Welcome to the College of Nurses Aotearoa News Update.
No. 580, Wednesday 16 February 2022
Weekly news round-up of nursing and health information in New Zealand and internationally
New Zealand news
Pasifika nurse practitioner's graduation 'inspirational' to others
Aotearoa has a new Pasifika nurse practitioner specialising in child health, Catherine Soana Latailakepa Tu’akalau.
CM Health Nurse awarded HRC fellowship
One of our very own Registered Nurses, Bobbie Pene was recently awarded fully funded HRC Māori Health Clinical Training Fellowship for 36 months!
$5000 cash to lure nurses back | Otago Daily Times Online News
The Ministry of Health is offering nurses who have left healthcare up to $5000 in support payments to come back to work.
New fund targets 20,000 nurses who have left profession | RNZ News
The ministry's chief nursing officer Lorraine Hetaraka said there are more than 20,000 New Zealand-trained registered nurses who are not currently ...
New funding not enough to relieve nursing crisis - NZNO - 1News
The New Zealand Nurses Organisation says a new government fund to help nurses return to the healthcare sector will not be enough to relieve ...
Nurse reprimanded after yelling at dementia patient to 'not breathe around her'
A nurse has been reprimanded by the deputy health and disability commissioner after yelling at and insulting a dementia patient on her second-to-last day in the job.
Covid-19: Residency eligibility leaving nurses in limbo, despite critical shortage | RNZ News
A group of New Zealand-trained nurses - some working with Covid-19 patients - are considering leaving the country because they can't get a visa to live here.
'Most dangerous place to be': Nurses buying own N95 masks as Ministry fails to provide them
Some hospital nurses say they have not been given N95 masks and are bringing their own to work for protection against Omicron – but the Ministry of Health says surgical masks are fine for most situations.
International news
NSW nurses vote to strike for the first time in a decade - 9News
"The nurses and midwives across NSW have been campaigning for nurse-to-patient ratios on a shift-by-shift basis for nearly ten years," he said. "They ...
Up to 1700 ADF personnel to be deployed to aged care
At the request of Emergency Management Australia, the Australian Defence Force (ADF) is providing military planners as well as augmentation and ADF-only quick reaction teams to support aged-care facilities in New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland and South Australia impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic.
How nursing in Ireland is set for change in the years ahead
Opinion: advanced nurse practitioners are set to become a more common sight in Irish healthcare settings
Aged care / Aging population
Shortage of nurses is nationwide | Otago Daily Times Online News
Nurses and aged residential care facility operators have echoed the concerns of Southern District Health Board chief executive Chris Fleming about the dire shortage of workers to care for the region’s elderly.
NZ aged care confident in face of omicron, but sees ‘enormous pressure’ on staffing
Covid has ripped through aged care homes in Australia, causing disruption, devastation and dozens of deaths daily. Could New Zealand face the same thing?
Meet NZ's first Aged Care Commissioner - a nurse who heads a $1.6b business - NZ Herald
A nurse who headed a huge rest home and retirement village business has been appointed as New Zealand's inaugural Aged Care Commissioner, ...
Asian health
'Young Asians don't drink': Biases stop young Asians from seeking health care, study shows
Lovely Dizon often speaks up for her parents at doctor's appointments when people assume the Filipino couple don't speak English. Her dentist mum and electrician dad have been in New Zealand for 23 years.
Covid-19
Waikato Hospital staff test positive for Covid-19 during Omicron outbreak | Stuff.co.nz
NZNO was calling for Government-funded nursing recruitment drives, free nursing study, prioritised MIQ spots specifically for nurses and ...
Covid-19: Emergency departments expect huge pressures from Omicron - specialist
Even in the best case scenario for Omicron, there's going to be huge pressure on already busy hospitals, a leading emergency doctor says.
Omicron to slam a health system at ‘breaking point’
New Zealand's health system is already stretched to its limits and Omicron could tip it over the edge. What does a health system under pressure mean for everyday New Zealanders? Marc Daalder reports
DHBs
Nursing shortage forces transfers | Otago Daily Times Online News
Acute Dunedin Hospital patients needed to be transferred to Mercy Hospital last week after nursing shortages meant there were no beds available for them to recover in.
Clinicians call for more ED administrative support | Otago Daily Times Online News
Dunedin Hospital's emergency department needs more administrative support to improve patient safety, clinicians say.
Charge nurses work on ward as staff go offshore | Otago Daily Times Online News
Charge nurses, who should be managing wards, have instead had to work shifts to cover for absent colleagues at Dunedin Hospital, the nurses union says.
Covid-19: Counties Manukau DHB braces for Omicron impact on frontline staff | RNZ News
They said with nursing shortages already at breaking point something had to give. New Zealand Nurses Organisation manager of industrial services ...
On the Omicron frontline: Waikato hospital nurses say their workload's already been 'in a ...
“The surge is now,” says ward nurse of 27 years Janferie Hazel. ... NZ Nurses Organisation's Sarah Barker says staff shortages, amid Covid-19, ...
Waitematā DHB and Department of Corrections develop new prison-based programme for ...
Nurses have also had training experience at Auckland Prison for some time. The house officer role is a natural progression.”.
End of life care
First study into assisted dying under End of Life Choice Act
The first New Zealand study into assisted dying since it became legal is being carried out by researchers from Te Herenga Waka-Victoria University of Wellington.
Mental health
$1m donation for planned mental health facility for young people
A charity raising funds for a new mental health outpatient unit for Canterbury children and teenagers has been given $1 million by the New Zealand Community Trust.
Psychiatric patient stabs Wakari Hospital nurse with smuggled needle - NZ Herald
Four nurses prepared to enter a seclusion room at Wakari Hospital unsure of what they might find. There had been no time for a handover and the ...
Public health
More people to become eligible for free flu vaccine as Government prepares for winter
A quarter of a million extra flu vaccines will be made available for New Zealanders as the Government plans to protect vulnerable communities this winter.
Ministry of Health reports
Return to Nursing Workforce Support Fund
The Ministry of Health has launched a support fund to help nurses who are not currently practising to return to a nursing role, in order to help grow the workforce to meet increased demand, support safe staffing, and improve access to care.
Review of the Ministry of Health-funded Rongoā Sector
The Ministry of Health (the Ministry) has supported access to and delivery of rongoā services since 1991. The rongoā Māori health sector provides a unique, indigenous health service to New Zealanders based on mātauranga Māori and Māori approaches to health.
Articles of interest
District nursing and family/whanau assessment practices: A New Zealand study.
Richardson, A., Richardson, S., & McAllum, A. (2021).
Nursing Open, 00, 1– 10. https://doi.org/10.1002/nop2.1167
District Nurses apply specialized nursing knowledge and assessment skills to provide care in New Zealand communities. This study aimed to identify whether District Nurse's (both Registered and supervised Enrolled Nurse's) had knowledge of, and used the 15-Minute Interview tool, including Ecomaps/Genograms, and if not, what they saw as enablers or barriers to doing so.
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
Implementing cultural safety to enhance the care of mental health service users.
De D, Fothergill A, Richardson J (2022)
Mental Health Practice. doi: 10.7748/mhp.2022.e1584
Culture plays an important role at every level of healthcare and in every healthcare encounter. Cultural factors significantly affect the interactions between mental health nurses and service users, the experience of mental health service users and ultimately their health-related outcomes. The concept of cultural safety originates from the work of Maori nurse leaders in New Zealand. It builds on concepts such as transcultural nursing, intercultural competence, cultural congruence and cultural competence, enabling a deeper exploration of the underlying issues of inequality affecting people from minority groups. Implementing cultural safety in mental health nursing practice can enhance the quality of care by promoting culturally sensitive communication and prompting nurses to better accommodate the needs of service users.
This article discusses the concept and benefits of cultural safety in the context of mental health nursing and explains how mental health nurses can use cultural safety to enhance the experience and health-related outcomes of service users with diverse cultural backgrounds.
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 15 February
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