Welcome to the College of Nurses Aotearoa News Update.
No. 567, Wednesday 3 November 2021
Weekly news round-up of nursing and health information in New Zealand and internationally
New Zealand news
Cochlear implant restores deaf nurse's career | Stuff.co.nz
Tearful and shattered, Catherine Wolicki was on the verge of walking away from her beloved nursing career. The Putāruru registered nurse, ...
Oncology nurse calls for more nurses to join the team - The Gisborne Herald
NEW Zealand has just one oncology nurse practitioner working outside of the main cancer treatment centres — and that is Lynne Gray at Gisborne ...
Covid-19: Christchurch nurse urges others to get vaccinated despite suffering reaction | Stuff.co.nz
Prior to getting her second Covid-19 vaccine dose, Val Gallon-Carter said her goodbyes to her loved ones "just in case". The 72-year-old nurse has ...
Covid-19: Anti-vax doctors, nurses exploit loophole for vaccine exemptions | Stuff.co.nz
Anti-vaccine doctors are offering online vaccination exemptions, despite official exemption criteria not yet being finalised.
Paakiwaha Interview | Kathryn Chapman - Waatea News: Māori Radio Station
Waatea News
Kathryn Champman, Chair for Te Runanga O Aotearoa NZNO and Secretary to her Marae (Ngarongo) ki Taranaki. Kathryn is a Māori nurse who is working in Auckland through the Pandemic.
Health sector ready for compulsory jabs - The Gisborne Herald
The New Zealand Nurses Organisation (NZNO) supports the health worker vaccine mandate as a “crucial support for at-risk communities”.
Why we should be glad New Zealand's nurses have settled
OPINION: On October 15, nurses voted to accept the latest offer in their multi-employer collective agreement (MECA) negotiations with the district health boards. Voter turnout was high, and a resounding 83 per cent voted in favour.
Brandt's Rants
Get Sorted on Speaking Like a True Kiwi
Brandt, Robert MD. Emergency Medicine News: November 2021 - Volume 43 - Issue 11 - p 24
We acquire a second language in the ED. Certain words and phrases said in the ED carry different meanings. We know that a patient who says he has been hacking his brains out means he has been coughing forcefully to the point of severe discomfort.
I recently moved to New Zealand, and it turns out, a distance of 8078 miles makes for slight differences. By “slight differences,” I mean, of course, “Whoa, I have to start learning the local lingo ASAP, or I won't understand what my patients are telling me, and I won't know how to treat them! Ah!”
International news
Ontario aims to add 2,000 more nurses in long-term care sector | CBC News
Ontario plans to spend up to $100 million to add 2,000 nurses to the ... each day has not kept up," Phillips said at a news conference in Toronto.
Nurse shortages leave people dying in pain, charity warns | The Independent
The Independent
Nurse shortages are affecting the quality of community care ... One in three nurses, responding to a survey by the charity and Nursing Standard, ...
Nova Scotia to offer jobs to all graduating nurses - CTV News Atlantic
CTV News Atlantic
Nova Scotia will offer jobs to all nurses who graduate from universities and the Nova Scotia Community College over the next five years.
New ICN code of ethics puts spotlight on role of nurses in global health
Nursing Times
First adopted in 1953, the code covers ethical values, responsibilities and professional accountabilities of nurses in a bid to define and guide ...
Alfred Hospital emergency department nurse captures 'confronting' scenes treating some of Melbourne's sickest COVID-19 patients
A white light illuminates the hospital corridor, and inside the room three clinicians in protective clothing hurry around a man lying in a bed.
One nurse draws up medicine while the others try to calm him.
Addictions (Alcohol, tobacco, drugs)
Covid-19: Addictions services see spike in relapses, fear people will die in lockdown
Addictions specialists fear people will die from alcohol and drug overdoses in lockdown without more support, as a spike in relapses puts pressure on private treatment services.
Alarming results from NZ’s biggest ever youth vaping survey
The report was initiated by the Asthma and Respiratory Foundation (ARFNZ) in partnership with the Secondary Principals’ Association of NZ (SPANZ). The survey was carried out in response to growing concerns raised by parents, teachers and schools around the epidemic of teen vaping. Over 19,000 students in years 9-13 were asked about their vaping and smoking habits. Participation was anonymous and voluntary.
National Maori Authority calls for tighter regulations on vaping
The Chair of the National Maori Authority, Matthew Tukaki, has called the Vaping in New Zealand "Youth Survey Findings" a blunt indication that there is a looming and significant health crisis.
Aged care / Aging population
Aged-care nurses in short supply | Otago Daily Times Online News
Otago Daily Times
A chronic shortage of aged residential care nurses in the South is ... to see if they wanted support to become registered to work in New Zealand.
Alternative therapies
Traditional Chinese medicine to be regulated under new law | Stuff.co.nz
More than 25 different health professions are regulated under the HPCA Act, including nurses, dentists, midwives, chiropractors, osteopaths, and ...
Children and young people
Teenagers left homeless without support for fetal alcohol spectrum disorder
One teen ends up sleeping under a bridge. Another is passed between temporary care homes. Carers and social workers agree: "There is nothing for these children." Josephine Franks reports.
Australasia’s Largest Covid-19 Survey Of Children
Children in Aotearoa New Zealand have displayed strength in the face of adversity according to one of the world’s largest surveys looking at the impact of Covid-19 restrictions on children’s health, wellbeing and education.
Covid-19
Law change recognises vaccinations received overseas by border workers - MOH
Three of the vaccines commonly administered overseas are now recognised by the Vaccinations Order that requires people working at New Zealand’s borders to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19.
Six ICU beds, three for Covid - Gisborne Hospital prepares for surge in low vaxed area - NZ Herald
NZ Herald
It comes amid "major rostering challenges" for ICU nurses, and issues training staff to use ventilators because the region can go for days without ...
Covid-19 'not an old person's disease any more' warns intensive care nurse | Stuff.co.nz
Stuff.co.nz
During her three-week stint at Auckland's Middlemore Hospital nurse Jane Anderson helped treat five ventilated Covid patients on life support.
Covid-19: Middlemore's new negative pressure rooms unlikely to be in action until 2022 | Stuff.co.nz
Stuff.co.nz
New Zealand Nurses Organisation acting nursing and professional services manager Kate Weston questioned why the new. 123RF. New Zealand Nurses ...
Covid-19 vaccination: How mistrust shadows the roll-out in a time of crisis
Huddled under the table Rose* and her two younger brothers watched as police searched their home for them.
It was late at night when Child, Youth, and Family (now Oranga Tamariki) with police entered the Hamilton home to uplift six-year-old Rose and her two younger brothers.
Pfizer booster jab reduces risk of Covid-19 hospitalisation by 93%
Getting a Pfizer booster jab five months after a second dose reduces a person’s risk of hospitalisation with Covid-19 by 93 per cent, according to new research in The Lancet.
Pharmac negotiates deal for a further Covid-19 treatment
Pharmac has negotiated an agreement with pharmaceutical supplier Roche to purchase another COVID-19 treatment. Branded as Ronapreve, it could be used in the prevention and treatment of COVID-19 in New Zealand.
Covid-19: Cold-calling doctors help change 1000 vaccine-hesitant patients' minds | Stuff.co.nz
Nurses will be joining doctors on the phones to speak to ... district health boards – Auckland, Waitematā and Counties Manukau – have made more ...
Calls to ease path for overseas-trained health workers in NZ
The 300 MIQ spots set aside for health care workers coming into the country will do little to fill the thousands of vacancies across New Zealand’s hospitals and other health care settings.
Covid-19: MIQ changes for health staff welcomed, but won't plug south Auckland gap | Stuff.co.nz
Govt move to bring in more healthcare workers from overseas doesn't do enough to address skills shortages in understaffed areas, nurses' union ...
Māori Covid-19 funding approved for eight groups to boost vaccinations
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern is in Northland with Māori Crown Relations Minister Kelvin Davis as the government announces the first round of funding the rollout of Māori vaccine initiatives.
Pfizer's ability to manufacture paediatric vaccines to meet demand will be a challenge - Bloomfield
Questions are being asked about when the government will firm up supplies of paediatric vaccines with an application from Pfizer due any day now
Family doctors cop abuse from patients wanting vaccine exemptions
Patients are pressuring family doctors to issue vaccine exemption certificates – and some will likely succumb to the demands, the country’s GP college says.
DHBs
Modelling shows Covid-19 hospitalisations may double in Auckland
Auckland's hospitals are now expecting to care for 120 Covid-19 patients a day at the peak of the current outbreak - more than double the current number.
Covid-19: Southern DHB outlines scenarios if virus becomes endemic
Close to 46,000 cases, 2100 hospitalisations and 210 deaths - that's the worst case scenario the Southern DHB is preparing for next year if Covid-19 becomes endemic in the community.
Health NZ to take on at least $700m worth of deficits from DHBs
The country’s newest Crown entity will start off with more than $700 million in deficits on its balance sheet when it picks up the tab from 20 district health boards next year.
Diabetes
Inequity in NZ podiatry services 'behind hundreds of preventable amputations'
New Zealand’s ‘postcode lottery’ approach to podiatry services is a major contributing factor in over 600 preventable diabetes-related amputations every year, with Diabetes New Zealand calling for urgent change to a more equitable model.
Mental health
Serious concerns about cruel and inhuman treatment at forensic facility - Office of the Ombudsman
Chief Ombudsman Peter Boshier says he is seriously concerned about the use of seclusion at forensic units in the Wellington region.
He also says more must be done for an intellectually disabled client who has been living in effective seclusion for years.
Importance of improving access to mental health and addiction services highlighted
The Mental Health and Wellbeing Commission (the Commission) has today released its independent report into the progress of the "Access and Choice Programme" being developed and implemented under the leadership of the Ministry of Health. The programme, developed in response to recommendations in He Ara Oranga: Report of the Government Inquiry into Mental Health and Addiction, has a particular focus on people with mild-to-moderate mental health and addiction needs and improving access to primary mental health, wellbeing and addiction services, including in Kaupapa MÄori, Pacific, youth, general practice, and community settings.
Mental Health Act Amendment Bill Passes Third Reading | Scoop News
The Mental Health (Compulsory Assessment and Treatment) Amendment Bill has passed its third reading, an important step to ensure patient safety until the whole Act can be replaced, Health Minister Andrew Little says.
Respiratory
Worldwide time trends in children’s asthma show severe asthma rates decreasing in NZ
The Global Asthma Network (GAN) has released the results of its Phase 1 study, which shows how the worldwide burden of children’s asthma symptoms is changing.
Ministry of Health reports
Virtual Diabetes Register web tool
09 September 2021
The Virtual Diabetes Register web tool presents the estimated numbers of people with diabetes, and the prevalence of diabetes per 1000 people, across different demographic groups in the population. The data presented in the web tool can be explored by year, ethnicity, sex, district health board of residence, deprivation quintile and age group
Journals online
Infection Prevention & Control
Research Review
Issue 14
Much of this issue is dedicated to COVID-19 research. One study investigates the effectiveness of SARS-CoV-2 RATs as a screening method for rapid diagnosis and targeted admission for COVID-19.
Articles of interest
Let’s talk about racism
Racism has no place in nursing and midwifery, or in society. Yet it remains common. To stamp out racism, advocates say the professions must acknowledge the problem, confront it head on, and then dismantle it. Robert Fedele reports.
Advance care planning across the care continuum
Nurses can play an active role in engaging patients and families in helpful conversations.
The article below is not freely available but may be accessed through databases and libraries to which readers have access. Alternatively SnIPS can provide it on a cost recoverable basis
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 2 November
If you have any feedback about content - what parts are most useful or what you would like added - please email admin@nurse.org.nz
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