Nursing reports

Media Release                                                24 March 2017

Hundreds of NZNO members have stepped out across the nation to Shout Out for health and join the PSA YesWeCare heath funding campaign. Members are now on the Auckland roadshow with the missing in action, life-size health worker cut-out figures. New research published in the NZ Medical Journal today about unmet primary health care need is stimulating the campaign further.

Auckland lead organiser Carol Beaumont has mobilised delegates across Auckland’s eight campaign locations.

“I’ve been talking to delegates all week and the stories of pressure and sadness about care rationing and the staffing squeeze are pouring out. This is a wake-up call to Government as the underfunding of healthcare in New Zealand really makes its mark,” Carol Beaumont said.

Today the New Zealand Medical Journal released research led by Phil Bagshaw, which concludes that at least a quarter of New Zealand’s population are indicating unmet healthcare need at the primary care level, that is, in the community.

NZNO CE Memo Musa said in response:

“NZNO supports the call by the Association of Salaried Medical Specialists for an ongoing independent assessment of the level of unmet health need in New Zealand and we want it to be far reaching in order to understand and meet the population’s healthcare need.

“Phil Bagshaw’s research backs up what our members are saying about the increasingly higher needs of people coming to hospital and that this is because of funding gaps in community health at GP level.

 “Budget 2017 on 25 May will test the new prime minister’s ability to prioritise New Zealander’s healthcare needs and we expect a huge injection into health funding,” Memo Musa said.

Our latest blog by NZNO delegate, was posted today as part of the Shout Out for Health campaign.

Nurses’ trademark resilience can only last so long

The New Zealand Nurses Organisation’s fifth biennial employment survey of its nurse membership reveals a steady decline of overall morale with specific concern about safe staffing levels, workload and pay. In addition there is an increasing loss of confidence in health sector leadership. ‘NZNO Employment Survey 2017 Our Nursing Workforce: Resilience in Adversity’.

NZNO Chief Executive Memo Musa reports that there is a sense of urgency amongst nurse membership to have a clear pathway nationally to address the significant and emerging themes from the 2017 employment survey: 

“While the survey reveals that nurses show resilience and commitment to their profession in the face of continuing restructuring and resource constraints, there is a tipping point where nurses will just walk away from the profession,” Memo Musa said.

“Workload, increasing patient acuity, stress and lack of job satisfaction are contributing to staff turnover and to lower morale, and must be better managed.

“Over a third surveyed experienced significant restructuring in the past two years. This is disconcerting, disruptive and stressful. Some restructures were leading to loss of clinical nursing leadership in the health workforce.

“To attract and retain nurses, good pay, flexible work options, professional development and study leave must be ensured. In addition, nurse leaders must be involved in decision making about resource allocation so they can give priority to safe staffing levels.

“Access to flexible working options, especially for nurses over 50 and those with care giving responsibilities, including adjusting the requirement to do night shifts, must be addressed to ensure workforce supply and continuity.

“A perception of poor pay relative to other professions such as for teachers and the police, remains a source of dissatisfaction for many. Without fair remuneration recruitment and retention of existing nurses, and nursing as a career choice, will lose appeal.

“All these issues are a symptom of an underfunded health system that is under pressure. If these issues identified by the last five surveys continue to be inadequately addressed they have the potential to impact negatively on health service delivery and health outcomes for all New Zealanders,” Memo Musa said.

Mr Musa calls on DHB management to prioritise utilising the Trendcare tool to track patient needs and nurse requirements, with the aim of better monitoring of nurse workload and patient safety.

“Evidently the Care Capacity and Demand Management programme is not gaining the traction, or resulting actions, it should be in DHBs and this means safe staffing improvements and progress is stalling.”

Media Release                                                       6 March 2017

NZNO says it is short-sighted of the government to not support the first reading of the Domestic Violence – Victim’s Protections Bill and call on Minister Michael Woodhouse to at least vote it through its first reading so that surrounding issues can be heard by the Select Committee.

Auckland Lead Organiser Carol Beaumont explains that there are wide reaching benefits of passing legislation that enables victims of domestic violence to be explicitly supported with specific leave and other more flexible work arrangements. Ms Beaumont explains the terrible costs to New Zealand society of domestic violence primarily against women is hurting our culture, our women, our men and our children and the economy.

 “NZNO is a 47,000 strong union representing mainly women and we know that the issue of domestic violence is also one that personally affects many of our members and so we strongly back Green MP Jan Logie’s members’ Bill”, Ms Beaumont said.

“Nurses have a strong commitment to supporting domestic violence victims. Nurses see first-hand the high costs of this violence, which is a huge problem in our country. Any initiative which can help must be seriously considered.

“By supporting the Bill the government can send a strong signal to perpetrators that women’s rights are important, that women are valuable to the workforce, and women have a right to work.

“The more empowered woman are to work, the more they can work, the better chance they have of escaping domestic violence and rebuilding their lives. This is hugely beneficial for their offspring and generations of women to come.

 “This Bill is one vital step to stop the cycle of domestic violence, is good for the economy and vital for families. The Government should act accordingly and vote in favour of the Bill on International Women’s Day next Wednesday,” Ms Beaumont said.

ENDS.

MEDIA RELEASE                                                          16 February 2017

NZ must have a sustainable approach to nurse workforce

NZNO today launched an urgent discussion document about the issue of the unsustainable and fluctuating import of Internationally Qualified Nurses (IQN), in the context of New Zealand nurse graduate unemployment and the need for a better commitment to nurse career development.

The discussion document highlights issues about the pathways into nursing in
New Zealand for an internationally qualified nurse and how poor workforce planning and inconsistent policy undermines the sustainability of the nursing workforce. The discussion document can be found here.

NZNO Chief Executive Memo Musa says NZNO supports migrant nurses who are a vital part of the NZ health workforce but says many coming into aged care facilities are in positions that are not well supported or paid. In addition he says, DHB commitment to support NZ nurses into senior positions is lacking.

“We want to see greater self-sufficiency and sustainability for the New Zealand nursing workforce,” Memo Musa says.

“This means full employment of graduates, better pay at entry level nursing roles such as working in aged care, community care, primary care, including Iwi and Māori care sectors, and better mentoring and professional development planning offered to help retain senior nurses, including IQNs.

“NZNO advocates for a comprehensive overview of nursing supply and demand to reduce overreliance on migration and underinvestment in nurse education and employment to ensure a stable self-sustainable workforce.

“Nursing in New Zealand must become a fair playing field with wages and conditions that attract New Zealand nurses on an equal basis with international nurses.

“Currently Māori and Pacific graduate nurses are not being recruited as they should be, particularly into community care and primary care, including mental health and this means there can be a cultural mismatch in these areas of nursing.

“While some recruitment of international nurses is aimed to fill vacancies at the top levels of nursing, it appears this is misused via the accredited employer gateway, meaning New Zealand nurses are underutilised.

“With a greater focus on retaining the international nurses already here, but getting the numbers down overall, attracting more NZ nurses back into nursing, safe staffing and flexible work options, I am sure we can achieve an increase job placement and career satisfaction for NZ nurses,” Memo Musa said.

Media enquires: Karen Coltman 027 431 2617.

MEDIA RELEASE                                                     15 February 2017

Nurses support YesWeCare.nz campaign

NZNO along with the Public Service Association (PSA) present today at the Public Services International conference in Auckland to support its global campaign:

A better future with public health for all.

As part of this international campaign, the PSA today launched the nationwide ‘YesWeCare’ coalition for a fully funded health system to highlight how inadequate health funding is negatively affecting the public and workers they represent. They are taking 200 cardboard human figure cut-outs around New Zealand to illustrate the staffing gaps in the health sector workforce and state that this issue is as serious as the housing crisis.

The YesWeCare coalition includes 83,000 Kiwis working in health, ActionStation and the Peoples' Mental Health Review. Unions include the Council of Trade Unions, Public Service Association, E tū, First Union and Unite, and has the support of the New Zealand Nurses Organisation.

NZNO Chief Executive Memo Musa says District Health Boards have for some time been under pressure to balance their financial books and meet health targets, operating with shortfalls in health funding. He says this cannot go on and on and action is required now to stem the shortfalls.

Memo Musa said in a media statement last week:

“The Council of Trade Unions now calculate the shortfall in health spending to be $1.85b. This needs to be injected into Budget 2017 and to increase each year.

 “Our members have told us underfunding is now affecting patient safety, access to care, triggering care-rationing, health-worker burn out and straining the infrastructure.

“NZNO urge the government to make health funding, with a future vision, the number one 2017 general election priority,” Memo Musa said.

The NZNO member-led Shout Out for Health campaign launched on Friday
10 February mobilises and supports nurses, caregivers, midwives, healthcare assistants and kaiāwhina to tell their stories about the fractures in the health system.

 Our latest blog by NZNO delegate, Ben Rogers was posted today as part of the 2017 Shout Out campaign.

ENDS.

MEDIA RELEASE                                                                10 February 2017

$1.8b of government health funding and health workforce vision missing

The impact of inadequate health funding due to Government under spending is starting to cut, squeeze and burn, chief executive of the New Zealand Nurses Organisation, Memo Musa said today.

 “The 2016 Budget made it clear that the Government was not properly assessing actual funding needs of New Zealand’s health system and had not planned for future needs. We are now seeing the negative consequences of an inadequately funded health system,” Memo Musa said.

“The Council of Trade Unions now calculate the shortfall in health spending to be $1.8b. This needs to be injected into Budget 2017 and to increase each year.

 “Our members have told us underfunding is now affecting patient safety, access to care, triggering care-rationing, health-worker burn out and straining the infrastructure.

“NZNO urge the government to make health funding, with a future vision, the number one 2017 general election priority,” Memo Musa said.

The NZNO Shout Out for Health campaign launched today mobilises and supports nurses to tell their stories about the fractures in the health system.

“We are encouraging nurses to shout out for health, and speak up about impacts on the care they provide in communities, hospitals and primary care due to health underfunding,” Memo Musa said.

An NZNO nurse said today she feels stretched between meeting the needs of patients and fulfilling her responsibilities for the nursing team as a Duty Manager. She said it can be challenging to fulfil both without safe staffing levels. She has joined the Shout Out for Health campaign to tell her story, as she wants her team to be able to focus on caring for patients without stretching themselves too thin during shifts.

New Zealand needs:

• $1.8b injected into health and funding to keep up with need
• Full employment of graduate nurses and the funding of Nurse Entry Training into Practice funded for all graduates with a specific focus on retaining Māori and Pacific graduate nurses
• Planning and career development for nurses to be sure there are enough nurses at all levels
• Nurses supported to continue to upskill through postgraduate education and training to work in aged care, community and primary care.
• Improved linkage in service planning and estimation of health workforce requirements via the Care Capacity Demand Management System to achieve safe staffing levels
• A government-led examination of the mental health service delivery.

ENDS.

Memo Musa and Shout Out campaigners are available for comment

Please find attached the iDcare report of their independent review of the NZNO Cyber Incident of 1 November 2016.

Media Release                                                                23 December 2016

Nurses say children’s needs must come first at Christmas and New Year

The Christmas and New Year holidays are a time of excitement and summer fun for children but not when their caregivers have over indulged in alcohol and drugs and are neglecting to provide a safe and healthy environment for them.

NZNO chief executive Memo Musa says nurses deal with the impact of poor decisions by adults at Christmas and New Year, which results in young children having to hang around the hospital emergency department (ED) for hours while their caregivers get medical help.  He says sadly, children themselves too often end up in ED having been subjected to violence and abuse themselves.

“A volatile home environment of drunken adults arguing and threatening violence while under the influence of methamphetamine, for example, is a cocktail of misery for children,” Memo Musa said.

“Our nurses each Christmas and New Year deal with the unhealthy state some family members present to hospital emergency departments and see the negative, ripple effect on children of these emergencies.

“Children really suffer when their parents are intoxicated and are using drugs and suffer again when the parents are hungover and tired the next day. For our little kiwis to grow, they need a safe environment and a bedtime that means they are full of beans ready to soak up the long days of summer.

“This year I put the call out to all New Zealanders to indulge in their children’s needs more than their own so that our children can refresh, revive and grow this summer in time for new beginnings in early learning centres and schools.

“The message from New Zealand’s 50,000 strong nursing workforce is, ‘don’t be a bystander, when you know the children are around unsafe adults and being neglected, step up and make sure the children are safe and cared for,” Memo Musa said.

ENDS.

For urgent assistance

• Call the member support centre on 0800 28 38 48, then press 1 and leave a message.
• Your call will be returned to establish the nature of the support you need.

There will be no service for the period 24 December to 3 January but messages will be responded to soon after.

From 4 January, there will be some staff on call and available to support you for urgent matters.

Your call will be returned by one of the on call staff members.

For non-urgent, pay or membership subscription issues

• Call the member support centre on 0800 28 38 48, then press 2 and leave a message.
• Staff will clear non-urgent messages during the holiday period, however depending on the nature of your enquiry a response may not be provided until our offices re-open.

How to determine whether an enquiry is urgent or not

A matter is urgent;

IF the incident is regarding serious misconduct or patient harm and/or involves: Police, Coroner, Nursing Council, Midwifery Council, Health and Disability commissioner, witness in court; and

the meeting/action required is before NZNO offices re-open on Monday 16 January 2017; and

the member or their delegate cannot delay the requested meeting/action required until after NZNO offices re-open

OR

if the matter is regarding an unavoidable situation that could affect the member's practice or safety e.g. ongoing boundaries issue, unsafe work situation or unsafe employer instruction.

Media Release                                                      15 December 2016

Government leaves nursing graduates languishing again

In response to the November figures of graduate nursing placements via the ACE scheme, the New Zealand Nurses Organisation once again calls for sufficient funding to ensure all graduates have the guarantee of a nursing placement that includes further training and mentoring support.

NZNO Associate Professional Nursing Manager Hilary Graham-Smith says that surely just over half having employment, leaving in excess of 500 new graduates out of the health workforce at this point is not acceptable to New Zealanders.

“Hundreds of enthusiastic, trained New Zealand nurses are looking for work and are just left languishing. This is a real problem,” Ms Graham-Smith says.

“We have seen very little improvement in the number of graduate placements over the last four years. While some DHBs and some Directors of Nursing have worked hard to increase intake, overall far too many new graduate nurses remain without appropriate employment on completion of their degree.

“Evidently there is little government will to fund a programme that means all new graduate nurses have a position in a new entry training programme.

NZNO says the fact that many find work over the ensuing year is not necessarily something to celebrate when it knows graduates end up in employment situations (outside of NetP) where there is insufficient registered nurse support. In these circumstances newly trained nurses are expected to take on too much responsibility and consequently NZNO is aware they then get into difficulty, become overwhelmed and sometimes leave the profession.

“Every newly registered nurse and enrolled nurse deserves a place in a NetP programme.  New Zealanders should be asking the government why it doesn’t value New Zealand graduate nurses enough to fund all graduates in the training programme,” Ms Graham-Smith said.

ENDS.