From nurse education, clinical, or workforce issues through to healthy living, Nursing Review has it covered.

From 1 July some caregivers will be earning the same as the nurses who supervise them. How will this impact on aged care nursing? FIONA CASSIE reports in this sneak preview from the next print edition of Nursing Review.

The nursing union NZNO has tabled its intent to pursue a pay equity claim for district health board nurses.

Nurses' contract claims are being costed as bargaining gets underway between the 20 district health boards and nurses' union NZNO – with urgent action to address understaffing top of the nursing agenda.

A pay equity claim on behalf of mental health support workers will today be lodged with the Employment Relations Authority, reports the New Zealand Herald.

Family members are the alleged abusers in more than three-quarters of the more than 2000 elder abuse referrals received each year, says Age Concern.

A health board's smoke-free policy has been unanimously backed by the Supreme Court after it was challenged by a patient, the New Zealand Herald reports.

Reduced smoking and fewer teenage mothers may have helped contribute to the lowest perinatal death rate since reporting began in 2007.

From next year Timaru's new nursing students will be switching nursing schools. 

The government has switched its health-focused "Better Public Services" targets away from rheumatic fever and immunisation rates to broader antenatal and avoiding child hospitalisation targets.

The New Zealand Infection Prevention and Control Nurses College is calling for abstracts for its 2017 Conference taking place in Auckland in October. Registrations are open now for the Conference being held from October 16-18 at the Grand Millenum Auckland.

About 15 registered nurse prescribers have now been authorised since the new prescribing pathway came into affect last September. But numbers are expected to grow soon with the first graduates of the new postgraduate diplomas in RN prescribing due this winter. 

The number of children and teenagers on Prozac-style anti-depressants has soared 98 per cent in the last 10 years to a total of nearly 15,000 young people last year, reports the New Zealand Herald.

A mental health nurse's lifetime work in supporting Māori mental health has been recognised in the Queen's Birthday Honours. The Northern Advocate's Peter de Graaf's reports that Caroline "Moe" Milne's interest in mental health was sparked by a 14-year-old classmate at high school.

The views of graduate nurses on whether postgraduate study in your new graduate year adds or takes away from the experience are being sought in an online survey.

Two-thirds of Kiwi nurses and a third of doctors support legalising assisted dying after witnessing "many undignified and frankly awful deaths", a new report has found, reports Sam Hurley of the New Zealand Herald.

A nurse has spoken about losing her job after suffering violence and rape at the hands of her partner - urging Parliament to back domestic violence leave, reports Nicholas Jones of the New Zealand Herald.

A petition urging the Government to fully fund smoking cessation and advocacy services was presented by nursing union NZNO yesterday to mark World Smokefree Day.

A call has gone out on World Smokefree Day to make the country's dairies cigarette free after recent reports of cigarette theft-linked violent attacks on dairy owners.

An Otago Polytechnic nursing student is off to London to meet the Queen in honour of the teenager's work founding a youth-led anti-bullying group.

Kiwis have been centre stage at the International Council of Nurses 2017 congress now underway in Barcelona with more than 8000 nurses from across the globe attending.

More than 1200 nurses who signed up to work for at least three years in a hard to staff specialty or community have now received voluntary bonding payments.

In this opinion piece JED MONTAYRE responds to comments in a recent Nursing Review article: Filipino Nurses: our fastest growing nursing workforce[sitetree_link,id=2067]. In the article some Manila-based Philippine nursing leaders questioned whether Filipino nurses risk being deskilled by being pigeon-holed into working in the aged care sector in New Zealand.

A record boost in health funding in election year has still left many nurse and health leaders frustrated and underwhelmed that it will not resolve underlying issues in the health sector.

The $25 million a year new funding to introduce a social investment approach to trialling early mental health initiatives has been welcomed by some but described as "like giving a starving dog a rubber bone" by others.

The historic pay equity settlement and cost pressures take up the lion's share of the Government's record $825 million boost to the health budget for the coming year. Nursing Review gives you  rundown where the health dollars are being spent next year – and where they are not.

Rural nurses are being surveyed and urged to vote for a working group to up the profile of nurses working rurally from small town hospitals to remote communities. 

Associate Health Minister Nicky Wagner yesterday contradicted concerns about future shortfalls in aged care nursing numbers saying nursing numbers "were more than keeping pace" with growing aged care needs.

New guiding principles for preventing pressure injuries launched last week are part of a wider project including developing a national approach to reporting pressure injuries.

Nearly 70 per cent of aged care nurses are dissatisfied with their pay according to the New Zealand Aged Care Workforce Survey. And stress was the most common cause of work-related illnesses reported by both nurses and their managers.

Unions say health needs at least an extra $1.1 billion in the Budget if health care is not to go backwards.  And a $2.3 billion boost for the health sector to regain the same spending power it had seven years ago.

An innovation growing of the Canterbury quake that allows nurses, doctors and pharmacists to electronically share a patient's care record was a winner at the recent Hi-Tech Awards.

Nurse practitioner training shouldn't still need to rely on goodwill and keep facing funding uncertainty, say NP training providers.

Eighteen graduates from the pilot fully-funded NP training programme are now registered and starting work as NPs – half of them in primary health care.

Increased support for the NP role and streamlined registration processes contributed to 77 new NPs being registered last year – more than triple the rate of previous years, says the Nursing Council.

Nurses need to involve the whole family of Samoan heart risk patients for lifestyle changes to be made, says nurse researcher Tua Taueetia-Su’a who graduated with her PhD today.

A record three Kiwi nurses – who have served from Gaza to Ebola-struck Liberia – have been announced as winners of the International Red Cross's highest nursing award – the Florence Nightingale Medal.

Nursing Review wishes you the very best on International Nurses Day.  Check out a video that celebrates the special impact 'everyday' nurses make every day around the world and calls on nurses to be proud and speak-up about the difference they make.

‘When I am no longer even a memory, just a name, I hope my voice may perpetuate the great work of my life." Hear Florence Nightingale's only voice recording…

A ginger-infused lager is being brewed by nursing lecturer Vicki Yarker Jones to support the hospice that supports her nursing students.

An option allowing some patients with fractured ankles to go home while waiting for surgery has won a Tauranga nurse a leadership award.

The employment rate for November graduates from the country's nursing schools varied from around half to 94 per cent, according to the latest survey findings.

Care worker Kristine Bartlett today signed the historic equity pay settlement affecting around 55,000 aged care sector caregivers and health care assistants after a long campaign that she was the public face of.

A more than 30 per cent leap in nurse practitioner numbers in the previous year was celebrated at the biannual Nurse Practitioners New Zealand conference at the weekend. 

In New York today NZNO kaiwhakahaere Kerri Nuku repeated her call to a United Nations forum for a Māori nursing workforce strategy to help meet Māori health needs.

Educating health professionals on antibiotic alternatives and making infection control teams more multidisciplinary will be part of the country's first antimicrobial resistance (AMR) action plan.

Nearly 70 primary health and family planning nurses from Invercargill to Whangarei are trialling a third level of nurse prescribing. The new limited level of prescribing rights – to be known as registered nurse prescribing in community health – is aimed at nurses currently using standing orders and is a step below the registered nurse prescribing in primary health and specialty teams which got underway in September last year.

Ongoing media reports of nursing graduates struggling to find work is not deterring applicants, with an informal nursing school survey finding generally buoyant to steady demand for 2017 intakes. Seventeen of the 18 nursing schools offering pre-registration nursing degrees responded to Nursing Review's survey on 2017 enrolment trends.

Nurses are being urged to get their flu jab this season to protect vulnerable patients as New Zealand research indicates up to 80 per cent of people infected with the flu are unaware.

The top region for nurse flu vaccination rates last year was once again Tairawhiti – topping Waikato and Northland, which both have 'vaccinate or mask' (VOM) policies.

Interest in enrolled nursing programmes is very mixed across the country, with nursing schools reporting employment rates varying from poor to very good.

The long-awaited pay equity settlement for health workers will see the caregiver hourly pay within five years match the current pay rate for new graduate nurses.

Readying nursing for a "radical shift" to meet future health challenges is the topic for a one-day forum next week being attended by the country's top nursing leaders.

The health minister has responded to recent reports of mental health beds being closed because of nursing shortages by saying the number of mental health nurses is increasing faster than other nursing areas.

A young nurse serving the high-needs Aranui community in east Christchurch has won an award for emerging healthcare leaders.

Nurse shortages will see three beds temporarily closed in Wellington Hospital's Te Whare o Matairangi mental health unit.

In an open letter to the public the NZNO are calling for people to enrol and vote for political parties committed to increasing health funding.

Just under a quarter of nurses reported a workplace injury or related-infection in the past two years in an ongoing upward trend, according to the latest NZNO nursing survey.

The latest fall statistics indicate serious injuries from in-hospital falls are still on the decrease, says the nurse who has lead the Reducing Harm from Falls campaign since the outset in 2013.

The Kaikoura GPs awarded the 2017 Peter Snow Memorial Award paid tribute to the wider nursing and admin team who responded in the night and days following the devastating quake of 14 November 2016.

UK nursing media are reporting nursing's disappointment at a one per cent capped pay rise for NHS nurses in England, Scotland and Wales.

The number of new nurses being employed by rest homes and aged care hospitals through mentored new graduate programmes has fallen this year, despite keen applicants still job-hunting.

Once again around 60 per cent of new nurses have gained a graduate placement by March, leaving 551 still job-hunting. The latest job statistics also provides a region-by-region breakdown of which areas are employing the greatest proportion of new graduates.

Two health education proposals to help meet a chronic shortage of rural health professionals are on the agenda of this week's National Rural Health Conference.

A nursing smartphone innovation making tuberculosis treatment easier for both nurses and clients is being celebrated to mark World TB Day today.

Restructuring and heavy workloads have seen nursing morale fall in the latest NZNO biennial nursing survey but despite this few nurses are indicating signs of burnout.

A special nursing poem on valuing the time of elderly patients – launched last week at England's Chief Nursing Officer's annual summit – has a Kiwi connection.

Two Kiwi nursing schools are still ranked in the top 100 nursing schools in a global university survey but are outpaced by Australian schools which now have two schools in the top ten.

World first research showing sore throat clinics in South Auckland schools helped dramatically drop rheumatic fever rates justifies the hard work put in by nurses and whānau workers, says nurse leader and co-researcher Lizzie Farrell.

About 3500 nurses have so far taken part in the country's first nursing fatigue survey but researchers are keen for more – particularly mental health nurses – before the survey closes at the end of March.

Anzac nurses across the Tasman recently commemorated the Banka Island massacre -  the tragic story of nursing bravery that is to Australia military nursing what the Marquette tragedy is to New Zealand military nursing. BOB COTTON retells the story of the 21 Australian nurses who lost their lives 75 years ago in the massacre as well as the only nurse who survived to tell the tale.

Northland nursing tutor and palliative care nurse Michael McGivern reflects on providing palliative care – the skills, the rewards and the challenges – and encourages others to enter the field.

An ED nurse has put his career on hold to take to the road with a combined health unions' national roadshow kicking off tomorrow in Bluff.

Workload and work pressures have increased in the past five years according to 84% of health workers responding to a health unions' survey. And 72% of the nearly 6000 respondents surveyed this summer say their workloads aren't reasonable,

A new study of Australian woman getting the flu vaccine while pregnant has added to the safety evidence of immunisation during pregnancy.

The second cohort of nurse practitioner trainees under the pilot NP training programme are underway.  New video resources have also been released outlining what is involved in supervising and mentoring an NP in the making.

With the junior doctors long-running roster row nearly settled, the next major health negotiations to get underway, the NZNO DHB Nurse MECA, is also likely to have a safe staffing focus.

There is an urgent public health need to have confidence in our fresh water systems much sooner than 2040, says Rural GP Network chair and NP Sharon Hansen 

Two election year campaigns are underway by health sector unions calling for an urgent $1.8 billion funding injection into the health system.

Importing overseas nurses is a major factor in driving down wages and pay equity in the aged care sector, says nurses union NZNO.  The hard-hitting discussion paper on nurse migration also advocates halving New Zealand's reliance on overseas nurses by 2030.

Increased demand for addiction services and addiction nurses could follow a new act streamlining the compulsory treatment order process for people with severe addiction.

Unsure what 'hot', 'sore' or 'unwell' is in te reo? Then a new game app for teaching common health terms used in Māori could be for you.

An independent review of a 2016 incident in which tens of thousands of nurse and caregiver emails were released by the NZNO to a scammer found it to be an unintentional mistake by keen-to-be-helpful staff.

Increased patient demand and untaken annual leave contributed to some district health board's nursing budgets blowing out last year, according to nursing directors. More at-risk patients requiring 1:1 watches and shorter patient stays were also contributing to pressure on nursing budgets, the directors of nursing told Nursing Review.

With kids about to return to school, the Asthma and Respiratory Foundation NZ is calling for preventive action to reduce the annual spike in asthma hospitalisations.

Submissions closed this week on NZNO's draft position statement that advocates for individuals have the right to the option of assisted dying. Right to Life, a pro-life organisation, has responded by saying it was "very concerned" that NZNO wasn't defending patients against the "threat of euthanasia and a culture of death".

Wishing everybody a happy and healthy 2017!  Nursing Review is having a summer break and will be back online in the week starting January 16.  Many thanks for your readership this year and we look forward to seeing you back in the New Year.  

New heads for Massey and Auckland universities' nursing schools and Kiwi midwife to head Dutch-based International Confederation of Midwives. Read on for details of some recent job appointments.

As we head into the summer party season a snapshot survey shows New Zealand has double the rate of alcohol-related presentations in emergency departments than across the Tasman.

The nurses' union NZNO is once again calling for guaranteed places for all nursing graduates on hearing that nearly half missed out on graduate nursing placements in the latest job round.

Job offers for new graduate nurses were back up slightly after plateauing last year but around 650 nurses will once again start the summer job-hunting. 

Shiftworking postgraduate students falling asleep at the wheel and queries about breastfeeding on block courses. Dr MARK JONES* recently had his eyes opened to the constant and complex juggle that is postgraduate study when he temporarily filled the shoes of his nursing school's postgraduate programmes director.

The first national programme aimed at reducing and preventing restraint of mental health clients by boosting nurses' therapeutic communication skills was launched recently.

Restoring Christchurch's quake-battered Nurses' Memorial Chapel is to get underway in the New Year, Mayor Lianne Dalziel announced today.

Nursing professionals in the United Kingdom are nearly twice as likely to suffer financial hardship than the general public, according to a major survey.

Nurses have been helicoptered in from Christchurch to relieve quake-hit colleagues in Kaikoura. Kaikoura Hospital staff also very "pleased" to be have shifted out just last year from their former more than 100-year-old hospital building.

Nursing union NZNO is apologising to members and warning them to be vigilant after a phishing scam saw tens of thousands of nurse and caregiver emails released to a scammer. 

After a decade in the making the bill that removes legal barriers that have hindered nurse practitioner and nurse practice was finally passed by parliament this week.

Her first script was for paracetamol but writing it herself was "still an awesome feeling", says the country's first registered nurse prescriber.

Nurses from the Philippines were this year once again New Zealand's biggest source of new overseas qualified nurses, according to the latest Nursing Council statistics

The number of Kiwi nurses seeking to work across the Tasman is up again this year after dropping to a new low last year.

A new chair has been elected for Nurse Practitioners New Zealand as the number of nurse practitioners practising around the country tops 200 for the first time.

Some nurses have been given the option of taking annual leave as public hospitals around the country postpone elective surgery and outpatient clinics in the lead-up to the junior doctors' strike.

A national online survey into nurse fatigue is launching this week and shift working nurses are being urged to share their work and sleep patterns.

About 30 per cent of postgraduate nursing students are self-funding their studies a snapshot survey has revealed.

A pilot to boost Māori nurse numbers in primary health care is underway in South Auckland with four graduates employed and a New Year intake to follow.

Nursing student Kazushi Noiri is hitting the road next month to walk from Bluff to Cape Reinga to raise funds for arthritis and he wouldn't mind some company.

International student fees bring in $1 billion a year. Do our 19 nursing schools limit how many international fee-paying student nurses they enrol? Nursing Review reports its survey findings. 

The coming into force this week of regulations allowing suitably qualified registered nurses to prescribe for straightforward conditions is "absolutely fantastic", says chief nursing officer Dr Jane O'Malley.

Nurses acknowledge that assisted dying is likely to become legal in New Zealand but hold a diverse range of perspectives on the issue, NZNO Kaiwhakahaere Kerri Nuku told Parliament's Health Committee today.

The new right for registered nurses to prescribe is welcomed by Professor Jenny Carryer but she also questions whether training funding is enough to meet the "huge education commitment" required.

The right for registered nurses to prescribe comes into force on September 20 and just days later applications open for nurses seeking to be the first RN prescribers.

Nurse practitioner Pareake O'Brien says she is stunned to win the Te Akenehi Hei Award that was also awarded to her late mother Putiputi O'Brien more than a decade ago.

A once "rebellious" teenage mum and now passionate convert to rural outreach nursing says she is humbled to be the joint winner of the Young Nurse of the Year Award.

Finding new graduates jobs and retaining overseas-trained nurses is a workforce dilemma that joint winner of the Young Nurse of the Year award Dr Jed Montayre can see from both perspectives.

Canada's nursing unions will be putting a case for a similar safe staffing system to New Zealand's, says Canadian Federation of Nurses Unions' president Linda Silas.

Advocating for hospital nurses to be safe from falling bombs is one of New Zealander Dr Frances Hughes's recent duties as Geneva-based leader of the International Council of Nurses.

Recent nurse graduate ROSALIE DAVIS shares a poignant nursing and life lesson she learnt from a wise healthcare assistant and a frail dementia patient.

E-cigarettes containing nicotine should be freely for sale and organisations allowed to decide where people can 'vape' to help people quit tobacco, says Smokefree Nurses Aotearoa.

A New Zealand Nurses Organisation petition launched at the recent Indigenous Nurses Conference was just a few hundred signatures short of it target five days later.

From next week nurse practitioners will be able to join doctors and dentists in being able to issue standing orders – removing one more barrier to NP practice.

Nurses keen to be the first registered nurse prescribers are approaching Nursing Council with the first RN prescriber now likely to be authorised in October.

Sister Anzac - a play that struck a chord with this generation's defence nurses – is returning for a further season in Hamilton and Auckland.

A year ago Tairāwhiti nursing leader Dr Heather Robertson had started work on a draft advanced care plan when she had a traumatic car accident. She shares some hard won advice and thoughts on advanced care planning.

News of a funding extension for a pilot nurse practitioner training programme is being welcomed as another sign of the NP movement gaining momentum.

Just over half of the applicants for new graduate nursing jobs in the July round were successful but 47 per cent missed out. 

A 'technical glitch' saw hundreds of new graduate nurses have their job hopes raised then dashed yesterday after an incorrect email was sent out to unsuccessful job applicants.

The first registered nurse prescriber could be signing their first script on 20 September when long-awaited RN prescribing regulations come into force.

A website listing New Zealand nurses' names and offering the chance to 'review' them is being called "completely inappropriate" by the New Zealand Nurses Organisation.

To mark Māori Language Week Nursing Review looks at the several Māori words for 'nurse' and which word has been chosen by NZNO for its new Māori name.

A founder of the faith nursing movement in New Zealand, Elaine Tyrrell, was recently honoured with a Queen's Service Medal for her nearly 20 years work in the field.

The new head of EIT's nursing school Jennifer Roberts is following in the footsteps of her recently retired mother Dr Susan Jacobs, who was the longstanding health faculty dean.

The stories of pioneering Māori mental health nurses who trained from the 1950s onwards and helped to develop today's Māori health services are preserved on a new oral history website.

Shift working nurses will be surveyed about fatigue-related errors during a major research project to develop a cutting-edge approach to managing nurse fatigue.

Extra money for health is welcomed but it falls short of meeting health needs and investing in the health workforce needed to meet health targets, say nursing and health leaders. They also question increasing tobacco tax without increasing investment in quit-smoking programmes and social supports needed to encourage people to quit.

Health funding has been given a spending boost in the latest Budget. Nursing Review does a quick check of the books to report on which areas have had funding increased and which areas have not.

A survey confirming rest homes are employing high numbers of new graduates with no guaranteed mentoring is an "ongoing concern", says the nurses union NZNO.

The number of new graduate nurses in work is down on the same time last year at just under 74%, according to the latest graduate survey findings.

Another nursing education pioneer Yvonne Shadbolt passed away this month. Professor Liz Smythe pays tribute to the nursing leader who had a vision for a new era of nurse training and founded the forerunner of AUT's nursing school nearly 40 years ago.

The phenomenon began in early May with some dancing Kiwi cops posting a challenge and not long after nurses, doctors and paramedics around the country joined in. Check out some nurse dance moves in the Running Man Challenge videos from local DHBs.

Dr Judith Christensen, one of the pioneers of New Zealand nursing education, died this week aged 73. She was New Zealand's first nurse to gain a PhD in nursing and back in 1973 was the founder of one of the country's first nursing schools based outside of a hospital.

KIM CARTER argues if nurses want to be nursed in their own old age in the way they expect and require, they need to spread the word about the positives of nursing as a career, and not just the challenges.

With bumper numbers of new nurses graduating in recent years, a new nursing forecast model indicates that fears of a nursing shortage hitting as early as 2020 is now looking less likely.

Kiwi nurses have upped their game, with the latest national statistics showing that nurses are cleaning their hands nearly 85 per cent of the required times.

After nursing patients with chronic kidney disease for more than two decades, Suzanne Joynt has seen the comfort and support that advance care planning (ACP) about end-of-life care can provide for patients and their families. So when her stepfather was diagnosed with a terminal illness, she hoped other nurses would be aware of its benefits too.

Requiring unimmunised nurses to wear masks in high 'flu season is backed in a Ministry of Health letter to district health board chief executives.  The letter also hints that voluntary immunisation may not work.

Helping strengthen the voice of Pacific nurses in New Zealand is one aim of the new Pan Pacific Nurses Association launched last night in Auckland.

The district health board that suspended two unvaccinated nurses last 'flu season for refusing to wear a mask is currently sticking to its controversial policy.

Nurses from Great Barrier Island to Franz Josef – including three new Māori nurse practitioners ­– were honoured at this month's national rural health conference.

The first year of nursing can be a challenging initiation to the realities of the profession. Rosalie Davis spoke at the graduation of her NETP (Nursing Entry to Training Programme) year on the ups and downs of that journey. Her honest and touching speech is shared here.

The summer is ending with 852 new graduate nurses in work but 547 remain in the talent pool still hoping for a new graduate placement.

Nursing schools worldwide have been ranked for the first time in a global university survey with two New Zealand university schools making the top 100.

The long-awaited 'barriers' bill is being revised after the select committee hearings proposed new amendments allowing NPs to supervise registered nurse prescribers.

Nurses have a key role in reducing the threat of antibiotic resistance that could cause 10 million deaths annually by 2050, says the new Kiwi leader of the International Council of Nurses Dr Frances Hughes.

Investing in a national prevention programme could save 30,000 New Zealanders suffering a pressure injury each year, recommends a major report. The KPMG report, The Case for investment in: A quality improvement programme to reduce pressure injuries in New Zealand, was released recently by the Health Quality & Safety Commission, ACC and the Ministry of Health.

Nursing is back up a notch as a 'good' job prospect in the latest Occupation Outlook report. But the government's annual career advice report is less optimistic about nursing graduates' income prospects, which they rate as similar to health care assistants (HCAs) and less than early childhood teachers.

Nursing Review asked Health Workforce New Zealand for an opinion piece on HWNZ's recent and future plans and on nursing's role in that work and vision. Chair DES GORMAN and acting director RUTH ANDERSON responded.

ROSEMARY MINTO believes the key to making a difference to patients is finding the self-belief system driving their health behaviours. Read on to find out how out the primary health care nurse practitioner has chosen New Year's resolutions to help her to do just that.

As the country heads back to work and school, memories of the festive season may already be starting to fade. For some, however, memories of a holiday trip to ED may not be forgotten so easily. Emergency nurse practitioner MICHAEL GERAGHTY shares an emergency nursing perspective of the summer silly season.

As registered nurse prescribing inches closer, MARK JONES and JILL WILKINSON argue that prescribing innovations could be better and faster in the future if the Queen wasn't involved. They are calling for the proposed new Medicines Act to see a handover in power for deciding nursing's prescriptive authority from the Queen (i.e. the Crown) to the Nursing Council.

Welcome to the digital summer edition of Nursing Review. We are ending the year with this special 44 page e-edition offering a smorgasbord of summer reading – a well-balanced ‘diet’ of articles new and old including a bonus RRR on work-life balance. Click to download or view pdf. We wish all our readers a safe, fun and restorative summer break. Nursing Review is back on deck from January 18.

Just under half of new graduate nurses are starting the summer job-hunting after job numbers plateaued and slightly fell in the latest job match round. More than 1450 graduates initially applied through the ACE clearing house for a place in a New Year intake and 735 (51%) were known to be employed by the time they sat their state final exams in mid-November.

Kiwi nurse Dr Frances Hughes is to lead the world's biggest nursing organisation representing more than 13 million nurses across 130 countries.

Safe Sleep Day is on December 4 to help ensure babies sleep safely this summer. A safe sleeping advisor tells Nursing Review that nurses often have special opportunities to ask the questions that can make a difference to vulnerable families.

Some of the country's largest hospitals are increasing their New Year intakes of new graduate nurses but another, Hutt Hospital, has cancelled its usual February intake.

Nearly 50 would-be nurse practitioners have applied for just 20 places in the first dedicated NP training programme.

More than 350 people - including nurse leaders and descendants - gathered for a special memorial service 100 years to the day of the tragic sinking of the Marquette with its loss of 10 New Zealand nurses. Nursing Review shares photos and a short report on the centennial memorial of our military nursing service's greatest tragedy.

Controversy followed a nurse survivor raising questions over the gallantry of some men during the speedy sinking of the troop ship Marquette.

The ten army nurses lost tragically when their ship was torpedoed a century ago this Friday will be honoured in a series of events this Labour Weekend. 

Nurses' union NZNO is welcoming today's announcement that the Government will enter into pay talks for caregivers and support workers as a move towards fairer pay. Health Minister Jonathan Coleman said the Government was committed to seeing caregivers and support workers recognised for their valuable work. The announcement follows the Supreme Court and Court of Appeal last year backing an Employment Court decision to go ahead with Kristine Bartlett's Equal Pay Act test case.

Young Irish nurse GRACE McDONALD shares how and why she chose to get her OE nursing experience down here in NZ. Kiwis are overly keen on being barefoot, their houses are cooler inside than out but their wildlife is benign and overall she reports nursing downunder is being a fantastic experience.

The first ever appointment of an NP into a rural general practice by a government-funded rural recruiter is hoped to open doors for more NP placements to follow.

A 26-year-old nurse whose working day can range from treating glacier accident victims to running mother and baby groups has won the 2015 NZNO Young Nurse of the Year award.

A Christchurch women's health nurse inspired by her mother's cancer death and a nursing professor specialising in interprofessional practice and perioperative care have received NZNO's top award.

Nursing taonga Putiputi O'Brien RN QSO passed away this month aged 93.  NGAIRA HARKER of the College of Nurses Aotearoa, HEMAIMA HUGHES of Te Kaunihera o Nga Neehi Māori o Aotearoa (the National Council of Māori Nurses) and KERRI NUKU of Te Rūnanga o Aotearoa NZNO pay tribute to this special nurse. 

The recently settled  NZNO nurses' pay deal could see some district health boards face 'budgetary difficulties', says a spokesperson for the DHB chief executives. The New Zealand Nurses Organisation has responded by saying it would be "very disappointed" if a modest pay rise for nurses was used by any DHB to justify cutting staff or services.

An offer for a new pay deal covering Public Service Association nurse members in the 20 DHBs is also close, says the PSA's national DHB organiser Ashok Shankar.

Nurses have voted to accept a new pay deal – providing a  2 per cent pay offer this year and 2 per cent next year – with the 20 District Health Boards.

More new graduate nurses got jobs this July than in the past two years but still more than half of applicants missed out.

Removing legal barriers hindering nurse practitioners – such as those stopping NPs writing sick leave certificates or prescribing controlled drugs – are a step closer following a parliamentary vote yesterday.

A second attempt to get nurse endoscopy training underway – to help boost the colonoscopy workforce prior to introducing  national bowel cancer screening – is set to start in 2016. An attempt at fast tracking nurse endoscopist training was announced in mid-2014 by then Health Minister Tony Ryall. Training was due to start early 2015 but was stalled and recently a second start date was set for 2016.

Wellington nurse and delegate Grant Brookes is the new president of the New Zealand Nurses Organisation after beating incumbent Marion Guy.

The long awaited go-ahead has been given to piloting a dedicated training programme for 20 would-be nurse practitioners in 2016.

Nursing union NZNO is recommending nurses accept the 20 district health boards' new pay deal that includes an increased wage offer and a shorter contract term.

The fate of more than 100 Healthline nurses is unknown after another provider was chosen to launch a merged national telehealth service later this year.

Yesterday's last-ditch effort to negotiate an improved pay deal for district health board nurses was unsuccessful and mediation is now being sought.

Nurses have resoundingly rejected a district health board pay offer of a 1% pay offer now and 2% in following years, says the New Zealand Nurses Organisation.

Former NZNO president Nano Tunnicliff has successfully appealed for a reduction in the penalty imposed after she was found guilty in 2013 of professional misconduct.

A funding boost for palliative care is warmly welcomed to help attract young nurses onto the palliative care nurse specialist pathway, says the Palliative Care Nurses New Zealand chair.

Nurse leaders see Budget 2015 as short-sighted, leaving health short-changed and lacking in vision.

It is a steady-as-you-go Budget for health  - very short on new policy initiatives and no targeted extra funding for residential aged care or well child health.

Around 80 per cent of new graduate nurses were nursing within four months of graduation, according to the latest statistics.

More than 250 new graduate nurses have been struggling to find work in practice areas that remain open to migrant nurses.

The 'flu vaccination uptake amongst hospital nurses keep steadily increasing but still varies radically across the country.

Requiring non-vaccinated nurses to wear masks when caring for patients is into its third 'flu season in Northland and is being widened to cover all clinical areas.

Public hospital nurses are being asked to give union NZNO a "clear steer" on whether they will accept or reject a 1% pay offer now and 2% in following years.

As the first Anzac troops landed on the tiny stretch of Turkish coastline now known as Anzac Cove, the first 50 New Zealand army nurses were still steaming their way to England.  In this excerpt from Nursing Review's upcoming print edition FIONA CASSIE reports those first nurses had to fight for the right to serve their country.

The 23rd of October 1915 saw the infant New Zealand Army Nursing Service suffer its greatest disaster then or since. A torpedo struck the transport ship Marquette leading to the death of ten nurses and great feats of bravery, pluck and tenacity by the 26 surviving nurses.  Read this excerpt from Nursing Review's upcoming feature on the Marquette tragedy 

A week remains to enter the annual April Falls quiz and the chance to win $1000 towards professional development for yourself or your team.

Tales of the days of nursing hostel curfews, starched caps and when 'doctors were God' can be heard online with the launch of New Zealand's first nursing oral history archive.

Auckland's three district health boards have between them employed 29 per cent of the country's next generation of nurses.

More graduate nurses have gained new graduate positions than this time last year – but bumper application numbers means 570 would-be nurses are still job hunting. 

Nursing has dropped a notch from being a 'good' job prospect to a 'fair' one in the latest Occupation Outlook report released by the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment.

Safe staffing is high on the agenda for national nurse pay talks underway as the days tick down to the current public hospital pay agreement expiring on 28 February.

Recent DHB pay talks settled by other unions indicate NZNO nurses are unlikely to receive a generous pay offer during these negotiations.

One of the country's largest primary health organisations – Auckland's ProCare – has appointed its first ever nursing director. Lorraine Hetaraka Stevens

Nursing leaders are angry and frustrated at moves to exclude nurse practitioner-led services from being eligible for general practice-only funding.

The number of new graduate nurse jobs has stayed static at around 900 for the third year running despite the number of nursing graduates growing 25 per cent in the same time period.

A debate over the reasoning skills of nurse practitioners prompted groundbreaking research indicating NPs diagnostic skills are just as good as doctors.

Initiating difficult conversations with the elderly or very ill about end-of-life care is very much the “bread and butter” of patient-centred nursing care.  April 16 is designated Conversations that Count Day to promote advance care planning (ACP) read on... 

The uptake of nurses getting the flu vaccine rose nine per cent last year but there is still room for improvement, says the National Influenza Specialist Group*.

Any day now, a tender is to be launched to merge the nurse-led Healthline triage phone service with helpline services ranging from gambling to poisonings.

Kiwis are being urged to get immunised sooner rather than later after last month saw early bouts of flu put patients in intensive care.

More work is on the cards after a meeting last night to address Dunedin nurses staffing concerns ended inconclusively.

The number of new graduate nurses placed in work through the “one-stop job shop” has risen to 777 by late February, according to the latest Ministry of Health statistics.

Nursing leaders have praised the energetic-but-retiring Health Minister, Tony Ryall, for a number of his initiatives but reserved judgment on others.

Nurse’s health across the Tasman falls between “poor” and “average”, with many feeling stressed and unhealthy, according to a survey of 6000 nurses.

About 55 per cent of Kiwis now use the internet to research health woes and one in five do it weekly or more, a national survey has found.

Firsthand positive experience of nurse practitioners prompted a Timaru GP to sponsor NP advocate Professor Jenny Carryer on an NP road show to the region.

Despite the ‘rock star economy’ the job market for new grad nurses is tougher than ever with more applicants and less jobs than the same time last year.

New nurses working in surgical wards will no longer be eligible for the voluntary bond scheme.

Nearly half of the about 500 new nurses that graduated in July 2013 were still jobhunting in November, Ministry of Health statistics show.

A last minute boost to the new scholarship funding has seen 13 practices serving high need South Auckland communities take on new graduate nurses.

$40 million of the Green’s proposed $100 million School Hub policy is earmarked for nursing services in primary schools.

More than 400 nursing graduates missing out on jobs in the latest job round has prompted nursing union NZNO to launch a petition calling for jobs for all graduates.

Concern about new nurses struggling to find work has prompted a review on whether New Zealand’s doors should still be wide open for overseas nurses.

Visas issued to migrant nurses coming to work in the aged care sector increased by nearly 25 per cent last year – despite advertised jobs decreasing by 22 per cent.

Concern about unemployed young Kiwi doctors is prompting the government to consider dropping GPs and junior doctors off the essential skills migrant list.

The lifting of restrictions on nurse practitioners prescribing controlled drugs like morphine and ritalin is being warmly welcomed.

Nurses from India are again New Zealand’s biggest source of overseas qualified nurses, with migrant nurses from the United Kingdom at an all-time low.

The number of Kiwi nurses seeking to cross the Tasman has dropped sharply by about a third and is at the lowest level for about a decade.

A nurse educator is seeking New Zealand-registered Indian nurses for her PhD research into the experiences of this quickly growing part of the nursing workforce.

The Nursing Council has nearly completed recertification audits on about 350 Indian diploma-qualified nurses that followed a year of controversy and protests over the registration process.

One of faith community nurse Noreen Wright’s flock jokingly calls her the “toe pruner”.

Five student nurses joined a research team going back into three South Auckland schools to measure the impact of regular classroom visits focusing on sore throats and skin infections.

Six months since graduating nearly 230 new nurses are still job hunting and have signed up for a second chance to win a place in a new graduate programme.

Promoting integration and preventing ‘rogue behaviour’ is behind negotiations to stop nurses outside general practice from claiming GMS funding, say GP leaders.

Nurse leaders welcome extra funding in the Budget for free pre-teen health visits but say more should be invested in addressing the root cause of much illness –poverty.

A quick bullet point summary of what Budget 2014 brought for health and nursing:

The promise of free prescriptions and GP visits for pre-teens next year is being cautiously welcomed by the health sector but other sectors have leaner pickings.

New "NitBuster" teams will help alleviate pressure on hard-pressed public health nurses in schools allowing them to concentrate on more serious health issues, says Julie Chapman of KidsCan.

How many of the bumper crop of new nurses are still job-hunting will be much clearer next week.

The number of new nurses graduating is 33 per cent higher than five years ago and there is still no reliable tool for forecasting whether cohorts are still growing.

Putting on gloves makes nurses and other healthcare workers more likely to fail to wash their hands when caring for patients, the latest national statistics show.

A review to consider closing New Zealand doors to overseas nurses  – because of homegrown new graduates struggling to find work  – has come out against taking that step.

Just over 670 new graduate nurses – about 45 per cent of the original applicants for new graduate positions – are still job-hunting, according to an interim Ministry of Health update.

More new graduate nurses offered jobs this November than the previous two years - but still nearly half of applicants will start the summer job-hunting.

Nurse practitioners could better evolve their practice to meet community needs if a proposed generic scope of practice goes ahead, says Nurse Practitioners New Zealand chair Jane Jeffcoat.

New graduate nurses recruited into the New Zealand Defence Force will be for the first time working alongside "civilian" new grads in hospital wards.

Christchurch nursing students from Afghanistan to Japan are the first winners of a new annual Pegasus Health Scholarship award for migrant and refugee students.

Treasury highlights the "critical importance" of focusing on patient safety and not just narrow government targets, in its briefing to the new Health Minister.

Both Treasury and the Ministry of Health are advising the new health minister to push ahead with the long awaited bill to remove barriers to health workforce flexibility.

The "extremely slow" progress by Health Workforce New Zealand in responding to the fast looming nursing shortage has been criticised by nursing union NZNO.

The Nursing Council can finally announce - after election results got caught up in a two-month limbo – that one new face and two sitting councillors have been elected to council as nurse representatives.

Fewer unemployed new nurses than expected have taken up the chance to apply to be third time lucky in getting a new graduate position.

More than 1480 new nurses have applied for new graduate positions – up on last year – but jobs also appear to be on the rise.

*Two Red Cross nurses – one a veteran and the other on her first mission – are the second Kiwi contingent to head to Sierra Leone to help try and stem the Ebola outbreak.*

*Nurses are asked to be "kind and non-judgemental" in series of videos released on a new website aiming to help nurses better understand and help smokers stop.*

New Health Minister Jonathan Coleman has confirmed he's following in his predecessor's footsteps in being supportive of expanded nursing roles.

More nurses could be getting the right to prescribing from early next year – if the current Nursing Council application is given Cabinet approval.

Opening up prescribing to suitably qualified nurses in primary health and other specialties is a step closer with a formal application being lodged by the Nursing Council with the Ministry of Health.

Safely returned Red Cross nurse Donna Collins describes the meticulous and life-saving methods of getting out of personal protection equipment (PPE) used in an Ebola treatment centre in Sierra Leone.

Returning Red Cross nurse Donna Collins says the true heroes of fighting Ebola are the national nurses who have lost colleagues, faced eviction by landlords, and have been ostracised by their villages, but they keep turning up for work each day. Back safely from Sierra Leone, Donna talks to FIONA CASSSIE about the testing, sometimes fearful, but ultimately very satisfying mission to help the Ebola-stricken nation.

The new cabinet line-up brings in GP Jonathan Coleman as the new health minister, supported by two associate health ministers – one of them new and in cabinet.

Nurses' union NZNO hopes incoming Health Minister Jonathan Coleman pays close attention to health funding as "current financial constraints are creating unsafe working conditions for staff", while the College of Nurses is keen for him to remove barriers to workforce flexibility.

Would ED nurses here send away an unwell man recently arrived from Liberia? Though the chance of an Ebola victim arriving in New Zealand is very unlikely, both the Ministry of Health and the Infection Control Nurses’ College believe the devastating West African epidemic is a good wake-up call to be ready for what could walk through the door some day…

While the lack of direct flights from West Africa makes the chances of person infected with Ebola flying into New Zealand very unlikely – the risk is always there that another infectious and deadly viruses may one day arrive at an ED or general practice near you. 

Nurses nationwide are invited to take part in a major online survey hoping to pinpoint the real differences between a staff nurse and a specialist nurse’s daily work.

A parenting tool first developed to help Christchurch’s quake-stressed parents find quick, fun ways to spend time with their children is now a free app.

A young Plunket nurse working extensively with migrant families won the inaugural NZNO Young Nurse of the Year at an awards ceremony last night.

Trans-Tasman researchers hope to fast-track developing a vaccine to combat the ‘sore throat that breaks hearts' in New Zealand.

With Election 2014 fast approaching, Nursing Review brings together all the parties’ health policy in one place for you to peruse before you vote.

Former barman and now ED nurse practitioner MICHAEL GERAGHTY wonders when Kiwis will grow out of defining a great night as waking up feeling sick with no memory of the previous night and no cash in their wallet.

JO ANN WALTON defends New Zealand nursing after being alarmed by a visitor’s comments. The Victoria University nursing professor and Nursing Council member gives her own appraisal of kiwi nursing.

College of Nurses co-chair TAIMA CAMPBELL argues that climate change is a public health and nursing issue as much as an environmental issue. Read on to find out more.

Primary health nurse practitioner ROSEMARY MINTO argues why nurses and health planners and providers should sit up and take more notice of Whānau Ora – a home-grown model she believes could help overcome health inequities in New Zealand.

Nurses covered by the PSA union are being offered an “improved” one-year rather than two-year pay offer following mediation.

Rival nursing union NZNO has come out in support of PSA colleagues’ rejection of a district health board pay offer, saying 0.7 per cent is a “paltry” offer.

The PSA union and district health boards have agreed to go to mediation next week despite “disappointment” from DHBs that possible strike action by nurses in September remains a n option.

About 2500 mental health and public health nurses have joined fellow Public Service Association members in voting to take industrial action starting August 25.

Addiction lecturer and mental health nurse Dr DARYLE DEERING says people affected by mental health and addiction issues need a response from compassionate and skilled nurses.

NP ANDY McLACHLAN enthuses about his love of technology and science fiction (even the really bad stuff with rubber monsters, polystyrene boulders, and fake eyebrows...) and how cool new tech might fit into the future of healthcare.

Offering scholarship funding again in 2015 to allow health centres in high needs communities to employ new graduate nurses is “fantastic” news, says South Auckland nurse leader Karyn Sangster.

Former chief nurse DR MARK JONES is back in New Zealand and getting weary of being confronted with billboards of smiling politicians.The now-independent health consultant and theology student asks nurses to not take politicians at face value and to research their policy on health and other issues impacting on their community before casting their vote.

Up to 200 more places for new nurses on new graduate programmes has been welcomed by nurses’ union NZNO - but its petition calling for places for 100% of graduates continues.

The growing demand for nursing school places in recent years has largely plateaued in the cities and fallen in some provincial areas, according to an informal survey of nursing schools.

About 730 new graduates have successfully found places on state-subsidised new graduate programmes but the job-hunting success of the other 500 plus new nurses remains unknown.

The Nursing Council has rejected its proposal that nurses trained in India and the Philippines sit an exam and face tougher English language requirements to nurse in New Zealand.

Rolling out the physician assistant role based on the “sweeping conclusions” of a flawed evaluation of a flawed trial was not wise or safe, says a damning critique by nurses’ organisation NZNO.

Forced early retirement, low wages and nurse migration are amongst the ongoing difficulties facing the Fijian nursing workforce, says Kuini Lutua – the Fiji Nursing Association’s general secretary