Kai Tiaki: Nursing New Zealand articles from December 2005

Kai Tiaki: Nursing New Zealand archives from December 2005

Nursing New Zealand back to health.(EDITORIAL)
December 1, 2005... There seems to be a convention of judging a new post holder's performance from their first 100 days. As I write this editorial, I will have been chief adviser, nursing for a couple of months. I still have some credit, but here goes with my own...

Compers tool marginalises senior nurses.(LETTERS: TELL US WHAT YOU THINK)(Letter to the Editor)
December 1, 2005... By the time this Letter is published, the voting for senior nurses' pay will have been settled and as per NZNO industrial adviser Glenda Alexander's prediction (Kai Tiaki Nursing New Zealand, November 2005, p7), it will probably have been...

Unfair criticism of aged-care staff.(LETTERS: TELL US WHAT YOU THINK)(Letter to the Editor)
December 1, 2005... As an NZNO member, a registered nurse and a rest-home operator, I was very concerned by the article "Staffing levels in aged care below Ministry guidelines" (Kai Tiaki Nursing New Zealand, October 2005, p7). The headline suggests the whole...

Confidential forum tours country.(LETTERS: TELL US WHAT YOU THINK)(Letter to the Editor)
December 1, 2005... A confidential forum for people who were inpatients of psychiatric hospitals in New Zealand before November 1992, family members of patients and staff of that era was set up by the Government earlier this year. The forum's purpose is to...

New online cancer courses launched.(LETTERS: TELL US WHAT YOU THINK)(Letter to the Editor)
December 1, 2005... Two new, free, online courses have recently been Launched on the CancerNursing.org website. They are "Management of Skin Tunnelled Central Venous Catheters (CVCs)" and "Cancer Care for Children and Young People". The courses can be studied at...

Essay writing is a necessary skill.(LETTERS: TELL US WHAT YOU THINK)(Letter to the Editor)
December 1, 2005... Like your correspondent Julie Archer in the October issue of Kai Tiaki Nursing New Zealand (p3), I too read Chris Cottingham's article "Essay wha?" published in September (p25) and tend to agree with what he said, both for and against essay...

Message of solidarity from NZNO to the Australian Nursing Federation.(LETTERS: TELL US WHAT YOU THINK)
December 1, 2005... November 14, 2005 Dear Jill [ANF national secretary Jill Illiffe], On behalf of NZNO president Marion Guy, the board of directors and our 40,000 members, I wish to send a strong message of solidarity to ANF members across Australia and to...

New graduate programme planning underway.(NEWS AND EVENTS)
December 1, 2005... Specifications and Nursing Council standards for the nursing entry to practice (NETP) programme should be with district health boards (DHB) before Christmas. Former Minister of Health Annette King announced funding of $800,000 for the NETP...

Unions work to achieve pay equity.(NEWS AND EVENTS)
December 1, 2005... A Council of Trade Unions' (CTU) project to assist unions implement pay and employment equity in the state sector is entering its second phase, which includes Looking at ways of embedding pay and employment equity into collective bargaining....

Wellington Centenary.(NEWS AND EVENTS)
December 1, 2005... NZNO's Wellington branch celebrated 100 years last month at a function in the city. Members of the Wellington Private Nurses' Association, established by pioneering district nurse Annie Holgate in 1905, were concerned to protect the public...

DHBS must plan for after-hours care.(NEWS AND EVENTS)
December 1, 2005... The College of Practice [Nurses.sup.NZNO] believes nurses working in after-hours services should be paid in Line with district health board (DHB) nurses working overtime. In its submission to the report of the After Hours Primary Health Care...

Hundreds of nurses attend DHB site meetings.(NEWS AND EVENTS)
December 1, 2005... Around 800 nurses met members of the NZNO/ District Health Board (DHB) safe staffing, healthy workplaces committee of inquiry (CoI) during its site visits to all DHBs over the Last two months. NZNO chief executive Geoff Annals said he was...

Numbers rocket in Christchurch ED.(NEWS AND EVENTS)(emergency department)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2005... Rocketing patient numbers in Christchurch Hospital's emergency department (ED) in November have put pressure on positive changes introduced to the ED over the last few months. One day in November saw 260 patients in the ED, the highest number...

Pay parity petition presented to Parliament.(NEWS AND EVENTS)
December 1, 2005... NZNO's petition, calling on the Government to work with NZNO and primary hearth care (PHC) employers to develop and fund a national PHC multi-employer corrective agreement (MECA), was presented to a range of MPs on the steps of Parliament this...

Cultural safety presentation sparks international interest.(NEWS AND EVENTS)
December 1, 2005... A research presentation on cultural safety by a group of nurse educators from Wellington aroused a good clear of interest at an international transcultural nursing conference in New York in October. The presentation was "Opening our...

Nursing student campaigns to save her mother's life.(NEWS AND EVENTS)
December 1, 2005... Universal College of Learning (UCOL), Palmerston North, third-year nursing student Rebecca Brunton is doing her best to stop her family history repeating itself. When her grandmother was 45, she died of breast cancer, having spent the fast six...

Encouraging employment opportunities for nurse practitioners.(NEWS AND EVENTS)
December 1, 2005... Seventeen nurses have now been registered as nurse practitioners (NPs). Nursing Council has received a to[al of 45 formal applications and is currently reviewing ten. The three most recent endorsements are Trish White, urology services, Hawke's...

Madden Styles' legacy honoured.(NEWS AND EVENTS)
December 1, 2005... Former International Council of Nurses' (ICN) president Margretta (Gretta) Madden Styles from Florida in the United States died in November, surrounded by her Loved ones. Styles received the prestigious Christiane Reimann Prize in 2005 and was...

Remembering Sharon Driscoll.(NEWS AND EVENTS)(Obituary)
December 1, 2005... A former member of NZNA's national executive from 1975-1980 and former vice president from 1980-1983, Sharon Driscoll, died in late September in Hamilton at the age of 59. Driscoll did her nurse training at Waikato Hospital in the early...

Tribute to Rod Donald.(NEWS AND EVENTS)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2005... NZNO chief executive Geoff Annals paid tribute to Green Party co-Leader Rod Donald who died suddenly in November, aged 48, and extended condolences to his family and his Green Party colleagues on behalf of NZNO. "Rod was unceasing in his...

ICN Forums held in Spain.(NEWS AND EVENTS)
December 1, 2005... "Although nurses do have problems in New Zealand, we are really doing very well compared to many of our overseas colleagues." This was one of the impressions NZNO president Marion Guy gained from attending the International Council of...

Encouraging teenagers to consider a career in health.(NEWS AND EVENTS)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2005... Encouraging young people to consider a career in health was the motivation behind a "reality tour" at Porirua's Whitireia Community Polytechnic in November. Year 9 and 10 students from five local secondary schools were invited to visit the...

GHG members may strike.(NEWS AND EVENTS)(Guardian Healthcare Group)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2005... More than 500 nurses and caregivers who work at Guardian Healthcare Group (GHG) sites around the country are considering strike action leading up to Christmas, after GHG refused to increase its pay offer. Nurses and caregivers employed at...

Primary health PDRP.(NEWS AND EVENTS)(professional development recognition programme)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2005... Major work developing a professional development recognition programme (PDRP) for primary health care (PHC) nurses concluded earlier this month, with NZNO's board of directors endorsing the PHC PDRP. Chair of NZNO's PHC Nurses' Council...

Survey reveals satisfaction with NZNO.(NEWS AND EVENTS)
December 1, 2005... Over 80 percent of NZNO members agree NZNO promotes a positive image of nursing. Over 90 percent see getting support with employment issues, belonging to a professional nurses' organisation, being part of collective agreement negotiations and...

What's in a name? The Nursing Council has begun another round of consultation on the title for second-level nurses trained after 2000.(NEWS FOCUS)
December 1, 2005... Nurse assistant (NA) or registered assistant nurse (RAN)--they are the two options the Nursing Council is proposing in its second round of consultation on the title for second-level nurses trained after 2000. After its first round of...

Researching the toxicity of party pills: party pill use is on the increase. A research study at Christchurch Hospital's emergency department is tracking the adverse reactions to ingestion of these substances, which in New Zealand are freely availabe to any one aged over 18.(RESEARCH)
December 1, 2005... Party pills or "herbal highs" have become widely available and commonly used among New Zealanders in the past 12 months. They have been marketed as "herbal" and "safe" but accumulating evidence is showing they are neither. A growing number of...

Baby Zack touches many lives during his short life: nursing baby Zack and supporting his family through the months he struggled to live and his eventual death was a privilege for members of Dunedin Hospital's neonatal nursing team.(VIEWPOINT)
December 1, 2005... As I came into the nursery, I could hear baby Zack crying. I noticed the frustration on the face of the nurse holding him. I quickly washed my hands and, as I approached the nurse, she handed Zack over and said, "It's been like this all night."...

The case for nurse prescribing: in a recent New Zealand Medical Journal editorial, two doctors claimed nurse prescribing was a threat to the standard of health care. NZNO's professional services manager rebuts their arguments.(PROFESSIONAL FOCUS)(Editorial)
December 1, 2005... The November 11 issue of The New Zealand Medical Journal contains the Latest attack in a long history of medical opposition to nurse prescribing. In their editorial, rheumatologist Peter Moller and Professor Evan Begg assert that the extension...

Heart attack for two--lessons for everyone: few people are aware that minor symptoms they may put down to indigestion may presage the onset of a heart attack. Greater awareness may go some way to reducing the high mortality rates from this disease.(VIEWPOINT)
December 1, 2005... Days of the week are not necessarily significant, but sometimes a day or a time will hold a special place in your memory because of a significant event. One Friday, I happened to make a chance purchase--a small, ornamental glass...

Attending a hearing--a delegate's perspective: part of the role of an NZNO delegate can be appearing as a witness at a range of hearings. Here one delegate shares her experience of giving evidence at an Employment Relations Authority hearing and what that involvement meant.(VIEWPOINT)
December 1, 2005... I am a community support worker employed in the mental health sector by a non-government organisation, the MASH Trust Board in Palmerston North. The majority of our members are support workers and I, along with co-delegate Jeanette Watkins,...

Pick up the rhythm of a new lifestyle: Norm Hewitt together with a host of celebrities and the New Zealand public get fit the fun way--on 'The Dancing Diet'.(CHRISTMAS SPECIAL)(Advertisement)
December 1, 2005... When Norm took up the challenge to learn how to dance in 'Dancing With the Stars', he had no idea that it would revolutionise his entire life. After putting aside his initial doubts, Norm just let go and proved that he could 'cut a rug' with...

Are you able to prove your competence? The coming year marks the start of the Nursing Council's random audits of nurses' competence to practise. If your name is one of those chosen at random, would you be able to prove your competence? Here's how you can.(PROFESSIONAL FOCUS)
December 1, 2005... The primary purpose of the Health Practitioners' Competence Assurance Act is to protect public safety. The Act provides mechanisms to ensure health practitioners are competent to practise in their chosen profession. This last year has seen all...

Growing to win in aged care: over the last 25 years, radical changes have occurred in the delivery of services to the elderly, resulting in poorer wages and working conditions for those delivering care. It is time to rebuild our collective strength.(INDUSTRIAL FOCUS)
December 1, 2005... Pickets and strikes have been a feature in the aged-care sector in the last few months, particularly in Guardian Health Group and Presbyterian Support rest-homes and hospitals. From the questions we receive, it is apparent not all our...

Lobbying for pay party for primary health care members gets serious.(SECTOR REPORTS)
December 1, 2005... In November, NZNO held the first round of primary health care (PHC) workplace meetings in each region around the country. Although attendance levels could have been higher at some of the inaugural meetings, there was no lack of enthusiasm and...

Motueka rest-home staff strike.(SECTOR REPORTS)
December 1, 2005... More than 40 nurses and caregivers employed at the Woodlands Hospital and Rest-home in Motueka went on strike in November in support of a pay increase and a collective agreement. The hospital and rest-home is privately owned and all workers are...

Senior nurses and midwives ratify new pay scales.(SECTOR REPORTS)
December 1, 2005... Senior nurses and midwives employed by district health boards (DHBs) have voted in favour of a proposal on pay and placement of positions on the new pay scales. The proposal was worked out by the joint NZNO/ DHB senior nurses'/midwives'...

New NERF board of trustees meets.(SECTOR REPORTS)(Nursing Education and Research Foundation)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2005... The Nursing Education and Research Foundation's (NERF) new board of trustees met in early November The foundation, established in 1968, promotes and funds education and research opportunities for nurses. Its goals include support for research...

Nurse struck off for 'illegal and unethical' conduct.(SECTOR REPORTS)
December 1, 2005... DHAMLAKSMI MAHARAJ, RN A registered nurse, Dhamlaksmi Maharaj has had her name removed from the register for removing $20 from a patient valuables cupboard without authorisation. In its decision in August, the Nursing Council exercised...

Combined gastroenterology conference 'a great team builder'.(SECTION/COLLEGE NEWS)
December 1, 2005... The New Zealand Society of Gastroenterology and NZNO's Gastroenterology Nurses' Section held their annual joint scientific meeting in Hamilton in early November. This meeting was very well attended by medical and nursing staff from around New...

'Bags of Knowledge' at stomal therapy conference.(SECTION/ COLLEGE NEWS)
December 1, 2005... Dunedin was the venue for NZNO's stomal therapy section national conference in October. The theme of the conference was Bags of Knowledge and the opening speaker was nurse consultant Janet Hewson, who holds a joint appointment between the Otago...

Resurgence of interest in Nursing Research Section.(SECTION/COLLEGE NEWS)
December 1, 2005... The Nursing Research Section's (NRS) successful conference, the theme of which was "The presence of past and future", in Wellington in November celebrated 30 years of NZNO's oldest section. The Maori proverb "Me whakatira nga hua o nga purapura...

A message from the incoming research section chair.(SECTION/COLLEGE NEWS)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2005... A big thank you to the committee for a most successful conference. Right from the prizewinning presentation by Stephen Neville to the livery dinner address by Nan Kinross, participants were inspired by the work of our fellow nurses. Thanks also...

Do after hours managers need to be nurses?(SECTION/COLLEGE NEWS)
December 1, 2005... The importance of the role of duty managers was the theme of the fourth duty managers' conference, organised by NZNO's clinical nurse managers' section, and held in Napier over two days at the end of September. The conference was hosted by duty...

New district nurses' committee develops action plan.(SECTION/COLLEGE NEWS)
December 1, 2005... The new district nurses' (DN) section executive committee met in Wellington in early November, following its election at NZNO's primary health care nurses' conference in Auckland in August. Members and their positions are as follows: Hellen...

Samoan Nurses focus on child deprivation.(SECTION/COLLEGE NEWS)
December 1, 2005... "Our children, our heritage" was the theme of the Samoan Nurses' Association of New Zealand's annual conference and annual general meeting in early November, organised and hosted by the association's Wettington branch. 3uggting full-time jobs...

NMAC sets its agenda.(NZNO COMMITTEES)(Nursing and Midwifery Advisory Committee)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2005... "Ahakoa he iti he pounamu"--Even though our group is small we are important. The newly erected Nursing and Midwifery Advisory Committee (NMAC) herd its first meeting in early November in Wellington. Welcoming the team to their rotes were...

Events 2005/2006.(Calendar)
December 1, 2005... COURSES, CONFERENCES & VENUES Dec 1-2 'Generating Answers' Conference for Mental Health Workers email: frikkie.botha@waitematadhb.govt.nz Auckland 2006 Feb 23-24 South Island...

Reunions.(Calendar)
December 1, 2005... Jan 20-22 2006 Nursing Reunion 1966-2006 Wanganui Hospital--Good Health Wanganui email: Nursejudy@inspire.net.nz or pamelaj_l@clear.net.nz Wanganui Feb 4-6...