Registered Nurse – Tapuhi Whai Rēhitatanga
“My advice to anyone interested in nursing would be that it’s a great career! I have never been out of work in this career. So, if you want that kind of peace of mind it’s great! and you get paid well – so I encourage people do it.”- Marlene Proctor,Anaesthetic Technician/ Registered Nurse
“If someone was interested in this career, I’d say definitely give it a go. It’s massive, and you can branch into all sorts of things, and you definitely get some awesome stories! And the camaraderie you form through seeing, true tragedy and true miracles as well.”
– Nathan Tuuta, Emergency Department Nurse
About the Career
Nurses are very important in the care of unwell people, young and old. They support families and communities to stay well and live healthy lives. Nurses work in many different places such as schools, Marae, hospitals and often assist in surgery.
Nurses are the largest group of health workers and work at almost every community and health care centre in New Zealand.
New Zealand trained nurses continue to be in demand and there are lots of nursing jobs available, both in New Zealand and overseas.
Nurses can travel anywhere in the world with their nursing degree as the demand for health care professionals is endless.
Once trained and experienced nursing provides many opportunities to work in different areas, including the community, mental health, surgical and medical, emergency, intensive care, paediatrics, and older people.
Personal qualities you need
• to be patient and care about people from all cultures and backgrounds
• to have strong empathy and compassion and be able to work well with all people
• to remain calm under pressure and in emergencies
• to be a problem solver and able to make good decisions
• be good at managing time and keeping things confidential
• an understanding of other cultures’ attitudes to medical treatment.
Career Pathway
There are registered nurses and enrolled nurses. Registered nurses assess, treat and support people who are sick, disabled or injured, in hospitals, clinics, rest homes, and nursing homes. Enrolled nurses care for patients while a registered nurse or nurse practitioner supervises them.
There’s some great information available now about Nursing careers and pathways. Find out more about a career in Nursing here: https://realnurses.co.nz/
https://realnurses.co.nz/maori-and-pacific-community-health/
Find out about being a Registered Nurse here https://www.careers.govt.nz/jobs-database/health-and-community/health/registered-nurse/
Nurses who complete the 3-year nursing training at a tertiary education centre must obtain a “Practicing Certificate” through the Nursing Council which ensures nurses have up-to-date knowledge and practical experience to practice.
Nursing Roles
Once trained and experienced nursing provides many opportunities to work in different areas, including the community, mental health, surgical and medical, emergency, intensive care, paediatrics, and older people.
Tamariki Ora: Nurses care for children aged 0 to 5 years.
Nurse Educators: educating individuals, whanau/families and advise groups on how to prevent or control certain conditions such as diabetes, cardiovascular disease and asthma. educating individuals, whanau/families and advise groups on how to prevent or control certain conditions such as diabetes, cardiovascular disease and asthma.
Disease State Management Nurses: are specially trained to work with people to manage chronic (on-going) diseases such as diabetes, heart disease and asthma.
Hospital nurses: work in emergency departments, operating theatres, intensive care units and hospital wards, providing complex care for a huge range of medical conditions for people of all ages.
District nurses: (also known as Community Nurse) provide nursing care and treatment to patients in their homes. They assess the needs of the patient and liaise with hospital doctors, general practitioners (GP’s) and community groups who provide patient support.
Public Health nurse: use their nursing expertise alongside their wider knowledge of communities to promote health and wellbeing. Health assessments and disease prevention activities are also part of the public health nurse role.
Primary Health Care nurses: work in areas like child health (eg. Plunket nurse), youth health (eg. school nurse), Maori health, Pacific health, mental health and general health (e.g. a practice nurse based in a general practice).
Nurse Practitioner / Nurse Specialists: have considerable experience combined with additional tertiary qualifications. These nurses have developed an expert practice in a particular field and can run their own nurse-led clinics and have limited rights to prescribe medications.
Elderly Care Nurse Nurses: that work in the comminity with the elderly. Can be based in many settings such as rest homes and in home support.
Palliative Care Nurse Nurses: care for those individuals who are dying. These nurses try to make the last days/weeks/months of somebodies life as comfortable as possible. Once again can be based at Hospice or in a home setting.
Mental Health Nurse: provide treatment, care and support for clients with moderate to severe emotional, and psychological problems.
Vaccinator: The regular Vaccination workforce includes general practitioners, nurses, and pharmacists.
As a COVID-19 Vaccinator you administer the COVID-19 vaccine under the supervision and direction of an experienced, qualified health professional in an approved vaccination site.
Our Whānau Career Story
Marlene Proctor, Anaesthetic Technician/ Registered Nurse
Where do I work and what do I do?
Anaesthetic Technician for Anaestech Ltd moving around all hospital Operating theatres, depending on where the need is greater/ Registered Nurse for Taranaki Base Hospital
What was my career pathway to get where I am / and what led me to this?
How I got into nursing was…I stumbled into it! It wasn’t my first choice, I wanted to fix cars! But I got declined from mechanics. That was the time when mechanics were boys and nurses were girls. When I think of it, it was so sexist back then – at the interviews they asked me things like “do you know you’ll get your hands dirty?”
So, that’s how I got into it. I was in my late teens, and I was in my early 20s when I graduated. Then after being a nurse for a few years, I retrained in anaesthetics. Now that is my main role and I also do a secondary casual role as a nurse in ED.
“My why” for doing this job and making a difference for Māori
In terms of what needs to change in the health sector for Māori in particular, I think we’re making good inroads, there has been a lot of change in the right direction.
A lot of cultural awareness is just about respect! I appreciate the little things like when people have a go at pronunciation, and being aware of things that are very important, for example, like not bringing food into places where it should not be. The culture in general is changing in the hospital system, I see it mainly between nurses and doctors – it has changed so much! So I think if we carry on being aware of each other, being aware of each other’s culture and being okay with it, we’ll get there.
My advice to anyone interested in Nursing would be that it’s a great career! During the unsettledness of the world, we haven’t had the problems like others in the community have had – such as no food, no money, no housing – as I have never been out of work in this career. So, if you want that kind of guarantee and peace of mind, it’s great! And you get paid well – so yes, I would really encourage people to do it.
Prior to the pandemic, you could travel anywhere in the world and do anything you wanted.
Also, if you become complacent in one role, you just change your role. And you can do that really easily, within nursing with within the healthcare system.
Another great thing is you don’t have to go away to study now – you can actually study here. Training locals is great too because even if we go overseas, we are more inclined to want to return home and bring the resources and extra skill base we have back here. And when you’re young it’s really great socially! – my strongest friendships are those that I made in the early years of my nursing because the work is often stressful you build such strong relationships working together, that would be hard to build otherwise.
Nathan Tuuta, Emergency Department Nurse
Where do I work and what do I do?
Taranaki Base Hospital
What was my career pathway to get where I am / and what led me to this?
I didn’t really know what I wanted to do. I was at a boarding school in Hawke’s Bay. My mum was a nurse, and she was nursing in America at the time. So, when I finished high school, I applied to Teachers College, because that’s what all my mates did and I got accepted.
A week after leaving school, I flew up to the states where my parents were. After doing some labouring and stuff with my dad who is a carpenter, I said, “maybe I’ll get into carpentry instead” and Dad said “No, no, don’t do this, do what your mom’s doing. Because she makes good money and stays dry in the winter. She travels the world. And you’ll always have a job.” So, it was my dad that that sort of planted the seed and and then I said, “Yes.”
My sister was also at a sort of crossroads and didn’t really know what she was going to do either and she decided to do it as well. So, we started and trained together. We graduated 25 years ago and now younger people in our family are doing it too – my brother’s son is training and working at Auckland hospital currently. That’s pretty cool. Having three generations of a family in the healthcare system!
“My why” for doing this job and making a difference for Māori
In regard to changing the health system to work better for Māori, there’s so much you can do, but I think doing little subtle changes will have more of an impact than trying to bring in really dramatic changes, if people aren’t receptive, smaller things can make a big impact. Like one of our nurses in particular, starts the shift with a karakia and is trying to normalise things like that. And we have pronunciation sessions – and I say I’m not trying to make you speak Māori, I am trying to teach you how to say Māori.”
If someone was interested in this career, I’d say definitely give it a go. It’s massive, and you can branch into all sorts of things, and you definitely get some awesome stories! And the camaraderie you form through seeing, true tragedy and true miracles as well. For the boys I say don’t be shy about doing it because I came from a boys’ boarding school. And when I told my friends I’m going to be a nurse, there was ribbing and stuff, but they were my biggest supporters once I got into it. It’s definitely it’s a life changing career. You look at the world differently and you appreciate things so much more. If you’ve had a terrible shift and you see some terrible things you come home, and you just realise those little stresses that affect you are not so important.
