The New Zealand Nurses Organisation library is for the use of NZNO member and staff and members, including nursing students at undergraduate and post-graduate levels.
However, supporting students is not our main function and we should not be your first port of call.
What we do (and what we don't do)
Our purpose is to support the work of NZNO so we don't typically hold clinical texts, course texts or specialist medical material.
The libraries of educational organisations, on the other hand, are funded and resourced to support the research requirements of their students. In our experience, if your library is not meeting your needs as a nursing student, the library staff would like to know.
Students approaching the NZNO library for assistance with an assignment are expected to have first consulted the resources available through the institution they are enrolled with. This means you should have:
- Consulted your course text
- Read any recommended supplementary course material
- Sourced information from bibliographies
- Searched your institution's library catalogue
- Searched online sources and databases such as CINHAL; New Zealand news indexes or the internet.
- Approached the institution's library reference staff for training and guidance
If you have done all this and requier additional material for your assignment, you are welcome to ask us at the NZNO library.
Making a request
Like your tutor, we want this to be a learning experience. Before approaching the NZNO library give some thought to your assignment topic and the research skills you are expected to develop as part of your learning. It is not the library's role to interpret your subject, or carry out your research so try and be as prepared and specific as possible.
We need to know, for example:
- are you writing an essay of 5000 words or designing a patient education programme?
- do you require background reading on a condition or more detailed, clinical research articles?
- do you want the material limited to New Zealand or are you looking at the wider international context?
- are you looking at the impact of a disease on a specific gender, age or ethnic group?
- what format would you prefer the information in – would you like a couple of articles, or a publication by the Ministry of Health?
- should there be a focus on disease prevention or disease management?
- do you require specific statistical data or examples of patient education literature?
- what information do you already have?
When requesting material please remember to give us your contact details (at least two methods eg phone and email or email and postal) and membership number if you know it.
Timeframes
The NZNO library receives and processes numerous requests each day. These are usually dealt with on a first come first served basis, and it is not always possible for us to meet last minute or urgent requests.
Other Resources
Other sources that may provide you with suitable information are:
- NZNO has a list of publications it provides free or for a small charge listed on its website at www.nzno.org.nz
- Public libraries
- Students who are enrolled in a course, but also employed by a DHB may also be able to search the resources of their hospital or medical library.
- Organisations such as the Heart Foundation, Cancer society, Diabetes NZ may be able to provide you with information. Most are listed in the telephone book and have information available for downloading through their websites.
- The Nursing Council of New Zealand has a range of its publications available for downloading through its website at http://www.nursingcouncil.org.nz/pub.html
- The Ministry of Health makes most of its publications available through their website at http://www.moh.govt.nz/publications