New Zealand Nurses Organisation members arrive by double-decker bus to attend one of 57 stopwork meetings being held across the country. Photo / Bevan Conley
New Zealand Nurses Organisation members arrive by double-decker bus to attend one of 57 stopwork meetings being held across the country. Photo / Bevan Conley
A Whanganui nurse says Te Whatu Ora - Health New Zealand is offering nurses a “pay cut”, with nurses leaving patients for two hours on Tuesday to attend a stop work meeting.
Whanganui nurses travelled to the Wanganui Racecourse in a double-decker bus for their meeting, one of 57 taking place around the country to consider Te Whatu Ora’s latest pay offer.
New Zealand Nurses Organisation (NZNO) members had asked for a pay offer that would match inflation.
But Te Whatu Ora’s offer of a $4000 pay rise this year that would be followed by either 3 per cent next year or $2000, whichever was higher, fell short of NZNO members’ request.
Whanganui clinical nurse educator and NZNO delegate Maura Skilton said the current staffing and pay situation was unacceptable.
“In other jobs, you don’t clean up people’s wee, poo and vomit or have to work night shifts and get hit, kicked and spat at by angry patients,” Skilton said.
“You don’t have to deal with drunk and high people or angry families.”
NZNO member Maura Skilton says unsafe staffing ratios for nurses could lead to mistakes in caring for a patient. Photo / Bevan Conley
Skilton said unsafe staffing levels led to care being rationed for patients.
“You’re at risk of making drug errors because you’re in a rush and don’t do all of the checks properly, or there’s an increased risk of patients falling over because you’ve gone to look after someone else.
“Patients don’t get turned in bed, so they develop pressure injuries and don’t get mobilised to walk around, which can lead to blood clots.”
Although Skilton had 40 years of nursing experience and a Master’s degree in nursing, she was being paid $35,000 less than her daughter, who held a commerce degree and had 10 years’ work experience.
“Apprentices get paid when they’re on the tools but nursing students don’t get paid for their training at clinical placements.
“We cannot expect young men and women to take up nursing when they can have a far easier job earning far better money elsewhere.”
Skilton said it was scary for nurses to walk away from their patients and wonder who was going to look after them for the next two hours.
NZNO delegate Carmel Scott said currently inflation was at 6.7 per cent and nurses were being offered a pay increase of 3 per cent.
“If we accept less than the cost of living, we are essentially taking a pay cut.”
NZNO delegate Carmel Scott says the latest offer from Te Whatu Ora is essentially a "pay cut". Photo / Bevan Conley
Scott said Queensland was a great example of safe staffing levels as their legislated ratio was one nurse to four patients in the day and one nurse to seven patients for night shifts.
“We need to attract new people to nursing and the best way to do that is to pay appropriately and make sure it’s a safe environment, [or] else we’ll keep losing staff to Australia.”
