BEING IN Suva for three days attending the FNA symposium and AGM highlighted for me and kaiwhakahaere Kerri Nuku the strong ties between nurses in the two countries. The visit also enabled shared learning.
Auckland-based Pacific nursing leader Fuimaono Karl Pulotu-Enderman opened the symposium as the first keynote speaker. The closing speaker was Abel Smith, a former member of the FNA executive who now holds many nursing leadership roles in New Zealand. He is treasurer of NZNO’s Pacific nursing section.
In between, there were presentations from Auckland University researcher Ofa Dewes, from Waitematâ District Health Board’s health science academies programme coordinator Malcolm Andrews, and from two other New Zealand-based nurses, Simione Tagicakbau and Vunirewa Uluilakeba.
It was the first time that elected NZNO leaders had been invited to open the AGM. Participation as FNA’s chief guests was a great honour. The experience showed me the many similarities between our two countries, but also some differences.
NZNO can only aspire to the kind of relationship with the Ministry of Health that exists between the FNA and the Fijian Ministry of Health and Medical Services. The chief nursing and midwifery officer, Silina Waqa-Ledua, responded on behalf of the ministry to many questions and comments from delegates.
“There are many commonalities,” Nuku said. “Fijian nurses are also grappling with health underfunding, the growing burden of non-communicable diseases, poverty, climate change and the dangers of privatisation.
“But only more recently have they begun to seriously consider cultural safety, in the context of increasing numbers of internationally qualified nurses being employed in foreign-owned private hospitals,” she said.
Around 300 nurses attended the events, over the three days. My opening address to the AGM, ‘Walking together in solidarity and Pacific friendship’, is available online: https://nznogrant.org/2018/04/29/walking-together-in-solidarity-pacific-friendship-speech-to-fijian-nursing-association-agm/ •
Report by NZNO president Grant Brookes
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