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August 31, 2022
The COVID-19 surge workforce - of unregulated health workers - could be an important source of new nurses.
We have now reached the stage, in Aotearoa, where the nursing workforce crisis is adversely affecting the health and wellbeing of our communities.
COVID-19 has certainly taken its toll, placing additional, significant pressures on nurses. And while burnout and attrition rates are high, the passion, dedication and professionalism of the nursing workforce across the sector, to ensure timely and safe access to care, is exemplary.
But this workforce crisis was in the making long before the pandemic. It is time to rethink strategies, but more importantly to act upon ideals and ideas.
Under the auspices of Te Whatu Ora (Health New Zealand), work is underway to develop models to recruit and retain nurses, and to staircase nurses' career development - this is known as the nursing pipeline programme.
While this is intended to be a whole-of-sector approach, the challenge - te wero - for the leadership group at the helm of the pipeline work is: How will the capability and capacity of primary health care (PHC) nurses be supported to unleash their potential to deliver health equity?
PHC nurses the poor cousins
For too long, PHC nurses (including those working in aged care and across communities) have been the poor cousins of the secondary sector, in terms of both pay and access to career development funding.
It is time to acknowledge the PHC nursing workforce as central to promoting the health and wellbeing of Aotearoa's population. They...