Joining the picket line
Striking is not an easy decision to make, Taranaki nurses say.
More than 100 nurses from New Plymouth took part in the nationwide 24-hour strike yesterday, with some heading straight to the picket line after finishing work at 7am.
The nurses stood on the corner of Waimea and Tukapa streets chanting with signs and banners raised.
Meanwhile, the Taranaki District Health Board’s hospitals were operating only essential services and had prepared for the strike by closing services, rescheduling non-urgent and elective surgeries and clearing as many patients as possible from the hospitals, chief executive Rosemary Clements said.
NZNO delegate Jennie Rae said nurses did not take the action lightly and one-third of the workforce was still working so that life-preserving support could be offered. ‘‘Things need to get fixed and they need to get fixed quickly,’’ she said.
Fellow delegate Wendy Alexander agreed, saying going on strike was a difficult decision. However, she said action needed to be taken as every day the hospital wards were short staffed.
‘‘There’s a lot of tired, rundown nurses on the picket line today. A lot of nurses who finished at 7am have been here till 10am just to show support.’’
Rae said nurses were looking for a commitment to better staffing and a quicker response from the Government.
‘‘They’ve promised 500 nurses as an immediate response but 500 nurses across the country is a drop in the bucket,’’ Rae said.
‘‘We want a better commitment for safer staffing for our hospitals.
‘‘We need to care about ourselves so we can care about patients.’’
Nurses voted to reject the latest DHB offer earlier this week. That deal raised the job’s base salary from $49,449 to $50,932.
Pay increases would occur yearly from there, taking staff to $67,000 after five years. Moving into management would see pay increase further. Under the rejected deal, there would be an added step and a new top base salary of $77,386.
Rae said she was unsure of the next step for nurses but hoped the issues could be resolved quickly.
Clements said the strike had made things challenging for the DHB, which employs 900 nurses.
She said hospitals in Ha¯ wera and New Plymouth were only operating essential services and patient safety remained the top priority. Many services had been closed and non-urgent patient appointments and elective surgeries had been rescheduled in preparation, she said. Services would resume as normal at 7am today.
Hannah* became a nurse thinking she would change the world by helping people – but instead a patient spat in her face on her first day.
It was a sign of things to come. Later, a vicious assault led to her leaving mental health nursing for a safer option.
She’s not alone in suffering physical abuse at work.
Data obtained through the Official Information Act (OIA) shows that over the last five years hospital staff around New Zealand have been punched, scratched, headbutted, had coffee thrown in their face, been hit with a slabs of concrete, had fingers bent back, been slashed with razors, and assaulted while their mouth was covered so they couldn’t call for help.
Until recently Hannah, who spoke on condition of anonymity due to fear of repercussions, worked in a mental health ward where she said abuse by patients was the norm and often happened multiple times a day.
‘‘It’s really hard because of the area of mental health nursing and what you would normally class as abuse is a really blurred line.
‘‘If you land a blow, you land a blow, it’s not really classed as assault.’’
From the outset, she knew what her job would be like and wanted to do it anyway.
‘‘I wasn’t hidden from the reality of mental health nursing during my transition and that didn’t scare me off, I was like ‘ok if this is what it is, yep.’
However, a serious assault ultimately led Hannah to leave mental health and move into a different area of nursing.
When walking in to the hospital to start work, a patient trying to get out charged at her.
‘‘I made the decision to put my body in the way of the door to close it behind me instead of letting her out.
‘‘My head was down looking at the handle and I just remember this pain in the side of my head and she had punched me.
‘‘My colleague stood in between us because she fixated on me because I was the one who closed the door.
She did land a few kicks and they really hurt because she had these massive high heel boots on.’’
Her manager soon sent her home after apologising for the incident.
‘‘Considering recent assaults we’d had on the ward, the DHB handled it very well.’’
The patient was readmitted to the ward the very next day – Hannah had been told she wouldn’t be.
When she confronted managers and doctors she was told the patient’s health came before hers.
The incident was reported to the police who said the same thing.
‘‘It was very disempowering,’’ she said.
Danni Wilkinson also left her paediatrics nursing position after 15 years to teach nursing.
‘‘The focus on appearing right rather than doing right was a big thing. It’s endemic throughout the healthcare profession.
‘‘Managers don’t want to address the issue and they don’t want us talking about the issue because they don’t want the general public knowing they’re not treating their staff properly.’’
Nurses currently start on $49,449, the same as a bank teller. Under the most recent deal from the DHBs, nurses’ base salary would increase to $50,932. However, through an online vote nurses rejected the offer, and at 7am yesterday they went on strike.
The rejected offer included $38 million in funding for DHBs to hire about 500 new nurses.
‘‘The staffing issue is a big one, that’s one of our campaign points at the moment so nurses are able to take their breaks and finish work on time and care for patients adequately. I feel like we shouldn’t have to be campaigning for it, it should be a given,’’ Wilkinson said.
Assaults to hospital staff by patients were rising in more than half the DHBs across the country, OIA information showed.
Chair of the New Zealand Medical Association Dr Kate Baddock said any workplace violence was a cause for concern.
‘‘Especially so when there are vulnerable patients and staff caring for them.’’
* Name has been changed