out his kids on a Sunday and why his chain mail shirt is getting rusty...

CLINICALLY APPRAISED TOPIC (CAT): Is ‘prescribing’ a post-surgery long black good for the bowels as well as morale?

Clinical nurse specialist Shelley McMahon reflects on the ongoing development of Northland’s Nurse-Led Preoperative Assessment Clinic.

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.

CLINICALLY APPRAISED TOPIC (CAT): Does bathing patients with antiseptic cloths reduce bloodstream infections?

You’re as old as you feel. Whether nurses feel wiser or worn -  more and more are nursing into their 60s and beyond. Persuading even more baby boomers to delay retirement is increasingly high on the agenda as we face the double whammy of an ageing population – more nurses due to retire at the same time as more demand for health services. Nursing Review looks at what nursing can do to better support older nurses to keep nursing.

Reluctant to miss out on her OE, Carolyn Sengelow headed off to London to nurse nearly 40 years after starting her nursing training.

Had a good night’s sleep recently? No? You are not alone – about one in four Kiwis have chronic insomnia at some point in their lives.

We look at a day up in the air and down on the ground for Whangarei Flight Nurse JANET BARKER that starts with a 5.30am phonecall about a 200 kg patient in need...

Eating healthily ain’t rocket science. And it isn’t about fad diets either. But it does take organisation. Nurse-turned-life coach Jan Aitken shares tips for becoming a healthier eater.

A Christchurch system tracking ambulance patients’ journeys from initial call to ED and beyond, including multiple callouts, recently won an Australasian ambulance award for excellence.

So-called ‘frequent fliers’ to emergency departments are often very unwell with complex health needs and feel they have little other option, a nurse research team has found. FIONA CASSIE talks to leader researcher Dr Kathy Nelson about some of her initial findings.

Timely phone calls after discharge can help the frail elderly stay well and stay home. FIONA CASSIE reports on Dr Claire Heppenstall’s PhD research into the frail elderly recently presented to the College of Nurses symposium.

CLINICALLY APPRAISED TOPIC (CAT): How do you decide when you need to replace a peripheral IV line?

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.

A nurse practitioner survey found five of the country’s NPs are still hunting for NP positions.

How should nurses behave? The Nursing Council recently released its 21st century guide to what patients should and shouldn’t expect from their nurse. FIONA CASSIE looks at what’s new in a new Code of Conduct underpinned by traditional values

The past two decades have drawn on factory theory to measure and improve nurse productivity. FIONA CASSIE talks to Nicola North about the need to take a ‘big picture’ systems approach to ensure the mistakes of the 1990s are not repeated.

FIONA CASSIE reports on  Canterbury DHB nurse leader, Becky Hickmott's and researcher Dr Claire Heppenstall's presentations (to the Baby Boomers & Beyond Symposium) on how  elderly evacuees fared after the mass rest home evacuations that followed the  February 2011 quakes in Christchurch.

Find out what fills the day of perioperative NP Teena Robinson from walking the dog in the morning to investigating ongoing nausea in a patient three days post-knee surgery.

Safe staffing tools could help ameliorate unsafe workload concerns raised recently in the second union survey of Auckland health workers to link unsafe staffing with underfunding.

Better patient workload prediction and improved rostering of staff to match can help meet the challenging demands of the modern health care system, says Jane O’Malley, Ministry of Health Chief Nurse.

This edition's RRR (Reading, reflection and application in reality) looks at what health literacy means for nursing and finds that patient-centred communication is still the answer.

Keeping your hands clean? Maybe not. National statistics show Kiwi nurses are missing one in three occasions they should be reaching for the hand gel. FIONA CASSIE looks at the Hand Hygiene New Zealand programme.

They rarely grab the headlines but thousands of New Zealanders each year get preventable pressure injuries – and some die. FIONA CASSIE looks at new guidelines, the new name, and new efforts to heal this health system scar.

Pressure injuries are one barometer for the quality of nursing care.

FIONA CASSIE talks to New Zealand Wound Care Society president Wayne Naylor about his wound care career, fungating wounds, and a palliative approach to wound care.

FIONA CASSIE talks to Victoria’s doyenne of wound care, Jan Rice*, about new wound science, old-fashioned wound cleaning, and eating to heal.

CLINICALLY APPRAISED TOPIC (CAT): Can elevating the heels help prevent pressure injuries?

Research indicating nearly half of nurses have considered quitting their job because of moral distress hit a chord recently. FIONA CASSIE talks to researcher Martin Wood about moral distress and why we can’t keep ignoring its toll.

TAIMA CAMPBELL ‘plain packages’ the need to tell the truth about the tobacco industry.

Anxious patients with chest pain who used to wait up to 100 days for review at Counties Manukau District Health Board are now being seen in less than 20 days.Nearly half of heart attack patients who used to wait up to six months for a cardiologist review are now seeing a nurse practitioner or CNS instead. FIONA CASSIE talks to cardiac nurse practitioner Andy McLachlan about the difference nurse-led clinics are making.

Respiratory nurse practitioner Diana Hart helps the morbidly obese breathe easily again at night. FIONA CASSIE learns more about her successful bi-level ventilation clinics.

After more than two decades of nursing, enrolled nurse Kay Bone has recently stepped up into a new time-saving role for West Coast capsule endoscopy patients and has been endorsed at an “accomplished” level of practice. FIONA CASSIE finds out more.

The first social media guide to help Kiwi nurses avoid stepping over the professional line in their online life has been released.

SAFE STAFFING/ HEALTHY WORKPLACE: We report on a new electronic ‘tick-box’ tool that instantly signals hospital wide if your busy ward needs nursing help.

Tauranga Hospital’s ‘busy’ emergency department used to often find itself at 150 per cent capacity on a daily basis. (See also "How Busy is Your Ward")

Creative nursing approach to improving medication safety: Wairarapa DHB

Map of Medicine** is an electronic collection of evidence-based care “maps” connecting all the knowledge and services around a clinical condition.

We employ clinical coaches as part of our Nurse Entry to Practice (NETP) programme that was first established back in 2004.

The Capital and Coast District Health Board (CCDHB) District Nursing Hospital Admission Prevention Project can now add to its list of achievements a reduction in rest home patients needing to be admitted to Wellington ED.

Rapid Rounds

FIONA CASSIE talks to former Auckland District Health executive director of nursing Taima Campbell about her decade at the helm, Māori workforce development and her plans for the future.

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.

A joint care clinic launched last year at Palmerston North Hospital for patients scheduled for hip and knee joint replacement surgery has proved so successful that it has been extended to include shoulder joint patients, as well.

Night duty on the PAR team sees Sarah Imray wake to the sound of her children back from school and return home to wave them off to school.  In between she is called out across Wellington Hospital to patients recently discharged from ICU to patients with alarmingly high EWS (early warning scores).

Patch protection a barrier to physician assistants by Fiona Cassie

News briefs including: More nurses in schools/ Oz aged care package get nurses’ backing/  Innovative RNFSA and HCA training underway/ NZ hospital productivity ‘bucks trend’/ Toolkit to improve elective patient flow/  New ACC patient handling guidelines/ Strong cultural life enhances Māori elders

About one in seven nurses smoke. Should they know better? Quitting is easier said than done. FIONA CASSIE talks to smokefree nurse advocates and nurse smokers about the battle to quit. And shares some top tips and research for nurses wanting to quit.

A pilot study into erratic eating in shiftworking nurses and doctors raises questions about the health risks of shiftwork. FIONA CASSIE talks to researcher Anne Jaquiery.

People often start to appreciate their feet once something goes wrong. Nursing Review talks to AUT podiatry professor Keith Rome about foot health and how good footwear maintains it.

Nursing Review talks to Professor Jenny Carryer – who has an enduring research and personal interest in the topics — about eating, exercise, body-size, and health.

RRR PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT ARTICLE:  Work-life balance? We attach great cultural significance to the close of one year and start of another, whether dated by the Gregorian or Chinese calendar, Matariki or a more personal anniversary. Times of transition prompt review and reflection, prediction, and planning. Many of us will have taken stock of last year, wondered how we did it all, and resolved to better balance ‘work’ and ‘life’. In this learning activity, we’ll take a look at what work-life balance means – theoretically, critically and personally – by reviewing some of the themes most relevant to the experiences of nurses in New Zealand.   BY SHELLEY JONES

Taranaki’s radical new nursing degree sees first year students into hands-on practice from just week two of training. Nursing Review finds out more.

Listening to patients and their whānau is a learning experience nurses can’t afford to ignore. Nursing Review talks to Taima Campbell about her keynote address to last year’s Australian Nurse Educators Conference.

FIONA CASSIE talks to recent Florence Nightingale medal winner Andrew Cameron about the momentous and mundane of being a Red Cross nurse.

CLINICALLY APPRAISED TOPIC (CAT): What impact does restricting access to blood transfusions have on post-hip surgery patients?

Working long and irregular hours increases the risk of harmful drinking, according to recently released research from the Australasian nurse and midwives e-cohort study.

Falls continue to dominate the latest serious and sentinel events report for New Zealand’s public hospitals.

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 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.

Screening for patients at the greatest risk of post-surgery pain will be one of the first projects for the country’s newest pain nurse practitioner.

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

When managing malignant wounds a holistic approach is needed, reports Annie May in Australia’s Nursing Review

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.

Pictured from left are Evelyn Hikuroa, leader of the NSFANZ Maori strategy and senior lecturer at Manukau Institute of Technology; Grace Wong, director of NSFANZ and senior lecturer at Auckland University of Technology; and Pauline Allan-Downs, member of the Ministry of Health Smoking Cessation ABC Approach Steering Group.

American-trained physician assistants are to be recruited for a pilot of the role at Counties Manukau District Health Board in early 2010.