‘Desperate’ Health System Putting Student Nurses At Risk

The New Zealand Nurses Organisation Tōpūtanga Tapuhi
Kaitiaki o Aotearoa (NZNO) says nursing shortages have
become so dire that Dunedin Hospital has called on nursing
students to do tasks normally done by qualified nurses,
placing the students at unacceptable risk. It wants to know
what the Government’s plan is to keep nursing staff safe
and to address the chronic shortage.

The students were
asked to do patient-watch work, in exchange for a $200
Countdown voucher, because the hospital said it was
‘desperate’ for help as chronic understaffing was
putting patient safety at significant risk. The students did
not receive orientation training to the promised level, and
one of the students was hit while working at the
hospital.

NZNO student representative Manu Reiri said
the students had little idea what the watch work involved,
and most were unlikely to have been in a hospital ward
before.

“They were supposed to be supervised by
registered nurses, which also placed employed staff at
increased risk as they would be responsible for whatever
mistakes were made under extremely busy and trying work
conditions.

“A hospital resorting to this, against its
own better judgement out of desperation, indicates just how
critical the situation is.

“Dunedin Hospital is the
employer responsible under the Health and Safety Act to
anticipate and mitigate the risks arising from chronic
staffing shortages, and the buck for that stops with the
Government.

“We’ve been asking the Government what
its plan is around safe staffing for more than a year, and
there has been nothing of substance offered to
date.”

Manu Reiri said the staffing crisis is
worsening every day and that it was clear another approach
is needed.

“We need to do things differently, and to
manage that we need to be consulting and working together to
ensure we are working on a plan to address understaffing in
both the short- and long-term. This is what the Health and
Safety Act requires and it is clearly not
happening.

“Incidents like this are likely to happen
again as desperation in the health system is everywhere.
Dunedin Hospital did this under the radar and without
working in accordance with the Health and Safety Act because
it just didn’t see any other option, and that is deeply
troubling.”

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