Rowe – a University of Auckland lecturer, neonatal ICU nurse and nurse consultant – will step into the role at the Whakatane-based nursing school in February to replace current director Ngaira Harker.

Harker, who has been director for the Te Ōhanga Mataora Paetahi (Bachelor of Health Science Māori Nursing) programme since September 2013, has resigned to take up a post as Director of Nursing, Māori Health, in late January at Hawke’s Bay District Health Board.

The appointment of Rowe was a “real coup” for the programme, said Harker.  “It bodes well for the programme that we have people of that calibre wanting to apply for head of school.”

Harker was with the school for the duration of the first Whakatane-based student cohort to complete the kaupapa Māori degree programme.  That cohort sat their state final exams on November 21.

Rowe, a keen surfer, is affiliated to Ngāi Tahu.

Kerr is currently chief operating officer at Wellington primary health organisation Compass Health where she has worked since 2009, initially as clinical services director.  A registered nurse since the early 1980s, her nursing career included secondary care, women’s health and aged residential care, before primary care became her focus from the early 1990s.

Hutt Valley DHB chief executive Ashley Bloomfield said the director of nursing role was part of the new structure at Hutt with Kerr to be a member of the DHB’s executive leadership team.

Bloomfield thanked Hutt nursing leaders for supported the new director of nursing recruitment process over the last few months and for continuing to provide excellent leadership in interim roles.

Kerr was a nurse manager at Hora Te Pai Health Services in Paraparaumu before joining Compass in 2009.  She holds a postgraduate diploma in primary health care and her role in Compass included oversight of community services (including outreach nursing, mental health and school-based services), clinical quality and integrated care development.

From 2013 to October 2016 Helen Pocknall was the executive director of nursing and midwifery for both Hutt Valley and Wairarapa DHBs. Pocknall, a longstanding director of nursing and midwifery at Wairarapa DHB before the combined DHB executive role, was interim director of nursing for Hutt Valley until March this year. She is deputy chair of Health Workforce New Zealand and recently established her own consultancy business.

In October last year Michele Halford, who had been working for Wairarapa DHB as a nursing director since 2013, was appointed executive leader nursing for Wairarapa as part of the shift back to local executive leadership for each board.

The alliance’s achievements include the roll-out of electronic referrals across the region, the development of a single South Island-wide patient management system and the alignment of clinical practice through using Health Pathways and Lippincott clinical procedures. Later this year the alliance is to see all five DHBs sharing clinical information across primary and secondary care.

Legget was general manager of general manager of medical and surgical Services for Canterbury DHB from 2006 to 2009, and Vice President International Services for HHL Group (Healthcare New Zealand) from 2009 to 2016.

Serita Karauria, who spent a decade nursing in America including UCLA Medical Centre and Cedar Sinai Hospital, has been appointed associate director of nursing for Tairawhiti DHB.

CAROLYN COOPER, a health leader with extensive nursing experience, has been appointed director of clinical service improvement for Bupa. Cooper returned to New Zealand in April from Australia where she had been a clinical operations executive director.

IAN CRABTREE is the new head of school of Otago Polytechnic’s Faculty of Nursing. The English-trained nurse was head of nursing at Leeds Children’s Hospital before coming to New Zealand in early 2015. He facilitated a leadership programme at Otago Polytechnic then became service manager at Southern District Health Board’s adult surgery directorate before returning to Otago Polytechnic late last year.

ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR STEPHEN NEVILLE is the new New Zealand representative on the executive committee of the Council of Deans of Nursing and Midwifery (Australia & New Zealand). Neville is head of department (nursing) at Auckland University of Technology, co-director of the AUT Centre for Active Ageing and current president of the NZ Association of Gerontology.

CATHERINE BYRNE took up the post of director of nursing in November at Taranaki District Health Board, where she initially trained. Byrne was formerly the nurse unit manager at Starship Children’s Hospital and is currently chair of the Nursing Council of New Zealand, of which she has been an elected member since 2009.