A long journey well worth making
Nursing has been Kaitaia woman Alison Danielson’s life’s work, and it’s been a long journey.
She began her career as a school leaver, completing her enrolled nurse training at Whangarei Hospital in 1985. She left to have her family, then returned in 2001, at Kaitaia Hospital, while undertaking the three-year Bachelor of Health degree for Registered Nursing.
She worked part-time, studied full-time, and raised three children alone, with the help of her parents.
In 2005 she began working for Kaitaia Maternity Services, and still does, parttime. The following year she joined Dr Cecil Williams at Far North Family Health as a practice nurse. The practice was bought by Te Hiku Hauora in 2009, but she is still there.
In 2008 Ms Danielsen completed her first post-graduate paper (in chronic care and long-term conditions), via Auckland University, followed by two more (diabetes and bioscience) in 2015, and in 2016 she began her Master’s (with papers in advanced assessment and clinic reasoning, pharmacotherapeutics).
Last year she was accepted for the nurse practitioner training programme, with partial funding for nurse practitioner practicums, and compiled her portfolio in preparation for applying to the Nursing Council to register as a nurse practitioner.
This year she has worked two days a week as a nurse practitioner intern, under the supervision of her mentor, GP and medical director of Te Hiku Hauora, Dr Norma Nehren, and in February she travelled to Auckland for an interview and assessment with the Nursing Council of New Zealand — and passed.
“According to the Ministry of Health, ‘Nurse practitioners are highly skilled autonomous health practitioners who have advanced education, clinical training and demonstrated competency. They have the legal authority to practice beyond the level of a registered nurse. Nurse practitioners combine their advanced nursing knowledge and skills with diagnostic reasoning and therapeutic knowledge,” Ms Danielsen said.
“‘They provide care for people with both common and complex conditions. Nurse practitioners make diagnoses and differential diagnoses, and order and interpret diagnostic and laboratory tests. They prescribe medicines within their area of competence, with the same authority as medical practitioners.’
“The Nursing Council describes nurse practitioners as working autonomously and in collaborative teams with other health professionals to promote health, prevent disease, and improve access and population health outcomes for a specific patient group or community. They manage episodes of care as the lead healthcare provider in partnership with health consumers and their families/wha¯nau.
“For me, becoming a nurse practitioner is a huge achievement and a great responsibility, one I will not take lightly,” she added.
“I will be able to work more autonomously seeing patients, which will improve access to care for our patient population, as I continue to work alongside and in collaboration with my colleague GPs and nurses to provide safe and effective nursing care.”
She was grateful for the support she had received from practice manager Cheryl Britton, Dr Nehren, her colleagues, whanau and friends, and her original “study buddy” Wendy Lunjevich, practice nurse at Top Health.
She was Northland’s practice nurse #15 (the DHB’s 2020 goal), and one of about 300 around the country.