Nurses Day: A Commitment to Quality Healthcare

International Nurses Day: A Commitment to Quality Healthcare

Tomorrow is International Nurses Day which is celebrated every year on May 12, the anniversary of Florence Nightingale’s birth. The New Zealand Nurses Organisation is proud to take part in the celebration of this year’s theme, Positive Practice Environments: Quality Workplaces = Quality Patient Care.

At yesterday’s launch of the NZNO publication Quality in the Workplace, Dame Margaret Bazley, a former nurse who has most recently authored a damning report for the Commission of Inquiry into Police Conduct, said people were an organisation’s greatest asset and needed to be nurtured and valued. “They like strong leadership, clear standards consistently applied, simple communication and a high level of professionalism. A culture of professionalism gives you quality.”

NZNO chief executive Geoff Annals spoke on the nurses’ responsibility to deliver safe care to patients, the importance of District Health Boards ensuring safe staffing became a priority, and looked forward to the establishment of a safe staffing unit within DHBNZ, funded by government.

Referring to the recent Health and Disability Commissioner’s report into the death of a 50-year-old patient at Wellington Hospital in 2004, Annals said that practice environments that were not positive allowed avoidable deaths to occur, encouraged nurses and doctors to tolerate substandard practice, and placed nurses and doctors at risk of professional sanction and distress. “That is why we commit to full implementation of the recommendations of the Safe Staffing/health Workplaces Committee of Inquiry and the establishment of the safe staffing unit.”

Quality provision of health services is important across the whole health sector. NZNO continues to campaign and negotiate for workplace practices that support quality patient care. The elimination of low wages, access to training and professional development and safe staffing are fundamental to achieving the very highest quality healthcare for all New Zealanders.

ENDS

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