October 2017 December 2013 | Page 16

Te Puawai

Nurse Practitioners – Part of the Solution
not the Problem
Article by Jeff Symonds, NP, Bay of Plenty DHB
Recently the Ministry of Health (MoH) published its future mental health & addictions remit
for 2012-2017 called “Rising to the Challenge”. I tried not to think “oh no not another vision
and sets of goals to aim for”, at least until the next lot comes along…. Notwithstanding this I
actually took the time out to read the document and I was pleased I did. As I was going
through the information and gathering in the subliminal messages I couldn’t help but think of
Josser Hughes in “Boys from the Black stuff” when he used to say “gizza a job I can do that”.
(Google it?).

I was impressed that this above
mentioned report, at least from my point of
view, appeared to have an immense
amount of potential opportunity for
advanced practice nurses and in particular
Nurse Practitioners who practice in Mental
Health & Addictions services. For example

Or:

The Rising to the Challenge document
gave me a sense of direction as to where
the Ministry wants to go and made me
ponder on how I as an NP can fit in or out
of this future view. Clearly NPs are part of
the solution to help achieve these goals.
The Ministry want clinical services to
provide high quality services and improve
delivery in a more timely and accessible
way that is both efficient for the health
budget and effective for the health needs
of the community. When I write this I
sense the catch cry of Josser Hughes is
out there in the thoughts and aspirations
of most advanced practice nurses and
NPs.

Therefore, to achieve the changes
needed, our major focus must be on using
our current resources more effectively and
increasing productivity. This will enable us
to focus our attention on early intervention
and
strengthening
primary–specialist
integration.

If we as NPs use this Ministry document
ethically to incorporate the philosophy and
direction into our professional strategies
we may be able to, at the very least, lobby
more effectively with the view to establish
ourselves as integral components of this
future.

a renewed focus on earlier and more
effective responses, improved outcomes,
better
system
integration
and
performance,
increased
access
to
services, effective use of resources and
stronger
whole-of-government
partnerships.

Rising to the Challenge, MoH 2012 p. 3

© Te Puawai

The area of main interest for me as a
practicing
prescribing
NP
is
the
secondary/primary interface:

College of Nurses Aotearoa (NZ) Inc
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