Kia ora, koutou. Thank you for inviting Kaiwhakahaere Kerri Nuku and I to present at your Colleges and Sections Day. With only ten minutes allocated for both of us, please forgive me if I skip the introductions and get straight down to the topic at hand: “Colleges and Sections – Your Place in the NZNO World”.
As I was preparing for this talk, I thought I’d better check what it says about the topic in your own documentation. In the Colleges and Sections Handbook, I found this statement: “Colleges and sections are part of NZNO: they do not have a separate legal status.”
So it seemed to me that the topic is essentially about the relationship of this part – your part – to NZNO as a whole. And much like the relationship of an organ to a biological system, we can describe the relationship of part to whole in terms of structure, or function.
In other words, your place in the NZNO world can be described in terms of the “anatomy” of NZNO, or in terms of our “physiology”.
In terms of physiology or function, the purpose of NZNO activity is to pursue the goals in our Strategic Plan 2015-20.
These are:
• Improved health outcomes – by promoting excellence in patient care
• Skilled nurses – by contributing to, and advocating for the development of nursing education programmes and the ongoing professional development of members
• Strong workforce – by strengthening nursing workforce planning, sustainability and leadership
• Effective organisation – by ensuring NZNO is a healthy and sustainable organisation
You will all be very familiar with the Strategic Plan above. This year, as Acting Manager of Nursing and Professional Services Hilary Graham-Smith has just mentioned, the Strategic Plan 2015-20 has been supplemented by the NZNO Strategy for Nursing 2018-2023, which you will discuss in more detail after lunch.
Your role in this functioning of NZNO is vital. The Colleges and Sections Handbook says, “Colleges/sections are integral in realising the goals of the NZNO Strategic Plan 2015-20 and its professional vision for nurses.”
You do this by performing functions such as:
• Hosting educational conferences and publishing journals or newsletters. These contribute to the ongoing professional development of members and achievement of skilled nurses.
• Making formal submissions or providing input into NZNO’s national submissions, sometimes through responding to NZNO Consultation Requests. These can promote the excellence in patient care needed to achieve improved health outcomes.
• Representing NZNO on external committees or in the media (including specialty media such as Kai Tiaki, Nursing Review, NZ Doctor etc.).
• Building strategic relationships, scanning the environment and communicating emerging strategic issues to NZNO leadership. This helps achieve NZNO’s goal of being an effective organisation.
Your capacity to perform all these functions, as volunteers, has been the focus of the Board’s Volunteer Sustainability Project.
Switching now to the “anatomical” view, your place in the structure of NZNO is shown in the Structural Diagram: “Our Waka, Our Way”.
I will race through this presentation, which was given at last year’s AGM and at this year’s Regional Conventions, highlighting just a few points. The full powerpoint will be on the Membership Committee page of the NZNO website.
In the side view, the hull or riu of the waka is the membership.
In the top view, the staff are seated towards the stern and the various membership groups sit towards the bow. Your place is marked number six. Those sitting nearest to you indicate your direct relationships: these are Te Rūnanga (number seven), Regional Councils (number eight), and the Membership Committee (at number nine).
“The college and section link with the Board of Directors is through their representation on the membership committee”, says the Colleges and Sections Handbook.
Your next speaker is Victoria Santos, the current Colleges and Sections rep on the Membership Committee.
And then at the front of the waka are the National Hui and the AGM (at number 17), which takes place tomorrow.
Because Colleges and Sections do not have a separate legal status, you must comply with NZNO rules and policies. These are set and amended through remits to the NZNO AGM.
Colleges and Sections can have input into these rules and policies, and often do. A recent example is the 2017 remit from NZNO Nurse Managers New Zealand: “That the NZNO membership has the option to belong to up to three colleges or sections”, up from two. This remit was passed, and as at 31 March 2018 there were 109 members who had joined three Colleges or Sections.
It followed an earlier attempt in 2016, by the Cancer Nurses College, to allow members to join as many colleges or sections as they needed, to allow them to be professionally supported in their chosen fields or interests. This earlier attempt was unsuccessful, as the voting system is not based on “one member, one vote”, and multiple College or Section memberships would increasingly distort representation at AGM.
A number of other remits from Colleges and Sections have been unsuccessful in recent years, including another one from the Cancer Nurses College in 2016, that “Clinical Supervision be provided for nurses as per NZNO guidelines and that this should be included in the MECA”. DHB MECA negotiations are now complete, and an entitlement to clinical supervision has not been included.
I understand that further discussion of these topics is planned today. As time is short, I won’t take questions now, but I will be available throughout the day to assist.
Your Choice. Your Voice | Grant Brookes for NZNO President 