Thank you to our fabulous nurses at Southern DHB

11 May 2015

Thank you to our fabulous nurses at Southern DHB

It’s International Nurses Day tomorrow and Southern DHB will be saying a big thank you to all its nurses who work so hard and are so committed to bringing the very best healthcare to our patients. Southern DHB employs over 2000 nurses who all make the most significant contribution to improving the health and wellbeing of patients in the Southern District.

International Nurses Day is celebrated around the world every May 12, the anniversary of Florence Nightingale's birth. This day allows us to recognise the invaluable role that nurses play in keeping people in New Zealand and around the world as healthy and independent as possible.

Registered Nurse Lorraine Reed who has worked in the Dialysis unit at Dunedin Hospital for the past nine years said that, “I have such a rewarding job helping people, which I love. I think that it’s really important to celebrate International Nurses day and to recognise the very special job nurses do.”

Lorraine has her own caseload of patients in the unit and cares from them from the time they arrive, usually as acute cases, to the when they are ready to go home after they have completed their training in home haemo-dialysis or peritoneal dialysis.

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Photo above left to right: Viv Wilson RN, Lynda Anderson RN, Lorraine Reed RN, Patient, Ricki-Lee Earwaker and Toni Shaw RN

Patient Ricki-Lee Earwaker, a 24 year old social worked from Invercargill first came into the unit with kidney failure about a year ago and after many ups and downs is nearly fully trained in haemo-dialysis and is aiming to go home to be able carry out to home haemo-dialysis next week.

” The staff in the unit have been absolutely fabulous, especially Lorraine. They are the faces I see every day, they’ve nursed me, laughed with me and above all made things better. It’s made a real difference to how I feel about my treatment. Nurses are very special, they do a great job and what they do should be celebrated. I cannot thank them enough,” said Ricki-Lee.

This year, Southern DHB will be celebrating ten years since the Professional Development and Recognition programme for nurses (PDRP) commenced. The journey from a clinical career pathway in the 1990’s to the programme today has found PDRP in 2015 as a programme standardised across the South Island Region.

The Professional Development and Recognition Programme (PDRP) framework and criteria have been developed to achieve professional development in nursing; to value and recognise clinical nursing skills and expertise at different levels and to support nurses in demonstrating competency to the Nursing Council of New Zealand.

“The programme aims to promote and reward nursing expertise and recognise the contribution of nurses to quality patient health outcomes. The Regional PDRP is a voluntary process and nurses choosing to participate, who are successful, have the benefit of being able to renew their Annual Practising Certificates without being subject to random audit of their portfolios by the Nursing council of New Zealand,” said Southern Mrs Samuel.

Otago and Southland sites will celebrate by having static stands on display. Dunedin Hospital will have a display in the main foyer and Southland hospital will have a display outside the café.

These displays will showcase nurse’s experience of PDRP, demonstrate the progression of the programme throughout the last decade and provide hints and tips for those considering this pathway.

Part of the DHB celebration this year has also included paying tribute to and remembering our ANZAC nurses by laying wreaths at the Cenotaphs in Invercargill and Dunedin on ANZAC Day.

Southern DHB Executive Director of Nursing and Midwifery, Leanne Samuel said that, “We have so many extraordinary and dedicated nurses who go the extra mile every day to make sure our patients get the very best care. A career in nursing can lead to many different specialisations in many different areas and many people don’t know just how important the role of a nurse actually is. International Nurses Day is a great opportunity for us to celebrate the work of our wonderful nurses at Southern DHB.”

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