Nursing not what it was

The debate over public sector pay has much to teach the public servants and MPs responsible for the current conditions of nursing employment.

The formation of CHEs and DHBs in a medical model with no appreciation of the dimensions of health and wellness, which includes treatment and illness, has resulted in the lack of understanding that nursing is more than a technical role. Thirty years ago nurses, teachers and police had a common wage rate and were considered essential services. Numbers in each area were planned at least 5 years ahead, allowing for birth and immigration rates. This stopped in the 1990s when NZ also started to forget how important public health preventive strategies in child and family health were.

The Department of Heath had been staffed by people who knew what different communities within this country operated. The ministry which replaced it made no secret that it existed only to assist the minister and worked in a silo rather than looking at the wider health dimensions. Like other ministries it now employs many consultants, paid much higher than the amount required to reestablish equity for nurses which was present last century.

As a nurse with 11 nurses in three generations of my family I will actively discourage any of my grandchildren from going nursing if their health and safety conditions are considered less important than a bridge for bicycles.

Ann Shaw, Palmerston North