NZNO's Blog

Monthly Archives: February 2017


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Patients deserve to get back to their homes pain free

By Registered Nurse and delegate Ben Rogers as part of the Shout Out campaign

As a Registered Nurse working in the theatre and recovery environment I frequently see patients who having long ordeals before they have had the opportunity for their surgery. I became a nurse because I get great joy from the process of healing and recovery – getting patients back to their work and their families in as good shape as possible, no matter what has happened. But often, patients will have to fight ACC just to get the need for their surgery recognized. Or, they have surgery delayed as there was simply not enough staff to run all the planned operating theatres that day. Sometimes acutely injured patients wait without food on ‘nil by mouth’ only to have their surgery cancelled and rescheduled for the next day, or are discharged too soon to make space for the next person who will go through exactly the same thing. Rinse and repeat.

One case that stuck with me was a patient who had their surgery late in the day. They had been given local anaesthetic to numb the area and reduce their pain, which normally wears off early in the morning. It was late in the day so there were no pharmacies open nearby open to collect the strong pain relief they would likely need when the local anaesthetic wore off. Ideally they would have stayed in hospital overnight, and then been discharged the next morning, however the hospital was simply too full and there was a lot of pressure to minimize incoming patients. This patient did go home that day. I slept poorly that night, worried that this patient who was in my care would now be in excruciating pain.

For me, health under-funding leads to full wards of people stuck in limbo, frustrated, hungry and suffering; and staff such as myself stressed and losing sleep, from being not able to give the quality of care the people of New Zealand deserve. This is why I feel so strongly that health should be funded to meet the health needs of New Zealand, so we can discharge people in the state that they deserve from our publicly funded health system.


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Give nursing grads a fair go

By NZNO member leader and nursing student Phoebe Webster, as part of the Shout Out campaign.

nzno-students-30Pictured- Phoebe Webster, 3rd year nursing student.

“I am a 25 year old nursing student in my 3rd and final year of nursing study, and looking forward to starting my professional career. By the time I finish my Bachelor of Nursing (BN) I will have completed over 1100 hours of approved supervised practice. I will have spent countless more hours attending practice laboratories, clinical preparation sessions, lectures, tutorials, guest speaker sessions and workshops as compulsory components of my BN degree. After completing this I will sit my state final exam and, all going well, will become a Registered Nurse (RN).

My course is designed to make sure I am a safe, competent, innovative, and articulate nurse. It means that I can work in different parts of the health care sector and improve health outcomes for local, national and global communities. But there is still a steep learning curve going from a student nurse to confidently performing all of responsibilities of an RN.

The Nurse Entry to Practice/Specialist Practice (NEtP/NESP) 1 year programme provides new graduate nurses with an invaluable introduction into the healthcare system. It’s really crucial support for us going through this steep learning curve. It provides a safe and supportive environment for graduate nurses to slowly transition into the responsibilities of a competent registered nurse. This crucial support is sadly not available to all graduates however, and I can’t help wondering how I will fare in this competitive race for employment after my state finals. Only around half of graduates manage to get a NETP position in the first year, and the job opportunities for new graduates outside of the programme can be limited- everywhere wants ‘experience’, but how can we safely obtain it?

More funding is needed to provide these NEtP and NESP placements for new graduates. Sure, it is possible to enter the workforce without a NEtP position, but why make this transition less safe and harder for new grads?

More highly trained nurses are exactly what our complex healthcare system needs. Comorbidities, where patients have many related and often serious health problems going on at the same time are common. Nurses now deal with complicated care under widening scopes of practise. Making sure these new scopes are adequately prepared for and supported is vital for future workforce planning.

Other professions in New Zealand are supported to train and transition slowly into their jobs. When entry to training is regulated with supervised progression, people who come out the other end are better recognised as highly skilled professionals. Take the police force for example. In New Zealand new police undertake extensive entry requirements and progress through a (paid) training programme and are then placed in supported roles in different areas of the police force. Builders have apprenticeships which provide many hours of supervised, supported time on the job. Should the same on the job support and continued supervised learning not be available to all nursing graduates, not just the lucky ones?

The NEtP programme is based on many other successful and effective new graduate programmes around the world. Benefits include transferability of skills recruitment and retention of New Zealand nurses. I really, really want to be the best nurse that I possibly can. After sitting my state final exam this year in November it worries me that I may be entering the workforce without the support in place to give me a fighting chance to achieve that quickly. Building the strong, competent nurses of tomorrow is something I see as worth investing in. It’s a profession that I have invested in, in every way, and hope to continue to do so throughout my life. All I’m asking for is that my country supports me a little bit more, to help support them.”

NETP (Nursing Entry to Practice) and NETSP (Nursing Entry to Specialty Practice) key stats

  • There were 1455 applicants in total in the November end of year pool in 2016.  Of these 1303 were NETP applicants and 152 were NESP applicants.
  • There were 151 applicants indicating they were repeat applicants (128 NETP and 23 NESP) and 1304 (1175 NETP and 129 NESP) who indicated they were first time applicants. (Note: 1274 applicants said they completed their degree at the end of 2016.)
  • There were 121 second time applicants, 26 third time applicants and 4 fourth time applicants.
  • Only 52% of NETP applications were employed as at the 25th of November 2016, and 65% of NESP applicants were employed by the same date
  • Of the remaining applicants in the NETP pool, 605 were unmatched, 17 withdrew, were declined, or did not finish their degree. In the NESP pool, 53 were unmatched and 1 either withdrew, was declined or did not finish their degree.

That’s 658 New Zealand qualified nurses who wanted further on the job support but didn’t have NETP/NESP placements to go to at the end of last year. With a nursing workforce shortage hitting us right now, NZNO believes we need a placement for every new grad.


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We have the science, now we need the staff to keep patients safe

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NZNO champions the use of Care Capacity Demand Management (CCDM) in our hospitals. CCDM tools and processes uses patient acuity data to determine how many staff hours are needed for each shift. CCDM is the first of its kind and is available in some, but not all DHBs, and in certain wards and units of these DHBs. CCDM results in safer patient care and a better working environment for staff. CCDM enables staffing levels (capacity) to meet incoming need (demand).

To find out more about CCDM, see: http://www.nzno.org.nz/get_involved/campaigns/care_point/what_is_ccdm

 This blog is by Lisa Taylor, Registered Nurse and NZNO Delegate

‘It’s the challenge that gets me out of bed in the mornings, I love my job caring for patients and there’s always so much to learn.

I am a nurse working in an acute surgical ward with a high acuity. Many patients every day go to and from surgery, ED, ICU, other hospitals and home. We have a big turnover of patients.

Regardless of patient numbers, in the last two years we have gone from having a Care Assistant and a Health Care Assistant on each morning shift, to having one or the other but not both. Having only one out of the two assistants has resulted in delays in patient care.

As an example, the more specialised Registered Nurse tasks such as clinical assessments and complex wound dressings are often delayed so we can attend to patients more ‘immediate’ needs, such as toileting and mobilising. This can result in ‘care rationing’ for this really important patient care.

If we were to have a Care Capacity Demand Management (CCDM) Work Analysis completed on our ward, which calculates in detailed the work that is completed by our nursing team, we would be able to show who was doing what work and when that work was being done. Work analysis is really specific and gives us the opportunity to analyse the information.

We use CCDM Response Management tools within our hospital and in our ward. This is a programme telling us when we should increase or decrease each type of nursing team staff rostered on as patient demand goes up and down outside of what we have planned. However, when we do go into yellow – which means we need assistance as the patient care requirements outweigh the staff resource on the ward – we are often told there is no more help. This is a difficult situation, as the Clinical Nurse Managers and the Duty Nurse Managers do want to help, but when there is no one to help, there is nothing they can do.

If health funding was appropriate, it’s more likely there would be better help available for our patients. Having confidence that the resources were available to provide the right care at the right time would make for a safer workplace for patients and staff.

TrendCare, the patient acuity system that shows how much nursing care each patient will probably need, has made a difference to us on our ward. We understand that we often have a ‘negative variance’. This means patient care requirements outweigh the staff resource on the ward. We are working to further improve our data. I feel optimistic that once the data is absolute correct we will be able to do the calculations for how many full time equivalent staff we need, and it will be accurate.

TrendCare data is really powerful in getting the right staffing, but the staff also actually need to be available. If health funding was increased we would always be able to have the right staff, at the right time, delivering the right care, all the time.’