October 2017 December 2013 | Page 23
Executive Directors Report 2013
This report is a summary of College activities and
achievements written against the core goals of
our strategic plan.
GOAL 1. ALIGN NURSING WORKFORCE
DEVELOPMENT WITH COMMUNITY NEED.
Community need for health services is
recognized as being at risk from predicted
workforce shortages and deficits. The College
remains committed to all activities which support releasing the full potential of nursing services to
address disparities and to ensure that people have full access to competent and safe care from a
health professional who is working at the “top of their license”. It is becoming ever more critical that
nursing consider its social justice commitments as a basis for our decision making. This is especially
important in terms of workforce development which is not about enhancing the position of nurses
but about ensuring we can provide the best possible service.
We begin with activities towards development and maintenance of a viable Nurse Practitioner
workforce.
NPNZ (Nurse Practitioners of New Zealand)
The College makes a significant commitment to Nurse Practitioners on the basis of strong and
long standing evidence that Nurse Practitioners provide a transformational health service and
are a solution to many workforce shortages. We continue to work in partnership with NPNZ
to address the on-going issues underpinning implementation of the Nurse Practitioner role.
At this stage the Health Practitioner Statutory Reference Bill remains seemingly lodged
somewhere in the Ministry of Health and although pivotal to workforce flexibility it is taking a
very long time to become an agenda item. This despite its first iteration beginning in 2005. As
noted last year, for a Government committed to “better sooner more convenient” health care
this seems an extraordinary state of affairs.
Similarly much time and effort has been devoted to lobbying for changes to primary health
care funding and ACC reimbursements. We were delighted to see the announcement that
GMS payments would become available to RNs, pharmacists and NPs but as always “the devil
will be in the detail” and implementation details are as yet unclear. NPNZ annual Report
attached as Appendix 2.
© Te Puawai
College of Nurses Aotearoa (NZ) Inc
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