Primary health care nurses' conference moves to Auckland.

The third NZNO primary health care (PHC) nurses' conference will be held at Auckland's Waipuna Conference Centre from August 4-6 next year.

With the Ministry of Health (MOH) as its gold sponsor, the conference will look at eight of the MOH-funded PHC nursing innovations, their progress, outcomes and lessons. There will also be a day devoted to PHC nurses' clinical needs, including a stream on the immunisation strategy.

Three NZNO sections have indicated they will use this conference for their AGM, rather than hosting a separate conference in 2005. They are the public health nurses', district nurses' and nurses for children and young people's sections. NZNO's newly established Maori provider nurses' network will also have a presence at the conference.

Improving nurse collaboration

NZNO has convened two previous PHC nurses' conferences, which have focused on developments within the sector and nursing's response to meeting the changing health needs of populations and service delivery models. At the first conference in 2000--Initiative and Innovation in Primary Health Care Nursing--Director General of Health Karen Poutasi challenged nurses to enhance health outcomes by reducing fragmentation and improving collaboration and integration in service delivery. NZNO has responded to this challenge in a variety of ways, including playing a read role in the establishment of regional PHC nurses' networks, informing members on developments within the primary sector through Kai Tiaki Nursing New Zealand and establishing an expert advisory panel, soon to become a Council of PHC Nurses.

The theme of NZNO's second conference, Embracing the Future, held last year at Te Papa in Wellington, was PHC nursing innovation in response to the Government's PHC strategy. Five of the Ministry's nursing innovation funded models were show-cased at the conference, which was attended by more than 300 people, and many more examples of transformational practice were presented in concurrent workshops. Over 50 abstracts were received for the programme.

Organisers hope that holding next year's conference in a larger venue will enable more nurses to attend. For further information, contact professional nursing adviser Susanne Trim on 03 366 0186 or email [e-mail].