Primary Health Care Conference

Primary Health Care Conference

More than 200 primary health care nurses from around the country will attend a conference at Auckland’s Waipuna Conference Centre on Friday and Saturday (August 5-6). The conference will be opened by Health Minister Annette King.

The conference, organised by the country’s biggest nursing organisation, NZNO, and sponsored by the Ministry of Health, will take stock of progress since the implementation of the government’s Primary Health Care Strategy two years ago.

Primary health care includes district, Plunket, practice, public and school nurses, as well as all nurses who care for people in their homes and wider community.

Day one will showcase eight Ministry-funded nursing innovation pilot projects, aimed at better meeting the needs of people in the community and range from a youth health projects to the development of a whanau/family nurse; from innovations in health service delivery to new ways of delivering primary health care in an isolated rural area.

Day two will hear from an international primary nursing care expert, Sue Cross. Previously associate director of primary care nursing in a large National Health Service Trust in England, she is currently national project manager for the Department of Health’s Working in Partnership: General Practice Nursing Project. Cross is also a specialist in respiratory nursing, and will address the primary health care nurses about professional development; managing change in patients resistant to change; and inter-professional collaboration.

Concurrent conference sessions include Maori health services, chronic disease management, rural nursing, sexual and reproductive health, public health, health promotion and screening and immunisation.

Conference convenor and NZNO professional nursing adviser Susanne Trim, said the numbers attending showed the dedication of these nurses to clients and communities.

“Nurses are essential for the successful implementation of the government’s Primary Health Care Strategy. It is the work of nurses, with other health professionals, which will bring about an improvement in the health of our communities,” she said.

“Nurses are the front-line providers of primary care and want to give the best possible care to their communities. This conference will give them the ideas and inspiration to do so.”

ENDS

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