Nurses for children and young people seek collaboration.

Amending and approving our strategic plan and budget were two of the main activities at the meeting of the Nurses for Children and Young People of Aotearoa national committee in Wellington last month. Included in the strategic plan is promoting collaboration between child health nurses working in primary, secondary and tertiary health services. We are grateful to professional nursing adviser Angela Dawbin for guiding us on how to draw up our budget.

We are continuing to plan our satellite day, which we hope to hold in Nelson on October 31, prior to the Paediatric Society of New Zealand conference. We will shortly be calling for abstracts and announcing the keynote speakers for this day. Watch out for an update in this month's newsletter.

During discussions with Ministry of Health chief nursing adviser Mark Jones, the issue of proposed changes to Clinical Training Agency funding for post-graduate child health nursing education was raised. The committee wants to ensure that courses for nurses working in the community and for district health boards will continue to be funded. We discussed our strategic alliances with other agencies interested in child health and advocacy for children, eg the Littlies Lobby and the Child Poverty Action Group. It is important groups work together to protect the welfare of children in this country.

The committee unanimously supports the repeal of section 59 of the Crimes Act, which is currently being considered by Parliament's Justice and Electoral Select Committee. Our submission to the committee expressed our belief that parents need to be encouraged to use nonviolence means of disciplining their children. The committee has identified three committee members who are willing to act as media spokespeople. They are Tineke Water and Jacquie Finnigan from Auckland, and Sandi Evans from Christchurch.