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Pay offer to nurses - Expert reaction
Pay offer to nurses - Expert reaction
30 May
2018
In a bid to avoid a strike, district
health boards have offered nurses a series of three
pay rises over 15 months.
Before DHBs
announced the offer, hospital nurses and midwives had voted
in favour of a two-day strike. This remains possible, if
nurses reject the offer.
The Science Media Centre gathered expert reaction, please feel free to use these comments in your reporting. We may have further comments later in the day, which we will put on our website.
________________________________________
Professor Jenny Carryer, School of Nursing, Massey University comments:
"The recent nurse’s actions have
largely been captured as a concern about salary levels.
Undoubtedly there is a real need to value the work nurses do
more highly and at a level commensurate with other
occupations of similar qualification and
responsibility.
"Even more importantly there is need for a complete change in the way senior management view the nurses who work in their organisations. Thirty years of international research now proves the critical difference registered nurses make to patient safety, prevention of adverse events, length of stay and the prevention of readmission. Not to mention patients' comfort and well-being. There is considerable money to be saved by having adequate numbers of registered nurses who have the time to focus their skill and attention on an appropriate number of patients.
"Instead there is a constant drive to reduce nurse staffing to levels which mean nurses are under constant stress and making critical decisions in a sea of distraction, whilst trying to prioritise those actions which will ensure people are safe. Nursing must come to be seen as a resource rather than a cost to be pruned.
"There is even more at stake as raising the salaries of hospital employed nurses will further widen the gap between those nurses and the nurses who work in primary care and aged care. This is deeply unfortunate when both areas need intensive development if we are to ever reduce the pressures on hospitals.
"My sense from listening to nurses is that striking is deeply repellent and goes against everything nurses hold dear.
"However it is also true that nurses have never really been taken seriously and this has forced a situation of considering serious action."
No
conflict of
interest.
________________________________________
Dr
Helen Rook, Lecturer, Graduate School of Nursing, Midwifery
and Health, Victoria University of Wellington,
comments:
"Nurses are uniquely positioned to
meet global health needs. It is recognised that developing
and supporting nursing will improve global health, gender
equality and critically, support economic growth
(AllParty Parliamentary Group APPG on Global Health
(2016) The Triple Impact Report).
"Recent reports from the International Council of Nurses suggest that an urgent pay rise and improved working conditions for nurses globally will go some way to address that predicted shortage of nine million nurses by 2030. In New Zealand, in a business as usual scenario, it has been predicted that by 2035 there will a shortage of 15,000 nurses (Nursing Council of New Zealand).
"There is a profound dissonance between how nurses want to practice nursing and how they actually practice. Findings from my research suggest that nurses want to be present and give time to patients, but they are so busy with paperwork, and meeting targets that can’t, and not being able to causes nurses distress.
"Nurses are burnout, exhausted, anxious and morally distressed. If DHBs and Government are serious about addressing nurses concerns then they must address both pay and conditions, which includes the wider culture of healthcare."
No conflict of interest.
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