King endorses nursing contribution to patient safety
Health Minister Annette King says the importance of the contribution nurses make to the quality and safety of health
care cannot be overstated.
Commenting on today’s New Zealand Nurses Organisation patient safety conference in Wellington, Ms King said: "We have
more than 35,000 nurses working in the health sector in New Zealand, by far the biggest single group of health
professionals.
“I am delighted that New Zealand nurses organisations and the Ministry of Health are working together to look at how
nurses can work most effectively to ensure patient safety is paramount."
Ms King said she understood the conference would be discussing international research that had shown that patient safety
was closely related to characteristics of nursing services in hospitals.
"One particularly important part of the conference will be the chance to hear Dr Linda Aiken, director of the Centre of
Health at Pennsylvania University. Her research, carried out in six countries, including New Zealand, concerns the
impact of hospital processes and characteristics on patient outcomes.”
Dr Aiken, in New Zealand until Friday, will be meeting with various nursing groups, District Health Board nursing staff
and executives.
Ms King said the Government was committed to enabling nurses to work effectively in the health sector, and to improving
hospital processes to ensure patient safety.
"We now have nurse practitioners, we have paved the way for nurse prescribing, and we're in the process of selecting and
funding innovative models of primary health care nursing. We are also providing scholarships to primary health care
nurses for postgraduate study.
"There is obviously a big role for nurses in terms of improving access to primary health care for New Zealanders, but
the Government is also committed to ensuring the quality and safety of care in our hospitals.”