Mental health nurse Trish McNair is one of the 2700 nurses from across the country who has shared confronting stories of working in a broken health system. Photo / Supplied
Mental health nurse Trish McNair is one of the 2700 nurses from across the country who has shared confronting stories of working in a broken health system. Photo / Supplied
Nurses working 15-hour shifts are being brought to tears, urgent surgeries are being delayed more than a week and patients are left not showered for days on end amid an "imploding health crisis".
Mental health nurse Trish McNair said she was seeing patients sitting in urine and faeces because there weren't enough experienced staff to manage that kind of problem.
"It's really scary, I'll be retiring soon with injuries that will never properly heal ... one old woman put her whole weight of my shoulder and ripped the muscle," she said.
"I go home totally exhausted and can't sleep, it absolutely affects my mental health."
McNair was one of the 2700 nurses from across the country who shared confronting examples of their daily struggle in a book presented to Health Minister Andrew Little on Wednesday.
Another nurse said: "Patients are suffering now. Falls and pressure injuries have increased alarmingly. Beds go unmade and patients not showered for days on end. Staff cry and work overtime, or just don't (can't) care anymore."
They said there was no joy or compassion, with patients waiting a week or more for urgent surgery and planned operations cancelled all the time, sometimes in theatre itself.
"It's embarrassing and heartbreaking to work in this health system, and I've been in it for 43 years."
New Zealand Nurses Organisation, Tōpūtanga Tapuhi Kaitiaki o Aotearoa (NZNO), gave its members the opportunity to respond to Little's persistent assertions there was no health crisis and that the system as a whole was coping.
Within two days, the union received 2700 responses.
NZNO kaiwhakahaere Kerri Nuku said people only had to read the news to see the system was actually on the brink of collapse, just as many health professionals were saying.
"Ninety-nine per cent of responding members said the system was either in crisis (70 per cent) or already beyond crisis (29 per cent)," Nuku said.
"My workplace is in dire straits! There are not enough nurses to cover shifts, resulting in compromises in patient care," one nurse wrote.
Another said: "I go home worried about what is happening after I have left and guilty when I can't pick up extra shifts or do more hours. My children are missing out on my being with them this school holidays and my husband gets a wife who is stressed and tearful at the end of a day."
Some of the messages were lengthy, and NZNO president Anne Daniels said the fact that so many went to such lengths to share their thoughts is significant.
"This isn't a temporary glitch; many are seeing it as the end of the road, with 72 per cent of respondents saying they are either seriously thinking of leaving nursing or New Zealand, or that they had already made plans to do so," Daniels said,
A plea from one nurse said: "I didn't enter nursing to do harm and I feel the NZ health system is doing more harm than good."
Another said: "It scares me that one day I or my colleagues feel that they may make a mistake and a patient gets injured/dies as a result."
The minister told the Herald he appreciated the opportunity to meet frontline nurses representing their colleagues and the constructive discussion that they had.
"They left me extensive material to read and I am in the process of doing so."
He said when he addressed boards of Health New Zealand and the Māori Health Authority on July 1, he made it clear workforce issues were the top priority and that recruiting to fill current vacancies was a matter of urgency.
"This Government has made it a priority to lift incomes for many in the health sector. It was my expectation that we would have concluded the pay equity process with hospital-employed nurses by now – an agreement-in-principle was reached in December."
Little said this Government was the first to prioritise pay equity and it remained committed to doing so.
"I expect HNZ [Health New Zealand] to be exploring all possible avenues to address system pressures so we have a health system that works better for patients and staff no matter where they live."
"Ward full, extreme staff shortages, ED full and seeing little babies as young as seven weeks old waiting [more than] >2 hours outside in tents for a bed in the department, or to be seen and an attempt at an exam made in the tent," one junior doctor working in paediatrics said in the survey.
A 50-year-old woman died from a brain bleed after being told there was a eight-hour wait at Middlemore Hospital. Photo / File
"I'm burnt-out and I've already been in tears ... the whole health system is falling to bits," medical director at Northcare Accident & Emergency Peter Boot said in June.
In June, a "healthy" 50-year-old women died with a brain bleed after allegedly being told by staff at Middlemore Hospital's ED there would be an eight-hour wait before she was examined, sparking an urgent review.
