Latest News
‘Toxic relationship’: The jobs nurses are doing instead of nursing
Nearly half the country’s nurses are not working as nurses, with some even taking jobs in supermarkets or on road gangs in preference to healthcare.
Te Whatu Ora is keen to persuade some back to the front lines to help fill chronic shortages.
However, one former nurse said returning to work in the health system would be like going back into an “abusive marriage”.
Amanda Homewood walked away from nursing in 2021 after nearly four decades. She has made a conscious decision to let her practising certificate lapse to safeguard her own health and wellbeing, in case she is tempted to go back.
“I know there are heaps of really amazing nurses and others in the health system who are really on their knees and I’ve struggled with leaving them and coming out of the fray. I’ve felt quite guilty at times over that.”
Homewood said she loved most of her 37 years nursing, but the underfunded system – and what it was doing to patients and staff – ground her down.
“Until the system is fixed I wouldn’t go back to it, it would be like going back into an abusive marriage to be honest, that’s how it felt by the end. It was like a toxic relationship.”
There were more than 150,000 nurses on the New Zealand Register of Nurses – but that included those who have retired and others who left the profession decades ago.
Just under 75,000 held annual practising certificates allowing them to work.
Nurses Organisation kaiwhakahaere Kerri Nuku said many were just “burned out”. She knew nurses who had opted to work in supermarkets and one who had joined a roading crew.
“As she said, she’s earning more money than what she did as nursing and it’s not nearly as taxing.”
Kerri Nuku. Photo:
Union president Anne Daniels said Queensland and California had legally mandated nurse-patient ratios boosting their workforces.
“What has attracted those nurses back to nursing is knowing they are going back to a safe work environment where they will be supported to their job to the best of their ability, as opposed to having to constantly make priority decisions about who’s going to get the care and who’s not.”
The Nursing Council estimated between 4 and 5 percent of the more than 70,000 nurses with current practising certificates were not working as nurses in New Zealand when they renewed them.
“That’s 3500 nurses, which is nearly as many nurses as would fill the vacancies that we need.”
Former Southland Hospital ED nurse Kerri Templeton quit last year after less than two years. Five other nurses in her department resigned in the same week.
In an open letter to then Health Minister Andrew Little, she wrote she feared someone would die as a result of under-staffing.
But after six months travelling overseas and working on a superyacht, she is starting a new job at Christchurch Hospital ED in January.
“I didn’t miss it to start with, I was more just recovering and having a life again.
“I am excited to go back but I’m aware that things are probably not any better than when I left. I guess I’m a bit more prepared in that I know what to expect now.”
In its workforce stocktake in July, Te Whatu Ora estimated the system was short about 4800 nurses, despite a nearly 23 percent increase in the number of nurses employed by Te Whatu Ora in the last five years.
Director of workforce development and planning, John Snook, said increasing the number of nurses was “a vital part” of the plan to boost the medical workforce with the recent pay increases and training initiatives.
The Return to Nursing fund provides up to $5000 to help New Zealand nurses to get a current practising certificate, and foreign nurses who are residents or citizens with the cost of gaining registration in this country. So far this year the fund has received 228 applications for support.
In the last 12 months, 12,719 new nurses joined the register, of whom 82 percent were overseas trained. However, it was not possible to say how many of those would work in New Zealand.
rnz
The chief executive of the Parliamentary Service is confident there will be enough room to accommodate the increased number of MPs and their staff coming into Parliament.
On current numbers, up to 131 MPs could be sitting in the Chamber following the election, brought on by a record overhang result.
Clerk of the House of Representatives Dr David Wilson told the Spinoff that currently the debating chamber had enough chairs to seat 124 MPs – including the Speaker of the House – and work was being done to accommodate more by altering the seating arrangement.
In a statement, Parliamentary Service chief executive Rafael Gonzalez-Montero said planning for a larger Parliament had been going for “some time”.
“Now that the election results have confirmed an increase to the number of members we are looking at several options.
“We are confident we will be able to accommodate all members within the Chamber.”
VNP / Phil Smith
Gonzalez-Montero said office accommodation for members and their staff would be “stretched” for a short time, but the new Members’ Building was only a few months away from “practical completion”.
That building – located behind Parliament – was due to be ready to occupy in April next year and had capacity to accommodate around 30 backbench MPs.
“All members should be in fit-for-purpose accommodation from that point,” Gonzalez-Montero said.
Following the 2023 election, 123 MPs sat in the Chamber – a record number at the time. That decreased to 122 following the resignation of National MP Judith Collins.
Collins held the seat of Papakura and stepped down in May and Parliament voted against holding a by-election because it was too close to the election.
The election result also meant high-ranking National Party MPs like Chris Bishop, Paul Goldsmith, Nicola Willis and Gerry Brownlee – Speaker of the House and an MP for 30 years – would likely not make it back into Parliament.
Only resigning or retiring MPs were permitted to give a valedictory speech meaning none of them would get the chance to give a valedictory statement.
Asked if their would be special allowances for valedictories, Wilson said in a statement that normally only MPs were allowed to speak in the House but the House could suspend its own rules or temporarily alter them.
“It could do so to allow former members to address the House.”
Wilson said no such arrangements could be made until the next Parliament opened and members sworn in.
rnz
Police say person who fired gun at officers still at large
New Zealand sides named for RLWC finals
Parliamentary Service working on extra chairs and offices for increased number of MPs
-
Latest News2 months ago‘Chilling’: Business groups speak out against National’s supermarket break-up plan
-
NZ News2 months agoTom Phillips report: The missed opportunities to find the children
-
Politics2 months agoNational vows to try to split Pak’nSave and New World
-
Latest News2 months agoCars bearing Chinese police markings stir unease in Auckland
-
Fiji News2 months agoPlans to have new Constitution by Dec 24th 2026
-
NZ News2 months agoCop who stole $68,000 can now be named as champion Muay Thai fighter Haimona Tamati-Te Paki
-
Politics2 months agoMBIE confirms botched biometric projects costs blown out to $50.7 million
-
Latest News2 months agoFive Karangahape Road venues lose their liquor licences after police intervention