Historic Meeting of Minds to Deliver on Primary Health Initiative

07 March 2007

A rare congregation of the New Zealand Nurses Organisation (NZNO), the College of Nurses Aotearoa and the Ministry of Health is working together to progress initiatives in the care of people with chronic conditions.

Fifteen nurses including Directors of Nursing (Primary Health), Nurse Practitioners and Primary Health Nurses joined five senior Ministry of Health officials including Chief Nursing Advisor Mark Jones in reviewing the “Investing in Health” document that set out the framework for activating Primary Health nursing in New Zealand. The group discussed the implementation of recommendations from that document.

“Some recommendations have been implemented, but many have been ignored,” says Mid-Central DHB Director of Nursing (Primary Health) and NZNO member Chiquita Hansen.

NZNO Professional Nursing Advisor Angela Clark says “there is a consensus that updating the Ministry of Health Investing in Health Document would meet the needs of both chronic care management and nursing infrastructure.”

As a result of these discussions, a Strategic Plan for the care of people with chronic conditions will be developed. The focus is on freeing nurses to deliver patient-centred services, which aligns well with NZNO’s mission statement that all nurses should be “Proud to Nurse, Free to Care.”

NZNO expects that the guidelines to be developed will offer nurses practical tools that can be used to provide tangible improvements to patient care. The emphasis should be on proactive strategies over reactive responses.

ENDS