Defining the paths district nurses should follow.

District nurses (DNs) needed to clarify what they did that made a difference, said the Ministry of Health's chief nursing adviser Mark Jones at the opening of the 13th national DNs' section conference in Christchurch Late Last month. Jones sees district nursing as at a crossroads. DNs needed to took at their roles, scope, academic preparation and employment--both location and employer. In the next five years, the focus of primary health would be on enhanced delivery, capability building, effective service delivery modes, clarity of rotes and function, and workforce development. He challenged us to "rev our engines" and decide which path we wanted to follow.

The theme of the conference, hosted by the Nurse Maude Association and attended by 120 people, was District Nursing on the Move. Keynote speaker and professor of community nursing at La Trobe University in Melbourne, Merilyn Annells, asked us to consider two key questions: Where does district nursing sit in the genre of community nursing--are we community nurses, nurses working in the community or are we nursing communities? The second was: What is district nursing? We needed to define our distinctive skills and knowledge, deal effectively with change, be flexible when appropriate and creatively use opportunities that arose, she said. We also needed to be "politically savvy" and lobby effectively, "to have voice" Later, she spoke on the value of qualitative research to DNs.

Director of nursing with Melbourne's Royal District -Nursing Service (RDNS), Fiona Hearns, spoke about the need to demonstrate clinical effectiveness. RDNS has an advanced computerised system where nurses can get immediate access to a centralised client information system. They have developed some clinical pathways and clinical service indicators to measure clinical effectiveness. Hearns also spoke about the collaborative models of service provision used to respond to the needs of particular population groups. The future for community nursing lay in providing quality services that improved client outcomes and responded to the needs of an increasingly aging community with increased levels of chronic disease and disability, she said. Director of service improvement and patient flow at Canterbury District Health Board (DHB), Brian Dolan, spoke on terrorist incidents and how their aftermath affects communities. He described terrorism as being about "the emotional consequences that result"--these go on for years.

Nurse Leader of MidCentral DHB's district nursing service, Ann FowLer, spoke on pandemic/ emergency planning. She gave an overview of the national strategies for managing a pandemic and described the preparations MidCentral DHB has made. In the event of a pandemic, patients with 'flu-like symptoms will be directed to community assessment bases, which wilt be away from GP practices and emergency departments.

Concurrent sessions included topics such as pilonidal sinus; diabetic foot assessment; models of practice; and the way nurses are working in partnership with other care providers.

The new national committee was introduced at the AGM. Continuing are chair Christine Cumming, Ann Fowler, Anita Latta, Karyn Sangster and Glenys Best, with new members Colleen Moore from Oamaru and Kathy Penman from the Waikato.

Members adopted the strategic plan, which had previously been circulated. Strategic goats for 2006-2010 link to NZNO's strategic goals and those of the Primary Health Care Nurses' Council.

Previous section chair and current council chair, Chiquita Hansen, was named an honorary member of the DN section. The section has offered to support study days in the North and South Islands next year.

The key message from the AGM is to develop regional network groups, so the national committee can truly be the voice of district nursing, to keep our engines revved and keep district nursing moving forward.

Report by section chair Christine Cumming