Welcome to the College of Nurses Aotearoa News Update.
No. 494 Wednesday 13 May 2020
Weekly news round-up of nursing and health information in New Zealand and internationally
NATIONAL NEWS
Pandemic shines light on nurses’ ‘important role’
Nurses join the profession to help their community, but in recent weeks they have been serving in ways they might not have thought possible, WellSouth director of nursing Wendy Findlay says.
A Message To Our Nurses In 2020
Nurses globally and in Aotearoa New Zealand are at the forefront of care this year as we celebrate the International year of the Nurse. It’s International Nurses Day on Tuesday 12 May and the 200th birthday of Florence Nightingale, whose influence on modern nursing will always be remembered.
Young Hawke's Bay nurses and midwives future leaders in health
"Chief Nursing and Midwifery Officer Chris Mckenna had already signed the DHB up to an internationally accredited professional development ...
International Nurses Day: Public Health nurses crucial in pandemic response
Improving the health and wellbeing of a whole community, reducing inequities and preventing disease outbreaks was not an area of nursing accomplished Public Health Nurse Manager Liz Read knew existed until a placement with Palmerston North’s public health unit during nursing training.
Central Hawke's Bay nurse circulates petition for special service medal
Central Hawke's Bay resident and Red Cross nurse Andrew Cameron is circulating a petition to award frontline health professionals the New Zealand ...
Coronavirus: Inside the Auckland City Mission during the Covid-19 crisis
Inside, at the Calder Health Centre, things are being done a little differently to ensure the most vulnerable Aucklanders are still able to access healthcare.
To mark International Nurses Day — Tuesday, May 12 — Stuff visited the clinic to see how it has adapted to the coronavirus crisis.
Covid 19 coronavirus: Waitematā DHB nurses at St Margaret's rest home worked hospital shifts
Nurses sent to help at a rest home hit by Covid-19 also worked hospital shifts - raising further questions about precautions to stop spread of the deadly virus.
Hospital sent nurses all over after Covid work
Acting associate professional services manager of the NZNO, Kate Weston, says, “Despite concerns raised by the NZ Nurses' Organisation when the ...
Auckland nurse diagnosed with coronavirus, parts of Waitākere Hospital closed
Director General of Public Health Dr Caroline McElnay confirmed the news today. The nurse was amongst close contacts of another confirmed case ...
Fourth nurse infected - and now seriously ill
The Waitakere Hospital nurse seriously ill in North Shore Hospital from ... against requests from the NZ Nurses Organisation that they maintain ward ...
Coronavirus: North Shore Hospital nurses allegedly told to 'remove masks' by management so ...
North Shore Hospital nurses claim that DHB management instructed them to ... However, New Zealand Resident Doctors Association president Dr ...
Coronavirus: Waitemata DHB defends mask access and bullying allegations
It comes after another nurse at Waitakere Hospital has tested positive for ... Nurses told Newshub they'd specifically requested for this to not happen
Covid 19 coronavirus: PPE teething issues now resolved, says Health Minister David Clark
A stocktake in the Health Ministry's handling of personal protective equipment has found initial teething issues have now been resolved, Health Minister David Clark said today.
Simulation reveals problems
Practice may not make perfect, but the Southern District Health Board believes where Covid-19 is concerned it definitely means improvement.
Napier medical team lighten dim atmosphere amid Covid-19 pandemic
A practice nurse of 10 years, Nicholas works at The Doctors in Napier and is one of ... staff working at Community Based Assessment Centres (CBAC) across New Zealand. ... Coronavirus: Wellington nurse tests positive for Covid-19
Plastic sheeting deemed 'adequate' protection for staff at West Coast hospital
A retired nurse says she was appalled and shocked when she saw plastic sheeting set up as protection for staff at Grey Base Hospital during the coronavirus pandemic.
Health workers fear violence as police deliver more people to hospital emergency department
Health workers are concerned for their safety with the number of people delivered to an emergency department for mental health care by police having nearly tripled in five years.
Nurses To Get More Protection, Added To 'First Responders' Legislation
Incidents of violence and assaults are common and have been building over the past few years, says New Zealand First Law and Order Spokesman ...
Canterbury District Health Board Welcomes Return Of Nursing Students To Placements
Professionals within the CDHB are anticipating the return of 135 Ara Institute and UC nursing students nurses and midwives to clinical practice placements on May the 12th 2020. 26 ‘Competency Assessment Programme (CAP)’ students will also be starting their 6-week clinical placements in mid-July. The re-commencement of student placements means that the Board’s ‘pipeline’ of qualified staff will be continue to be replenished after the COVID-19 hiatus.
INTERNATIONAL NEWS
Viewpoint: Hospital leadership is a bigger threat to nurses than COVID-19
The lack of support from hospital leadership is more dangerous for nurses working on the front lines of the coronavirus pandemic than the virus itself, a nurse wrote in an opinion piece for STAT News.
U.K. National Health Service (NHS) to Stop Using “Aspirant Nurse” Title
The body representing NHS employers will no longer describe nursing students helping out during the COVID-19 pandemic as “aspirant nurses” after leaders in the nursing profession stated that the title was confusing and risked undermining the status of registered nurses. The title was being used to, “refer to third-year students who have opted to extend their final work placement and provide vital support to registered nurses,” during COVID-19.
AGING AND AGED CARE
Covid-19 screening expanded for rest home residents
Health officials have launched a new Covid-19 screening survey for rest home residents, expected to trigger more testing of new, returning or discharged residents.
BUDGET 2020
District Health Boards to get $3.9b increase over four years in 2020 Budget
District Health Boards are to get an extra $3.92 billion over four years and a one-off $282.5m to catch up on elective surgery after the Covid-19 disruption.
DHB solution has to be about more than money
ANALYSIS: The Government has come riding to the rescue of the beleaguered district health boards with a $3.9 billion rescue package.
Budget 2020: Govt to boost pharmaceutical funding by $160m
The government is going to give pharmaceutical funding a $160 million boost over the next four years.
$200m boost in funding to reduce family violence, elder abuse
The government is investing an extra $202 million over the next four years to strengthen family and sexual violence services.
CLIMATE CHANGE
Heat and Humidity Are Already Reaching the Limits of Human Tolerance
Events with extreme temperatures and humidity are occurring twice as often now as they were 40 years ago
CORONAVIRUS/COVID-19
Covid-19: Contact tracing app may discriminate against Māori
A digital contact tracing system poses the risk of discrimination against Māori, a technologist says.
Coronavirus: New temperature app could be a Covid gamebreaker
The government will tip over $250,000 into funding an urgent trial of a merino-wool armband that automatically takes the wearer’s temperature every six minutes - and is touted by its inventors as a key tool for containing Covid-19
COVID-19 testing system ready for next phase - Ministry of Health
New Zealanders can be confident our COVID-19 testing capability and planning is up to the task of detecting and quickly containing the disease if it re-emerges when we move down alert levels and begin moving outside our bubbles, Director-General of Health Dr Ashley Bloomfield says.
Waitakere: A cluster waiting to happen
Newsroom Investigations editor Melanie Reid, with reporter Bonnie Sumner, outline the growing Covid-19 infections arising from practices at Waitakere Hospital and how authorities repeatedly tried to downplay concerns and fall back on standard procedures.
Covid-19: Doctors' union wants answers over seven nurses infected at Waitākere Hospital
A doctors' union fears the Waitematā District Health Board is covering up mistakes that led to seven of its staff contracting Covid-19.
Bigger cities more at risk of Covid-19 flare-up at alert level 2 - data modeller
Auckland is at greater risk from the coronavirus flare-up than the rest of the country, a leading Covid-19 data modeller says.
Covid 19 coronavirus: Country's largest public health service unable to find basic information
The country's largest public health team has revealed it would take an entire day for it to dig Covid-19 case information from its systems that other regional teams were able to provide within hours.
Covid 19 coronavirus: Experts double down on 'mass-masking' call
A group of Kiwi public health experts have repeated calls for "mass masking" amid the Covid-19 pandemic – this time setting out the benefits for people riding on buses or crossing the border.
Worst case would have seen 4000 people needing NZ's 868 ventilators
Had the bid to eradicate Covid-19 failed, New Zealand may have had 2700 to 4000 people requiring a ventilator.
Vanessa Beavis: How NZ hospitals prepared for Covid-19
Health care workers are experiencing an “almost post-traumatic stress” after feeling terrified in the face of the Covid-19 pandemic, a leading anaesthetist says
DHBs
Counties Manukau DHB seeks $11.2m from ACC for Whakaari/White Island treatment
Counties Manukau District Health Board is in talks with ACC to recover costs associated with treating the victims of the 2019 Whakaari/White Island volcanic eruption.
Coronavirus: Covid-19 costs swell West Coast DHB deficit
The West Coast District Health Board (DHB) has gone further into the red this month to fund its response to the Covid-19 pandemic.
DHB report considers shifting some specialist and acute services out of Wairarapa Hospital
Wairarapa people's health needs are not being met and the hospital in Masterton could see services go in a potential shake-up, according to a recent report.
EMERGENCY HEALTH CARE
Coronavirus: Urgent care clinics pushed to financial limits during Covid-19 pandemic
Plummeting patient numbers and coronavirus uncertainty have urgent care clinics concerned about keeping their doors open.
ETHICAL ISSUES
Hospice NZ takes court action to object to possibly having to aid in assisted dying
Hospice New Zealand has applied for an urgent court hearing on whether it can conscientiously object to assisted dying
MENTAL HEALTH
Targeted Action Can Prevent Suicide Increases
A forecasted surge in suicide rates due to the impacts of COVID-19, its associated restrictions and their secondary social, economic and personal consequences is not inevitable according to the President of the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists, Associate Professor John Allan. Read more
PHARMACY
Covid-19: ePrescription standards 'set to change'
New Zealand’s electronic prescription standards are set to change to cope with an expected long term rise in the number of virtual consultations.
PUBLIC HEALTH
Fears of measles resurgence as vaccinations drop away in lockdown
Another outbreak of measles is feared because of delays in child vaccination programmes, according to the director of the immunisation advisory centre.
ARTICLES OF INTEREST
Working across Generations to Boost Staff Nurse Retention
Amy Witkoski Stimpfel and Victoria Vaughan Dickson
Western Journal of Nursing Research 0 10.1177/0193945919893319
The greying of America is a well-known phenomenon. The Baby Boomer generation, born 1946–1964, is rapidly turning 65 years; the entire generation will be 65 years or older by the end of the next decade. The nursing profession is no exception to the aging phenomenon, 50 years is the average age of a nurse in the United States. While Baby Boomers comprise a large portion of the profession, Millennials, born 1980–1994, have shown sharp growth within the past 10 years (Auerbach, Beurhaus, Skinner, & Staiger, n.d.). Characteristics vary across generations regarding values, lifestyles, and work preferences. Millennials strive to find meaning in their work, and will change employers in search of purpose and fulfillment. In contrast, Baby Boomers’ work characteristics include being loyal and hardworking, and believing in “paying their dues” before moving up in an organization.
Nursing leadership in policy formation.
Disch, J.
Nurs Forum. 2020; 55: 4‐ 10. https://doi.org/10.1111/nuf.12375
This article provides broad definitions of the concepts of policy, politics, and power, which will be developed further in subsequent articles. The article describes the critical role of nurses in health policy formation at local, organizational, and national levels and outlines the unique strengths and sources of influence that nurses possess and must employ if health care in the United States is to become safer, more accessible, holistic, and more affordable. Many of these same talents can be used at international levels to affect health care worldwide. The basic premise of this article—and actually of the entire issue—is this: When informed nurses are actively involved in shaping healthcare policy at any level, desired outcomes will be substantially improved.
The delivery of compassionate nursing care in a tick-box culture: Qualitative perspectives from a realist evaluation of intentional rounding
International Journal of Nursing Studies
Volume 107, July 2020, 103580
Compassion is integral to professional nursing practice worldwide and a fundamental value in healthcare. Following serious care failures at a healthcare provider in the United Kingdom, a government commissioned report (the Francis Report) made several recommendations for strengthening compassion in nursing care and consequently ‘intentional rounding’ was incorporated into nursing practice in the United Kingdom. Intentional rounding is a structured process implemented primarily in the United Kingdom, North America and Australia, whereby nurses conduct 1–2 hourly checks on every patient using a standardised protocol and documentation.
The above information has been collated for the College of Nurses Aotearoa (NZ) Inc by Linda Stopforth, SNIPS and is provided on a weekly basis. It is current as of Tuesday 12 May 2020
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