Nursing reports

19 February 2013: The Health Select Committee has released its report on the New Zealand Nurses Organisation (NZNO) and Service and Food Workers Union Nga Ringa Tota (SFWU) petition calling for proper funding of the aged care sector.

NZNO is frustrated that the report does nothing more than suggest that the Government “acknowledge the commendable work that those employed in the aged-care sector carry out every day”.

NZNO industrial adviser, Susan Stewart says, “It is completely patronising for the Government members of the Health Select Committee to say this, while wholly ignoring the concerns of unions, those who work in the aged care sector, the Human Rights Commission and almost every stakeholder in the aged care industry, including the owners of rest homes.”

“It is time for the Government to listen to the thousands of people of Aotearoa who signed our petition and also participated in the Human Rights Commission investigation.”

“The Government’s blinkered approach is morally wrong; they are compromising the quality of care our vulnerable elders receive and are consigning those who care for them to live on poverty wages,” Stewart says.

“Our petition calls for safe staffing levels, pay parity, training and targeted government funding. It is about time the Government fronted up and dealt with these issues.”

14 February 2013: A living wage of at least $18.40 an hour for a family with two children and both adults working (one full time and one part time) must be supported by employers and the Government says the New Zealand Nurses Organisation (NZNO).

NZNO industrial services manager, Cee Payne says, “NZNO has 46 000 members throughout the country working as nurses, midwives, kaimahi hauora, health care workers and allied health professionals. A much larger number than one might expect are struggling at or well below the living wage.”

“Aged care workers in particular are paid at, or only slightly above, the minimum wage of $13.50 an hour. We expect these workers to provide excellent care for our elders, while at the same time ignoring the fact that they are living in poverty.”

“Poverty is the root cause of much ill health and inequality in this country. Those who are struggling to survive on incredibly low wages are also the people who face barriers to accessing health care, education and other social services when and where they need them,” Payne says.

“Committing to a living wage of $18.40 would be an investment in New Zealand’s workforce, with benefits coming from higher productivity, lower staff turnover and a reduction in spending needed for health and other social issues.”

24 January 2013: The country’s largest nursing organisation, the New Zealand Nurses Organisation (NZNO), has a new president, Tauranga-based practice nurse Marion Guy. She won a three-way contest to co-lead the 46,000-member professional and industrial body.

Guy will be joined in the leadership of NZNO by Hawke’s Bay primary health care nurse manager, Kerri Nuku, who was appointed NZNO’s kaiwhakahaere at the annual general hui of Te Runanga o Aotearoa NZNO last year. A new NZNO constitution, adopted last year, provides for a bicultural leadership model and Guy and Nuku will assume the co-leadership next month. 

Promoting the professional aspirations of nurses and ensuring nurses’ voices are heard in every national health forum are two of Guy’s priorities. She would also like more focus on the positive aspects of nursing.

“Fair pay and good working conditions are essential for the profession and for patient care and we must always work towards improving conditions. We must also focus our attention on our professional role and ensuring that is understood and respected. The key to that is in building strong relationships with the Ministry of Health, the Minister of Health and other health professionals. We must also remember why we became nurses and use the skills we have learnt through nursing, through postgraduate education and evidence-based practice in the best possible way,” she said. “Within NZNO there is a vast amount of specialist nursing expertise and I want that expertise used to promote the profession and the organisation.”

Promoting a culture change within nursing workplaces to ensure bullying and harassment, particularly of student nurses, is eradicated is a priority for the new NZNO president. She also wants to focus on the aged-care sector to ensure nurses and caregivers get improved pay and education opportunities, which will lead to better quality of care.

Guy would like to see input from the grassroots to the development of any national nursing workforce plan. “Too often plans and strategies have been developed by those with no understanding of the role and function of nursing. Nurses need to be involved to ensure a coherent workforce plan steers nursing into the future.”

She would be opposed to any moves towards deregulation.  “We need the Nursing Council to regulate the profession for public safety, through ensuring all nurses meet certain standards and are competent to practise.”

Guy sits on many nursing and health governance boards, including the International Council of Nurses, the National Health Board, the Bay of Plenty District Health Board and the Western Bay of Plenty Primary Health Organisation. She has also served as NZNO president before, from 2005-2009. She will resign as a practice nurse to take up what is now a full-time, paid presidency, following the advent of a new NZNO constitution last year.

23 January 2013: The New Zealand Nurses Organisation (NZNO) is supporting the MANA party’s Bill which aims to set up breakfast and lunch programmes in all decile 1 and 2 schools.

“Child poverty must be tackled’, said NZNO Nursing policy adviser/researcher Dr Jill Clendon. “Malnourished, hungry children can’t learn; if they can’t learn then there is no chance of them being successful at school.”

Our organisation is committed to examining and addressing the social determinants of health (poverty, education, housing). The poverty cycle - the reason  kids are hungry in the first place - can only be broken though leadership from all sectors, particularly parliament.

Nurses see the health impact on children who have poor diets every day –they can’t concentrate in the classroom, are more prone to infections and dietary disorders, have decayed teeth, and are tired and lethargic. Ensuring children from our poorest communities have the food they need at school is one step towards the goal of addressing child hunger and helping families raise healthy kids.

10 December 2012:

The New Zealand Nurses Organisation (NZNO) is concerned that, despite the Prime Minister’s previous assurances that the fundamentals of New Zealand’s drug buying agency Pharmac would be protected during trade talks, the opposite appears to be the case.

This weekend the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) chief negotiator, David Walker would not rule out supporting stronger intellectual property protections for big business, which would certainly undermine Pharmac. He stated that Pharmac was part of the “give and take” of the trade deal.

NZNO policy analyst, Marilyn Head says, “The extreme proposals to extend intellectual property rights being negotiated in the TPP agreement will significantly affect Pharmac by delaying the availability of low-cost generic drugs for New Zealanders.”

“Generic drugs are fundamental to Pharmac’s ability to provide affordable medicines. Without them, the cost of medicines will increase and more people will miss out on essential health care."

Pharmac operates within a fixed budget and increased costs will force it to either reduce the range of subsidised medicines and/or increase prescription charges.  Alternatively, Pharmac’s share of the health budget could be increased, but that would be at the expense of other areas of health.

“If New Zealand submits to US demands on intellectual property that threaten the Pharmac model, it will not be only New Zealanders access to affordable medicines that will be affected, “says Head.

“There are several developing countries in the TPP whose populations will be similarly affected by increased costs. New Zealand needs to stand firm on current intellectual property protections, to ensure the widest and fairest access to medicines.”

29 November 2012:

The New Zealand Nurses Organisation (NZNO) is pleased to see the recommendations made in the ‘Status of Waikato DHB Women’s Health' report.

NZNO professional nursing adviser, Kate Weston says, “The DHB needs to implement the interim measure of rostering an extra midwife per shift as a matter of urgency to manage risk to mothers and babies and to provide support to staff who are under significant pressure.”

“NZNO will work alongside the DHB to ensure the recommendations for a safe workplace for mothers, babies and staff are implemented in a timely way.”

“The care capacity demand management (CCDM) approach of using evidence to achieve safe staffing levels to meet patient need is needed now,” Weston says.

“Waikato DHB needs to come on board with CCDM and begin to work in partnership with NZNO and the Safe Staffing Healthy Workplaces Unit to create a safe environment where patients get the best possible care.”

26 November 2012:

The New Zealand Nurses Organisation (NZNO) says that extensive discussion between unions and Waikato DHB has failed to reassure nurses and allied health staff that their work is taken seriously by the DHB.

The DHB is proposing to cut eight staff at a specialist rehabilitation care unit.

NZNO organiser, Selina Robinson says, “Although over 60 submissions were submitted during the ‘consultation’ process, most of them against the proposal to cut staff, there is no evidence that views contrary to the DHB’s have been taken into consideration.”

"Cutting eight staff from this specialist unit will compromise the quality of care and outcomes for patients."

“It is clear that the proposal to reduce staff has no support from anyone involved in the direct operation of the wards concerned and for very good reason,” Robinson says, “There are better ways to make sure hospitals are running efficiently and that patients are getting the care they need, when they need it.”

“NZNO is currently working in partnership with DHBs to make sure patients get safe and effective care. The safe staffing initiative, care capacity demand management (CCDM), ensures that the right number of skilled and appropriately qualified staff are available to provide care to meet patient demand and minimise the risk of harm.”

“We believe CCDM provides the health system with the right tools to decide the right number of skilled staff to provide the right care to patients. Waikato DHB needs to come on board with the CCDM approach and start making staffing decisions in a sensible and sustainable way.”

22 November 2012:

The New Zealand Nurses Organisation (NZNO) welcomes the 2011/12 Serious and Sentinel events report “Making our hospitals safer”.

The report contains the serious adverse events that have happened in hospitals over the past year. This year’s report shows that the largest categories of harm have occurred either as a result of a fall (47 percent) or from delays to treatment due to what is described as “breakdowns in hospital systems”.

NZNO professional nursing adviser, Kate Weston says, “Patient falls are an indicator of inadequate staffing levels. The pattern and frequency of harm from patient’s falling and “systems breakdowns” is attributable to a system that is not properly resourced to provide patients with the right care at the right time and in the right place.”

“NZNO believes the increase in inpatient suicides and patients “going missing’ from inpatient mental health units is likely a staffing issue as well. We support the commission’s intention to investigate this tragic issue further.”

“Inadequate staffing can also result in late monitoring of a patient’s vital signs. The results of this show in the report in cases where appropriate and timely treatment has not been provided and harm has occurred,” Weston says. 

“NZNO is currently working in partnership with DHBS to solve that problem and make sure patients don’t come to harm. The safe staffing initiative, care capacity demand management (CCDM) ensures that the right number of skilled and appropriately qualified staff are available to provide care to meet patient demand and minimise the risk of harm.”

“We believe CCDM provides the health system with the right tools to provide the right care to patients. We are confident that future reports will show a marked decrease in falls, medication and treatment errors and “systems breakdowns” when all DHBs come on board with CCDM.”

30 October 2012: The New Zealand Nurses Organisation (NZNO) says the Government’s announcement that it will introduce legislation before year’s end to amend the Employment Relations Act 2000 is a bad move that will be bad for workers.

NZNO industrial adviser, Susan Stewart says, “The rights of workers in this country are being stripped away. Our most vulnerable workers will be worse off with the removal of protections in section 6A. New workers can expect less than the rate in the collective agreement for the first 30 days, employers can refuse to conclude collective pay negotiations and the ability of workers to use collective power to balance employer power in pay negotiations will be reduced.”

“Workers have the right to wages and conditions that fairly recognise their skills. These changes will reduce fairness and reduce workers’ wages and conditions. A productive and healthy New Zealand cannot be built on unfair treatment of workers. A productive and health society can only be built through full engagement and fair treatment of all New Zealanders.”

“These changes are not about fairness or engagement. They are entirely about reducing workers’ rights and driving down wages and conditions,” Susan Stewart says.

“What New Zealand needs is a strong, productive economy based on decent wages and working conditions. These changes to legislation will erode workers’ rights and drive down wages and conditions. They are bad faith law and they will be bad for our society.”
 

24 October 2012:

The New Zealand Nurses Organisation (NZNO) and the Service and Food Workers Union: Nga Ringa Tota (SFWU) are hopeful that quality care for older New Zealanders is a step closer today, after a successful select committee presentation.

Last year over 11000 New Zealanders signed a charter calling for safe staffing levels, fair pay and conditions for aged care workers, training and a guarantee that government funding is used for nursing and personal care of residents. Today members of the Health Select Committee were very interested in hearing about the solutions proposed by those who know the aged care sector best, nurses and health care assistants who work in rest homes.

NZNO spokesperson, Susan Stewart says, “Our members spoke passionately and articulately about the valuable work they do for our countries’ most vulnerable citizens and it was heartening to see how interested our members of Parliament were in the problems and solutions.”

“There was clearly cross-party agreement that the residential aged care sector needs attention. We hope they can continue to work together to make the changes that will ensure quality care for older New Zealanders and decent pay and working conditions for those who care for them.”

SFWU spokesperson Alastair Duncan agrees, “MPs asked insightful and useful questions of our members and spoke of their commitment to progress the calls of the Charter.”

“Now is a good time for the Government to take action. There is a groundswell of support for workers in aged care. The Human Rights Commission recently released a report with ten recommendations to make sure carers and those they care for are valued properly and an industry wide summit was held earlier this month.”

“The elderly deserve better.  We have the solutions. Now, let’s see the action!”