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EDITORIAL
Vol 22 Issue 3
After completing six years on the Nursing Council of New Zealand, five asChairperson, it is interesting to reflect on the considerable changes thathave taken place in the profession and the context in which these changeshave occurred. These years have been extremely interesting, challenging, at times frustrating, but also exciting and never, never dull!
It might not be immediately obvious to individual nurses but enormous changes have taken place in the regulation of nursing in New Zealand. Most of these changes have been driven by the development and passing of the Health Practitioners Competence Assurance Act 2003. This ensured that the Nurse Practitioner role would become an accepted part of the
nursing landscape in New Zealand. Interwoven with the Nurse Practitioner role is the function of prescribing, a challenge to many of our medical, and some of our nursing, colleagues. The process of gaining legislative change involved the Council in what at times, seemed endless explanations justifying the expansion of our roles and our ability to practice safely with the interests of the public at heart. But change did happen and in a relatively short timeframe. On thinking back to this time and the discussions with groups such as both the College of Anaesthetists and the Society of Anaesthetists, I think how patient and tenacious nurses are as we continually respond to questioning of our ability, roles, and clinical boundaries.
This questioning and what could be construed as a lack of trust can be frustrating and can lead to a climate of distrust generally. It is essential that this does not spill over and affect relationships between professional groups in nursing. There are tensions between professional groups and sadly at times these do impact on our ability to present as a united profession in the face of opposition from outside. At times we, that is the Council, were involved in demanding interactions with our colleagues in other professions and the Government at various levels, and at the same time we had to deal with considerable criticism from nursing groups and nurses.
I do not believe that we need consensus at all times but there are occasions when the profession needs to work together, particularly when engaged in major and innovative change to practice. It was difficult being told by people outside the profession that we would never get nurses to agree and that “they couldn’t work together”. I think in some respects this is a fair criticism and we need to work at this. Of course there will be differences Nursing Praxis in New Zealand Vol. 22 No. 3 2006 Page 3 and diversity in nursing – this adds colour and provides challenges which are productive and interesting. However, we need to move on and find collaborative and collegial ways of working together to ensure that everyone is respected for the contribution they make to nursing in whatever field and through whatever organisation. This doesn’t mean we all need to agree, that would be unproductive and would result in few new ideas and initiatives, it would also be very dull. However, we all need to be sophisticated enough to work astutely in the political environment, to know when and how to deal with conflicting points of view, when these views can be made very public and when it is better to close ranks and work together. In the end we all have the same goal and that is good health outcomes for people on a daily basis and at a strategic level, and a healthy, satisfied nursing workforce – something we are some distance from achieving at the moment.
Overall being the Nursing Council chairperson has been a great experience. You come to such positions with a certain level of experience and expertise but being in the position brings a new set of challenges which involves the development of appropriate avenues for consultation, the maintenance of strong functioning professional relationships, an understanding of the reality of a highly political environment both in nursing and in the wider
context, and finally the need to – in the end – be prepared to make the hard decisions and accept the criticism that comes from making those decisions. Through turbulent and occasionally frustrating times it has been essential to maintain the belief that nursing has enormous potential to contribute to the health outcomes of all New Zealanders; and to remain confident that nurses are quite capable of rising to the challenge of both the rapid change and increasing complexity in health service provision that characterise health care now and will continue to do so in the future.
Annette Huntington RN, PhD
Associate Professor
Colonel Commandant (Hon), Royal New Zealand Nursing Corps
Massey University
Wellington
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