Extending child nursing practice.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

NZNO's national office was abuzz with clucking and many offers of babysitting when the Public Health Nurses' (PHN) Section national committee met in Wellington last month. This was because committee member Sarah Patrick made the trip from Timaru with three-and-a-half-month-old Lucy in tow.

This year, the focus of the PHN section has been the formation of the college of primary Health care nurses. Rosemarie Edlin has represented PHNs on the Primary Health Care Nurses' Advisory Committee and attended the meeting to update the committee. We are grateful to Edlin for her continued commitment to this role. The PHN committee believes it is imperative we have strong PHN representation on the new PHC college committee. More information on this is available on the PHN section webpage www.nzno.org.nz/groups/sections/public_Health_nurses_.

The PHN section seminar day, which will be shared with the Nurses for Children and Young People Aotearoa (NCYPA) section, is on November 24 in Hamilton. Held as a satellite day before the Paediatric Societys scientific meeting, which nurses are welcome to attend, it will explore the theme "The effects of poverty on children and young people". Guest speaker is senior lecturer at the University of Auckland and youth mental Health nurse Terryann Clarke. The NCYPA is offering a "two registrations for the price of one" deal (see nzno.org.nz/groups/sections/children_young_people). Both the PHN and NCYPA section committees anticipate the day will be valuable for networking and extending child nursing practice in New Zealand.

Both sections will hold their AGMs during the day. The NCYPA national committee will be discussing three new initiatives: an internship for short nursing exchanges; a free neonatal, paediatric and child Health nursing journal for all NCYPA members (from the Australian college); and travel scholarships to attend conferences. Next year, NCYPA will be celebrating 100 years of children's nursing in New Zealand.

Report by public Health nurse Liz Hampton and Plunket nurse Erin Beatson