It’s International Nurses’ Day about which Health Minister Tony Ryall says:
“Nurses are hugely valuable and are part of the backbone of our health service. There are currently just over 49,000 nurses practising in New Zealand.
The theme for International Nurses Day this year is ‘’Closing the Gap: From Evidence to Action.”
“There are many great examples of nurses identifying areas in our health service that need improvement, researching a solution and then changing the way they do things to improve health services for patients.
“For example, Sandy Bryant, a nurse at Wellington Hospital Neonatal Intensive Care Unit looked at their rates of bloodstream infections in babies, looked at the international best practice benchmarks and the unit has changed how they insert a central-line into a baby’s vein.
“Their rates are now below international benchmarks. Not only has this had significant benefit for babies and parents, the reduced infection rate also equates to around $500,000 a year in savings.
“Initiatives like this improve the quality of our services and better utilise our health resources.
District health boards are now employing 2,000 more nurses since November 2008.
Nurses usually appear well up any ranking of most-respected jobs, for very good reasons. It’s a highly skilled and demanding job – physically, emotionally and intellectually.
My mother was a nurse. Although, like most women of her generation, she stopped nursing when she married, she used nursing skills – and patience – in many ways throughout the rest of her life.
Homepaddock 
HP comments that I completely agree with.
However I want to mention the work that Access workers do looking after people,generally the elderly, who receive home care and housekeeping duties.
At $14.83 an hour, little above the minimum wage, these keep people in their homes and out of rest homes.
There is a report coming out later this month about their cause.A person I know works in my home town and travels to a small town close by – she gets petrol for one way but not the return trip.
She really feels a duty to her clients and goes beyond the cause of what she is expected to do.She is looking after people in their twilight years.
Governments of all political persuasions need to realize how much they depend on these low paid workers as well as another group of volunteers who deliver meals on wheels.
These Access workers and MOW volunteers, may not have studied for degrees but they provide a service that is poorly paid by government or with MOW an unpaid service.
What would happen if these workers couldn’t or won’t operate ? What would the health authorities or the government do in this situation ?
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