A tale of two nurses Nationwide 24-hour strike starts today
One will be on the picket line, one will be with her patients, but both Christchurch nurses are adamant: things need to change.
Nurses throughout the country will rally outside hospitals and on the streets from 7am today for the first nationwide nurses’ strike since 1989.
By any measure, the disruption will be huge. But after protracted bargaining and four rejected offers, many nurses insist industrial action is necessary to produce an offer that better addresses their concerns over pay and staffing levels.
Laura Dibben, an enrolled nurse at Hillmorton Hospital, said staffing concerns, not money, was her primary motivation in rejecting the latest pay offer. She had been assaulted a number of times on the job, and felt more nurses were needed to make the profession safer for both staff and patients.
‘‘I feel like I’m a bad nurse if I say I’m keen on striking, but it’s needed.
‘‘I don’t think at the moment we’re able to give the care we are trained to give with the lack of staffing.’’
The New Zealand Nurses Organisation (NZNO) announced on Tuesday a majority of the roughly 30,000 nurses, midwives and healthcare assistants eligible to vote on the latest collective offer had rejected the deal.
It included $38 million in funding for DHBs to hire about 500 new nurses.
Registered nurse Noelani Collins also worked at Hillmorton but would not be striking. Instead, she had volunteered to work as part of an agreement between the NZNO and Canterbury DHB for the number of staff needed to maintain life preserving services.
Collins said she volunteered to support the strike and because she did not want to be away from her vulnerable patients.
Like Dibben, she was concerned about staffing levels, which she said was exacerbated by pay rates that failed to account for the study and training required to be a registered nurse.
‘‘A lot of us end up doing double shifts, or extensions, and those excessive hours really take a toll on our health. Other times we work short-staffed, and that has a major toll on the health of our patients.’’
The latest rejected offer from DHBs, a package worth roughly $520m, included a lump sum of up to $2000 and three 3 per cent pay rises for all occupation groups.
Every group would also have received further increases on the top step or new pay steps. For registered nurses, a new top bracket of $77,386 would have come into effect from August 2020.
A registered nurse at Christchurch Hospital, who asked to be referred to only as Charlotte, said pay rises of between 15 and 18 per cent were needed across the board over the two-year duration of the agreement.
‘‘Unless we stand up now nursing is going to left in such a pickle that the younger ones won’t come in,’’ she said.
‘‘I don’t think at the moment we’re able to give the care we are trained to give with the lack of staffing.’’ Laura Dibben, nurse
Charlotte said the promise of 500 extra nurses was a ‘‘drop in the bucket’’ when it was spread across 20 DHBs, and unless nurses were paid a ‘‘reasonable wage’’ no one would apply.
‘‘They won’t want to go and do nurse training and end up with a debt of between $30,000 and $40,000 to work sh..ty shifts and be exposed to all sorts of things.
‘‘You get hit, you get things thrown at you, you get puked on, you get spat on. You name it, it happens. We work unsociable hours, so it’s important that the whole career is remunerated properly to encourage people to come in.’’
Acting Prime Minister Winston Peters, reacting to the NZNO’s announcement on Tuesday, said the decision to reject an offer with the best pay increases in ‘‘14 long years’’ was ‘‘disappointing’’ and the Government had not been ‘‘kidding’’ when it said no more money was available.
Facilitation between the NZNO and DHBs, which took place on Tuesday afternoon and yesterday morning, failed to stop the strike, which has resulted in thousands of surgeries and appointments being postponed.
The Canterbury DHB alone postponed about 150 surgeries and 800 outpatient appointments. Emergency and acute services will still be available today, with the CDHB drawing on volunteers and a limited number of agency nurses to help plug the staffing shortfall.
Nurses will start gathering opposite Christchurch Hospital from 7am. A march through Hagley Park to the corner of Deans Ave and Riccarton Rd is planned for 10.30am, followed by more picketing.