Samoan nurses' association seeks closer ties with NZNO.

Seven members of the Samoan Nurses' Association of New Zealand (SNANZ) attended the August board of directors' meeting, with presentations given by president Ula Fatialofa and national secretary SiLoma Masina.

The SNANZ executive moved to Wellington in July this year and established a national office in the Hutt Valley. There are other offices in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch. The SNANZ currently has 150 members nationally. Members are primarily Samoan-trained nurses who migrated to New Zealand from the 1950s to the 1980s, networking in small groups. The aim of their association was to recognise the skills, knowledge and experience of Samoan nurses (especially those trained in Samoa); to enable Samoan nurses to participate fully in every aspect of health services in New Zealand; and to acknowledge and recognise the contribution made by Samoan nurses to the development of health services in New Zealand.

Their present goals are to provide support through mentoring and supervision to Samoan and Pacific Island new graduates and student nurses; to advance the role of Pacific and Samoan nurses to include management, planning and decision making; to work alongside NZNO and Te Runanga o Aotearoa NZNO to ensure the needs of its members are met; and to strengthen relationships with Samoan and other Pacific nurses' organisations.

A mentoring programme has already been established at Whitireia Community Polytechnic and their annual conference will be held in November in Wellington. Fatiolofa invited members of the board to attend this conference, which this year is focusing on childhood deprivation. She also expressed interest in the SNANZ becoming an NZNO section.

Future developments include developing the association to be a leading health provider for Pacific people nationally; to implement the mentoring programme nationwide; to develop the Pacific nursing workforce to qualify as nurse practitioners and nursing leaders; to work towards registration of Pacific community health workers; and to establish a Pacific Nursing Council.

NZNO will explore the best way to respond to the SNANZ request to establish itself as an NZNO section. Other nursing organisations do facilitate cultural groupings within their structures, eg the German Nurses' Association. Sections are also built around particular services, which in this case would be Pacific health services.

NZNO TO INCREASE ITS STAFF NUMBERS

The board of directors approved the establishment of three new personal case advocate positions and one additional professional nursing advisor (PNA).

Presenting the rationale for the staffing increase, chief executive Geoff Annals said membership growth, changes in the environment and important new organisational objectives had substantially increased staff workloads.

NZNO would incur additional costs of $163,000 this financial year to implement the increase, with an ongoing annual cost of $346,000. He expected a further 3.5 staffing positions would be needed in the near future, with the full, ongoing annual cost of 7.5 additional positions estimated at around $600,000.

As long as membership levels continued to trend upwards, and predicted to reach 42,500 members by April 1 2007, the ongoing costs of 7.5 additional staff would not pose any threat to NZNO's long-term financial viability, he said. The board questioned the location of the proposed staff members and the space issue. NZNO national office is already overcrowded and management is looking at how to address this issue, eg moving part of the operation to another location.

Te Runanga has suggested NZNO needs a PNA Maori to work with Maori members and Te Runanga.

Chief executive Geoff Annals is expected to bring further recommendations for increased staffing, including additional professional and administrative staff, to this month's board meeting.

NEW EQUIPMENT FOR COOK ISLAND NURSES

Nursing equipment is to be gifted to the Cook Islands' Nurses' Assocation in recognition of its hosting last year's South Pacific Nurses' Forum. Association president Elizabeth Iro, when asked to specify a country gift, had requested new stethoscopes, pen lights and thermometers, as the nurses frequently had to make do with second hand and inadequate equipment. The board also agreed to include three to four paediatric stethoscopes and at least 4000 disposable ear pieces. Samples of the equipment will be sent to the nurses for trial and comment before confirming the exact equipment to be supplied.

CENTENNIAL CELEBRATIONS UNDERWAY

NZNO is embarking on a number of regional activities to celebrate the centenary of the founding of the Trained Nurses' Association and its various branches. The board agreed to support the celebration of the Wellington branch's centenary this year, Auckland in 2006, Otago in 2007, Canterbury in 2008 and the national organisation in 2009. Kai Tiaki Nursing New Zealand celebrates its centenary in 2008.

The board endorsed setting up a centennial project team to plan, co-ordinate, oversee and evaluate the centennial project; approved a budget for group functions and communications, and all relevant activities up until the end of this financial year; and approved the overall concept and the setting up of systems to ensure sustained commitment to the project through to 2009. Marking these events would give NZNO greater strength and an even more central place in the development of New Zealand health services, it said. It was also a wonderful opportunity to honour the past, celebrate the present and claim the future.

MORE SUPPORT FOR NURSING RESEARCH

The continued role of research within NZNO is to be supported, despite the fact the re- search section has now dissolved.

The board agreed that research was fundamental to NZNO achieving its strategic goals and policies. It also agreed that NZNO should explore ways of making New Zealand nursing research more accessible through the NZNO website and that NZNO should foster relationships with research funding and management bodies, eg the Tertiary Education Commission and Health Research Council.

SECTION TO JOIN WORLD FEDERATION

The board supported a proposal that NZNO's Mental Health Nurses' Section join the World Federation for Mental Health as an affiliate member with an annual fee of $300.

These decisions, compiled by Anne Manchester, were made at the August 2005 meeting of NZNO's board of directors.