Positive outcome from nurse assistant forum.Clarification of the role and scope of practice of nurse assistants (NA) was one of the most significant outcomes of the Nursing Council forum on NAs held Last week. Speaking after the forum, NZNO NZNO New Zealand Nurses Organisation chief executive Geoff Annals an·nals pl.n. 1. A chronological record of the events of successive years. 2. A descriptive account or record; a history: "the short and simple annals of the poor" said a joint letter from the Nursing Council and the Ministry of Health, written in 2003, had had a significant impact on the employment of enrolled nurses (ENs) and NAs, with many ENs being moved out of acute care. Chair of the national EN section, Robyn Hewlett Hewlett may refer to: People with the surname Hewlett:
Chair of the Nursing Council and chair of the forum, Annette Huntington, said that letter "appears to have caused ambiguity Ambiguity Delphic oracle ultimate authority in ancient Greece; often speaks in ambiguous terms. [Gk. Hist.: Leach, 305] Iseult’s vow pledge to husband has double meaning. [Arth. and we need to address that". She also said that some had interpreted the letter as giving flexibility, while others had interpreted it as constraining con·strain tr.v. con·strained, con·strain·ing, con·strains 1. To compel by physical, moral, or circumstantial force; oblige: felt constrained to object. See Synonyms at force. 2. . The Council and the Ministry will work together to "re-iterate clearly the scope of practice of the regulated NA", Huntington said. The Ministry's chief nursing adviser Mark Jones, who attended the forum, said once the Nursing Council's statement had been prepared, he would write to district health boards and private providers on "operationalising" the statement. Jones said he had encountered instances, mainly in acute care facilities, where health care assistants were deployed with a wider scope of practice than regulated NAs, because they were cheaper. "That can't be right--it doesn't seem to be the correct situation. The rationale rationale (rash´  nal´),n the fundamental reasons used as the basis for a decision or action. for it has been reference to the 2003 letter," he said. Jones said things had moved on since that letter was written and "my desire is to have a second-level nursing workforce fit for purpose". Huntington said the forum had been "extremely worthwhile" from the Council's perspective. The second-level nurse was an "extremely valuable" member of the overall nursing workforce but decisions about appropriate skill mix were over to directors of nursing and managers, she said. 'Non-nursing solutions' Annals said, from an NZNO point of view, the forum had been valuable because all the stakeholders--the Council the Ministry, NZNO, district health boards, private employers and educators--had discussed issues around the best use of the second-level workforce. "Everybody says we need these nurses. If nursing fails to respond to this need, there will be non-nursing solutions--somebody else will do the work." He said a more cohesive cohesive, n the capability to cohere or stick together to form a mass. approach to developing second-level education programmes was needed. Head of Christchurch Polytechnic Institute of Technology's (CPIT CPIT Continual Process Improvement Team CPIT C3I System Program Integration Team CPIT Cockpit ) School of Nursing, Cathy Andrew, said the forum had been positive, with good dialogue about the issues and ways to move forward. |
|
||||||||||||||||
Printer friendly
Cite/link
Email
Feedback
Reader Opinion