Tauranga Hospital’s
first Registered
Nurse Prescriber
By Sandra Fielding, Medical Cluster Nurse Leader.
Congratulations to Anne Hishon, our
first Registered Nurse Prescriber. Anne
is the Nurse Leader for the Health in
Ageing Community Response Team. This
interdisciplinary team was established 10 years
ago to provide assessment and coordination
of care for older people in their own home
with the aim of keeping them well and out of
hospital.
People are referred to the team for numerous reasons, such as a
history of increasing falls, decline in functional status, new onset
confusion or increased confusion. The service provides short term
interventions. This includes short term respite care while long term
service support is put in place. The team works to ensure that the
older person’s GP and primary health care team are fully informed
of the person’s needs and current status for ongoing care.
Easter Bunny
delivers the goods
Anne Hishon who’s recently qualified as a
Registered Nurse Prescriber.
Over the past year Anne completed NZ Nursing Council
requirements to become a Nurse Prescriber. She says while
she’ll continue to work in partnership with the person’s GP, the
qualification means she’ll be able to respond more quickly to the
patient’s medical needs in the home and reduce the need for them
to have primary health appointments. She’ll also be able to work
with GPs around medication review and de-prescribing particularly
for patients who may be experiencing side effects or negative
impacts from their current medication regime.
Meanwhile in Tauranga Hospital staff had to work a little harder
to locate the Easter eggs. A mystery ‘OneP lace’ bunny had about
150 staff pondering an online riddle and searching for clues
throughout the hospital. Eventually that led them to Easter Bunny’s
home (a staff locker on the 4th floor) where they were rewarded
with a chocolate egg. If you didn’t get a chance to enter this year...
watch out for next year’s riddle!
12 noon on Thursday 29 March brought the
sound of thundering feet to the rehab therapy
corridor in Te Koru Therapy & Rehabilitation,
Whakatāne Hospital - the Easter egg hunt had
begun.
The annual event, ever so kindly organised by Rehabilitation
Nurse Linda Watson has the team hunting for Easter eggs
throughout the department. Thanks Linda!
3