2004 for New Zealanders: Tracey Cooper

Tracey Cooper

Middlemore nurse Tracey Cooper is brimming with her usual optimism and energy, looking forward to the staff party. The image of nurses (and doctors) partying almost as hard as they work is not without foundation, but Cooper gently deflates preconceptions. "I won't be drinking - I'm driving."

She knows where she is going. The emergency department nurse is a delegate for the Nurses Union, which set out last year to achieve pay equity with police and teachers (a pay rise of more than 20 per cent) and unify conditions under a national contract.

In late May, when the Weekend Herald interviewed her in the understaffed emergency department, there was talk of a bitter strike mid-winter, when hospitals are most vulnerable.

There was no strike - and the contract was finally settled just in time for Christmas.

"Unfortunately, it went on a lot longer than anyone thought," says Cooper. "But trying to combine contracts from 27 different health boards takes time.

"The hardest part of being a union delegate is dealing with queries from colleagues who don't understand the negotiation process, or when you don't have the information."

In May, emergency department patients were often laid-up in beds in the corridors and the unit was down 15 staff. On the morning the Herald visited, the 10 monitoring and resuscitation beds were full of car crash victims and cardiac patients, equipment was missing and the waiting room was filling up fast.

With frantic workloads and a starting rate of $16 an hour after three years' tertiary study, the profession was struggling to attract new recruits.

The "catch-up" pay settlement may do something to stem the flow of experienced nurses overseas and interest school leavers.

Otherwise, she says, it's been a good year. High patient loads continued through the winter but eased late in the year "which is quite nice, really". And talks with hospital management to improve staff levels and resourcing made headway.

"Yesterday was a bad day. It was completely full and we had patients back in the corridor. Assessment wasn't 100 per cent full but was still buzzing."

A new unit manager means nurses can take a more proactive role, ushering in new work practices to improve patient flows. Last month, Cooper and several nurses joined consultants at an Australasian College of Emergency Medicine conference in Adelaide, where they found patient overload was an emergency department phenomenon worldwide.

"We are definitely not alone. We found we're doing as well as anybody else to improve patient flow.

"Some of the systems we have introduced, others we are just beginning to look at."

Away from work, Cooper's life is as busy as her 12-hour shifts. She lives in Weymouth with husband Tony, black labrador Max and bull mastiff pup Kodi.

Tony's a builder and she does the admin in her spare time. "We have done some spec building and we'll probably do some more. Our aim is to get a 15ha block within driving distance of Middlemore so I can continue working three days a week."

She plans to produce free range eggs on their rural plot, using organic principles.

"There's a good market for it if it's done properly. The whole world's going away from battery hens."

The couple are saving for an overseas trip, either this year or next, which Cooper sees as unfinished business.

"Tony's done his OE. I went to Australia and spent far too much money instead, taking my degree and working three jobs."

A more immediate priority, however, is to replace her 11-year-old Mitsubishi which is "dying very quickly".

Backpay from the nurses' settlement will help.