School nurses not recognised.

Having read many articles in Kai Tiaki Nursing New Zealand over 2005 and having accepted the position of school nurse at Kelston Boys High in Auckland, I have become very interested in primary health nursing (PHN), especially the issue of pay parity in primary health. I have canvassed NZNO on its position regarding pay negotiations and written to the Nursing Council about my nursing obligations and professional development under the new competency-based practising certificates.

Sometimes school nurses are employed by the Ministry of Health, sometimes the Ministry of Education, and therefore are not part of the multi-employer collective agreement negotiations for practice nurses.

School nurses do similar work to practice nurses but do not have the same support. This will come as a surprise to many. To be told by top NZNO staff that it would be better for school nurses to seek support in pay negotiations from the educational unions is, I feet, deplorable. The Post Primary Teachers' Association can't help us or, rather, do not feel competent to do so. Having been an NZNO member since its amalgamation in 1993, I am angered at the lack of NZNO support. I pay my fees for more than indemnity insurance, have previously had exemplary support, especially from the Auckland office, and would like other school nurses' input and letters on this important issue. School nurses are no longer a band aid and paracetomol service. Ask your sons and daughters whom they go to first in a crisis at school and just what a school nurse does. I had 12 ambulance call outs to my school this year, ranging from a possible meningitis case, to a student's leg being impaled on a fence and a teacher having a piece of wood fly off a machine into his body. Then there's counselling on contraception and advice on condoms, migraines, wound dressings, ear syringing and working under standing orders. Our average age is 47, hardly surprising considering our wages and working conditions. I call on NZNO and all other nurses to support school nurses.

Elizabeth Perales, RN, Auckland

NZNO industrial services manager Cee Payne-Harker replies: NZNO supports Fair Pay for all NZNO members. However the actual task of making fair pay a reality for our members is complex. We are giving it our best shot.

NZNO's industrial strategies must operate within the existing legal requirements around collective agreement bargaining. There are some real constraints around attempting to put employers together who receive their funding from different sources.

The ambitious attempt to bring together 700 general practice, iwi and Maori health providers whose core business is providing primary health services is a hugely difficult task. This strategy has enabled us to try and create a big group of workers who might be able to influence wages in the primary health core (PHC) sector positively but it was never going to be possible to include every PHC member in this multi-employer collective agreement (MECA).

Encouraging small groups of NZNO members (such as school nurses and prison nurses) to bargain collectively within already established large national or regional, single or MECAs shouldn't be interpreted as NZNO abandoning its members and having no interest in their industrial issues. It is a sensible and practicable strategy to deliver them fair pay. NZNO will continue to work collaboratively with unions in those sectors to support bargaining processes and encourage claims that reflect the fair pay settlement for our members. Having a strategy that promotes the optimum collective strength at the bargaining table has resulted in significant pay gains for our members in the district health board sector and increasingly for groups of members working in the private sector.