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RNZ News
6 days ago
- Health
- RNZ News
Christchurch Hospital asks patients' families to help cover short staffing
Christchurch Hospital had so few healthcare assistants on 22 June that managers were asked to see if patients' family members could come in to sit with them. Photo: RNZ / Nate McKinnon Relatives of distressed patients at Christchurch Hospital have been asked to come in to help because of a shortage of healthcare assistants. Information provided by a Christchurch Hosptial staff member, who asked not to be named, shows the hospital had so few healthcare assistants on 22 June that managers were asked to see if patients' family members could come in to sit with them. New Zealand Nurses Organisation delegate Al Dietschin said the request related to patient watches, which were usually done by the assistants to monitor people for confusion, delirium, or dementia symptoms. "Essentially being with the patient to keep them safe, to try and de-escalate when they get agitated, to prevent them from hurting themselves through a fall, or interrupting therapy like pulling on IV lines or catheters. It is a role that is very important for patient safety," he said. Dietschin said relatives were sometimes asked to come in if a patient was particularly agitated and staff believed they would benefit from having a family member with them, but the 22 June request for people to come in or stay longer appeared to come from a need to cover a staffing shortfall. He said patient watch training for healthcare assistant was often inadequate so it was even harder for family members to know what to do. "I've spoken to family members before who are exhausted themselves and haven't been coping with the patient at home, expecting them to come in and deal with them at the hospital setting is not any better," he said. Dietschin said the shortage of healthcare assistants at public hospitals had been an issue for some time because of underfunding and employment freezes. Some casual staff were not getting shifts so it appeared that roster gaps were being left unfilled rather than people being unavailable, he said. Dietchin said healthcare assistants always appreciated help from families but it was unacceptable for hospital managers to expect them to take on the role of employed staff. Health New Zealand's Cantebury director of nursing Becky Hickmott said there was a large volume of patients, coupled with a significant number of staff who rang in sick at short notice. "We worked hard to meet the demand and ensure all patients were seen and cared for appropriately. We also looked to cohort patients that required closer observation," she said. "Where it was known family members were coming in to be with their loved one this allowed nursing resources to be allocated slightly differently - knowing a family member was at the bedside of the patient and hence could escalate any care concerns as required. It was not suggested family would provide care." Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero , a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
RNZ News
14-07-2025
- Health
- RNZ News
Student nurses and midwives on workload, financial pressure
Australia has just introduced a payment for eligible students doing unpaid placements, including nursing, midwifery, teaching and social work. Photo: 123RF Student nurses and midwives say they are taking on the same workload as qualified staff in order to fill gaps in the sector, and they are doing it all for free. It comes as nurses, midwives and other healthcare staff around the country prepare to take strike action over what they say is a failure by Health NZ to address their staffing concerns. Australia has just introduced a payment for eligible students doing unpaid placements, including nursing, midwifery, teaching and social work. The latest New Zealand Nurses Organisation student survey found finances were a significant issue for over 80 percent of respondents, along with 60 percent who said they had to significantly reduce their paid work hours during placement. Many students said a similar system should be introduced here to support them through their studies. Maisy Holzer is in the second year of her midwifery degree at Ara Institute of Canterbury. She said the three year degree has four years worth of content squeezed into it, making for a busy load of hands-on work placements, assignments and tests. By this point, over 20 percent of her cohort has either taken a break from the course or dropped out. "It's quite tricky, we have assignments that go through the entire year, for example I'm working a 42 hour week on placement next week and I've got a 2000 word assignment due the monday after. So it's tricky to find that balance, for sure." Over the three years midwifery students must complete 2400 hours of practical placements, or 54 weeks full time. In her first year of study Holzer managed to occasionally work a casual job to bring in a little extra cash on top of her student allowance. But she said between the workload, mental load and placements she had to quit, something that had made her already stretched budget even tighter. "Things like petrol, you're driving home after a night shift and going I don't get paid for a couple of days but my gas light's on am I gonna make it home in time? "Things like food, trying to make sure you're still eating well but it becomes trickier. If you've had a really busy week and you've had to pay for parking heaps. It becomes a real strain and you have to budget really really meticulously." Holzer said part of the degree requirement was a rural placement, most often completed out of the region, meaning the majority of students would have to relocate and self-fund their travel and accommodation fees, adding to the financial strain. Sana Ahmed is in her final year of a three year nursing degree at the University of Waikato. In six months, at just 20 years old, she would be a qualified nurse. But she said carrying the strain of full-time clinical placements, patient care, strict assignment deadlines and a weekend part-time job often made her feel like she was missing out on her twenties, rarely finding a moment for herself. "When I do like eight-hour shifts, that's expected from me each day, I come home, I'm so exhausted but I still have to open my laptop and finish on those assignments or prepare for assessments." As she reached the end of her degree, Ahmed was preparing for the final 10 week stretch of clinical placement. Unlike the previous 28 weeks, she had already completed, this time she'll be rostered anytime between Monday and Sunday, including late nights, leaving no time for her part-time job. "I knew nursing would be intense, I knew it required a lot, but I didn't expect it to be this difficult... people say it's a tough degree but I didn't realise how much we were expected to carry without proper support. "I thought there would be more financial support, or at least some form of compensation during the placement." Ahmed said by the time she reached her second year of study she already felt like she was taking on the same workload and pressures as a fully trained nurse. "We're expected to arrive on time, we're expected to attend those meetings early in the morning in each ward, we're expected to do handovers, we're expected to take over the patient load, so pretty much we're doing what is expected of the nurses." Organiser of Paid Placements Aoteroa Bex Howells delivered a petition to parliament in May last year calling for a stipend for all students undertaking unpaid placements. And despite the petition gathering more than 16,000 signatures, she said they were no closer to a solution. "[The government] acknowledges that we have a workforce shortage and we need to do something about it, they need to support people into these professions and that Australia has recently introduced paid training, and that the European Union has voted to ban unpaid placements on the grounds that they're exploitative. "But [the government] is not going to do anything about this because it's not an immediate solution to staffing crisis that have been decades in the making." NZ Nurses Organisation Kaiwhakahaere Kerri Nuku said there were still significant deficits in the nursing workforce numbers which contributed to the demand on students. "It's a bigger systemic problem, many schools of nursing are trying to ensure clinical placements for students don't encounter those types of pressures, but it's really difficult to achieve that when the system itself is clogged up, under pressure and overloaded." Checkpoint has approached Health NZ Te Whatu Ora for comment. Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero , a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
RNZ News
10-07-2025
- Health
- RNZ News
Watch live: Focus turns to vaccines and mandates at Covid-19 Royal Commission
[livestream] Vaccine safety and mandates will come into focus as the Royal Commission of Inquiry into the government's Covid-19 response enters its fifth day. We will be livestreaming the day's hearings at the top of this page. Friday's evidence will include testimonies from mandated industries, nursing and midwifery sectors and researchers. Hato Hone St John, Autism New Zealand, New Zealand College of Midwives, New Zealand Nurses Organisation, University of Canterbury, University of Auckland, Auckland University of Technology and Hospitality New Zealand are among those speaking. It comes after a tense fourth day of hearings , with critics describing what they called red-flags in the vaccine roll-out and mandates. More hearings are also expected to be held in Wellington next month. Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero , a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
RNZ News
08-07-2025
- Health
- RNZ News
Waitākere nurse finished shift with fractured ankle because there was no one to cover her
Auckland nurses took strike action in December over pay and staffing. Photo: RNZ / Marika Khabazi A West Auckland district nurse who fractured her ankle at work had to finish her shift because there was nobody to cover for her. A group of about 16 Waitākere district nurses have written to the CEO of Health New Zealand (HNZ) - asking the agency to urgently fix the severe short-staffing on their team, which they say has put "unacceptable strain" on staff and patients. Some nurses said they have had to delay their own health procedures due to the difficulty of getting leave. District nurses provide specialised care - such as wound care and palliative care - at people's homes or in a clinic, and there are currently 20 full-time-equivalent (FTE) staff on the Waitākere district nursing team, HNZ confirmed. The letter said the team is routinely operating with two to three fewer registered nurses than required , and FTE allocation has not kept up with the pace of West Auckland's growing population and the increasing patient complexity. The nurses also raised concern that vacancies having to be approved by higher management is slowing down recruitment - to which HNZ had no comment, when asked about the criticism. On the day RNZ spoke to Waitākere district nurse Rose Maber, she said they had six nurses on the road and over 80 patients that needed to be seen in the community. Maber, speaking in her capacity as a NZ Nurses Organisation union delegate, said that was half the number of nurses needed for safe staffing, and barely enough time for driving between locations, providing care and finishing paperwork. "People are at breaking point ... we're here because we're passionate about what we do in providing quality of care, and we just don't have the time to do it," she said. "The more complex assessments are needing to be put off, they're often scheduled but then come the day, and the lack of staff [means] we're unable to do them, so that can delay healing time," she added. Nurses were concerned about the impact on patients, such as compromised wound care, and patients who were waiting longer for catheter changes and were at a higher risk of getting infections. Maber said it felt like the number of district nurses roles allocated to her area had not increased over the past 10 years, and she wanted to see a review of the service which took into account the increase in the number of referrals. She said often the afternoon clinics would get cancelled due to short staffing. Another Waitākere district nurse, who did not want to be named, said when she fractured her ankle on the job, she continued to work until the end of her clinic shift due to the lack of cover. "Sat down for most of my duty, and used my other foot that I could use to push me across the room to get dressings off the shelf, and back to the laptop to have a look and write my notes, and skated on the chair to the door to call the next patient in, it was a very long duty, because of the pain," she said. The nurse said she stayed to work because she did not want to let the team down. Like her, Maber also delayed much needed hip reconstruction surgery, saying that work demands were the main factor. "You feel like you can't have six weeks off work, because you just feel like you're gonna make it harder for your colleagues, and that's definitely been a deciding factor for me as to why I've put it off and put it off," she said. Others on the team have also raised the challenges of getting leave - a nurse said in her statement in the letter that she needed to take two weeks off for elective surgery but was told that it would be "difficult". HNZ group director of operations for Waitematā Brad Healey said in a statement the agency did not have a record of staff being injured at work and not being able to access appropriate treatment due to workloads. "This would certainly not be an approach we would expect of our staff," said Healey. Healey said annual leave is proactively managed, and there was a limit on how many staff could be on leave at the same time. He said he was aware that district nursing teams in Waitematā were stretched due to recent resignations and an increase in the complexity of the patients. Healey said HNZ was recruiting for the vacant roles and three nurses have accepted offers and will be joining the Waitākere team over the next two months. However the nurse who did not want to be named said she was not convinced that would solve the problem. "In two months, a lot of us will have burned out, and in two months, there would possibly be more resignations," she said. The nurse said she was "heartbroken" by the work conditions. She said a recent medical appointment she attended as a patient was "confronting" for her, as she compared herself to the caring nurses who cared for her. "The people that I was dealt with were just wonderful in caring and compassionate, and I just looked at them and I felt I had none of this left ... and that, as a result of how we are pushed to get as many people through as we can," she said. Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero , a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
RNZ News
30-05-2025
- Business
- RNZ News
Christchurch protesters confront Finance Minister Nicola Willis over pay equity
Protesters outside Addington Raceway, where Finance Minister Nicola Willis addressed business leaders. Photo: Nathan McKinnon/RNZ Protesters have rallied against the government's pay-equity legislation at a post-budget business lunch featuring Finance Minister Nicola Willis in Christchurch. About 50 people chanted, waved banners and flags, and yelled through megaphones, as Willis entered the Addington Raceway event centre to speak to Canterbury business leaders. Public Service Association delegate and library worker Sioniann Byrnes, who was on parental leave, said the changes were an attack on the working class. "The library assistant pay equity claim was one of the 33 that was basically stopped in it's tracks," she said. "I think what they've done is shafted a whole lot of people, who've done a lot of robust work to try and fix pay and equity that has been going on for a long time. Protesters make their voices heard. Photo: Nathan McKinnon/RNZ "I think it is frankly disgusting." Byrnes hoped her four-month-old daughter, whom she was holding at the time, would not have to deal with the issue of pay equity in future. E tū delegate Keri Makiri was concerned about the effect of the legislation on partner, two taimaiti (children) and four mokopuna (grandchildren). "The changes are absolutely diabolical and rip the hearts out of lower-paid workers," he said. New Zealand Nurses Organisation delegate and nurse Maree Vincent was rallying for not just the pay equity of nurses, but also for carers and support workers. "'We're back to square one," she said. "All we are asking is to be paid the same as our male counterparts in our jobs and the same as our nurses in our hospitals." Budget documents revealed the tightening of the pay-equity regime - passed under urgency in early May - would net the government $2.7 billion every year or $12.8 billion in total over the next four years. The pay-equity changes meant workers would face a higher threshold to prove they were underpaid , because of sex discrimination. Finance Minister Nicola Willis addresses Christchurch business leaders. Photo: Nathan McKinnon/RNZ Inside, Willis told the audience that the savings were significant. "The government remains committed to the concept of pay equity and, in fact, New Zealand continues to have a legislated, workable pay-equity regime for the raising of pay-equity claims and for the settlement of those claims. "The government itself continues to have funding put aside to settle claims we anticipate will come through in the future." Willis said the pay-equity regime had departed from addressing sex-based discrimination into issues that could be dealt with in normal bargaining rounds. "Without teaching you to suck eggs, pay equity is different from equal pay. Equal pay is that you and you, if you do the same job, should be paid the same amount. "That concept is protected in law and must always be." Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero , a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
