Whakatāne Hospital’s new Nursing Resource team.
Left to right: Aimee Stewart, Irish Sablas, Louise Trott, and Morgan Webb. Absent Tania Spence and Ray Banting
and Health Care Assistants Sneh Lata and Maria Ngere.
New nursing resource team
By Julie Chapman, Whakatāne Hospital
Co-ordinator.
A Nursing Resource team NRT has been
established at Whakatāne Hospital to support
teams across the hospital in busy periods.
The team of six registered nurses and two health care assistants
will work across all acute areas of the hospital. They’ll be on site
ready to work in any ward where there’s a need.
For our Duty Nurse Managers the team is expected to really
improve responsiveness. This is a permanent team working
a range of rostered shifts designed to match periods of high
demand 24/7. Each shift, the NRT team will be directed by the
Duty Nurse Manager to support areas of highest need according
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to our Variance Response Management system. It is hoped that
as a result we will see a reduction in ward staff being called to
work extra shifts on days off, and requests for staff on duty to
work extended hours. Safe staffing and healthy workplaces should
be reflected in more green on our Hospital Status at a Glance
screens each day.
BOPDHB received additional funding of $1.915 million for nurses,
midwives and healthcare assistants from the NZNO MECA
negotiations this year. This was our portion of the additional
$38 million committed by the Director General of Health to
address workforce capacity issues. The Nurse Resource team at
Whakatāne Hospital has been partially funded from this money.
We are delighted to have this team on board and ask for your kind
support as the team familiarise themselves with staff.