Shared Action on Safe Staffing: Healthy Workplaces

8 August 2007

Shared Action on Safe Staffing: Healthy Workplaces

The co-Chairs for the Governance Board of the Safe Staffing Healthy Workplaces Unit, Jane O’Malley for NZNO and Sue Wood for DHBs, today announced the appointment of Vicky Brewer as Director of the Unit. Establishment of the Unit was a key recommendation of the 2006 Committee of Inquiry chaired by Retirement Commissioner Diana Crossan and comprising nursing experts from DHBs, NZNO and the Ministry of Health. The Committee was set up to develop a plan of action to address nurses’concerns about staffing and its impact on patient safety. The Committee successfully completed its task and the work of the Unit will be to facilitate the roll out of the joint NZNO/DHB plan of action throughout all DHBs. Vicky Brewer is currently Director of Nursing at Canterbury DHB’s Princess Margaret Hospital and will move into her new position to set up the Unit in September.

In agreeing to fund the work of the Unit Minister of Health Pete Hodgson said, “The establishment of the Safe Staffing/Healthy Workplaces Unit is a very significant initiative. Not only does it engage the expertise of clinicians in the management of our hospitals but it is a concrete example of the value of unions and employers working together for the good of the community.”

The Safe Staffing/Healthy Workplaces Unit will be administered within District Health Boards New Zealand and will operate under the governance of a joint NZNO/DHBs advisory board. On behalf of the partners Dr O’Malley and Ms Wood welcomed Mrs Brewer to the leadership role for the Unit, signalling the formal start to a work programme that will realise benefits for patients, nurses and DHBs.

ENDS

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