online renewals of annual practising certifcates is a signifcant
advance. The changes, while in and of themselves small,
collectively speak of an organisation constantly looking to do
things better.
Despite the ongoing investment in new systems, the Council’s
ability to work effciently has meant that we have been able to
contain costs for nurses. It is important for the credibility of an
organisation, such as the Council, that it is not profigate with
its income.
Increasingly too the New Zealand Nursing Council is growing
an international reputation for the quality of its regulation and its
work with international regulators. It is an honour that our Chief
Executive is a member of the International Council of Nurses
Observatory, a committee established to provide worldwide
advice on nursing regulation. Contributing internationally as
well as nationally is part of our best practice agenda.
I want to conclude by thanking the members of the Council with
whom I have had the honour of working during my time on the
Council. I particularly acknowledge Kathrine Townshend, who
retired from the Council during the year, for the outstanding
work she did as a lay member to ensure that we always kept
our focus on patient safety, and welcome Bede Carran as her
replacement. Deborah Rowe was elected as the new Chair at
my last meeting in March and I wish her all the best as she gets
used to the complexities of the Chair role.
Just as it has been a busy year for the Council, so too has
it been a challenging year for nurses in practice, policy and
education, who say they are also very busy and overwhelmed
with the constant pressure of operating in a fscally constrained
environment. With that in mind I want to thank all nurses and
all Council staff for their hard work and dedication in
demanding times.
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5
+
Report from the Chair
Nurse prescribing has been an ongoing subject of debate in
the past decade and it has been satisfying to see real progress
made with this in the past year. Proposals for how nurses
could prescribe, building on the success of diabetes nurse
prescribing, had been developed in consultation with the
profession and sector and were out for consultation when my
term fnished.
We have also seen growing acceptance of the nurse
practitioner role. Nurse practitioners contribute to enhanced
systemic fexibility and improve access to health care for at-risk
populations. One of the major impediments to faster growth
in nurse practitioner numbers has been the need to persuade
service providers to fund these higher-level positions.
I believe that the present regulatory framework allows the
necessary agility and fexibility to ensure that New Zealand has
the workforce it needs, and this was the message the Council
gave the Government in response to both the review of the Act
and the call for regulatory authority amalgamation. Whatever
is decided, we are very concerned to ensure that nursing
standards and public safety are maintained.
What is essential also is that there is effective communication
across the health system, and this is something that we have
emphasised in recent years. I want particularly to commend the
efforts of our Chief Executive, Carolyn Reed, and her senior staff
for their work in this area, which means the Council is now in a
position where it is able to work collaboratively across a whole
range of stakeholder networks.
A salutary warning about the risks of inadequate communication
was sounded in the comprehensive United Kingdom report
on the Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust, where there
was a devastating breakdown in health care services, with an
estimated 400-1,200 patients believed to have died between
2005 and 2009 as a result of poor care and a failure to prioritise
public safety.
Good communication channels are also essential if an
organisation, sector or system is to function effectively and
effciently. I have been very pleased with the business system
changes implemented in the Council in the past year to
prioritise electronic communications over traditional print.
For an organisation regularly communicating with more than
50,000 people, this is no small feat, and the introduction of
The past year has been a mix of
successes and of challenges – a
year of business as usual within a
larger context of uncertainty about
the direction of health practitioner
regulation in New Zealand.
Dr Margaret Southwick, QSM
CHAIRPERSON