Two of the Otago Polytechnic student nurses called in to help at the chronically short-staffed Dunedin Hospital last month were asked to do a suicide watch on a patient.
On the weekend of July 23-24, staff vacancies, winter illness and Covid-19 restrictions meant Dunedin Hospital was so short of staff that a mixture of second and third-year students, as well as two enrolled nurses awaiting registration, were called in to work a total of 27 shifts.
Te Whatu Ora Health New Zealand — Southern (HNZS) said it was a one-off situation and the students were assisted by on-duty nurses and healthcare assistants.
The incident prompted National health spokesman Shane Reti to ask Health Minister Andrew Little several written parliamentary questions, which revealed that on July 24 two student nurses were on a night shift where one of the patients was on suicide watch.
Dr Reti said inexperienced nurses should not have been asked to do something as important as that.