Govt Investment pays off in Nursing

Government Investment pays-off with Nurse Entry to Practice Programme

As 2010 government funding of tertiary education is cut across the board, important new research points out the needs and benefits of continued funding for New Zealand’s new nurses.

A new research report finds that the partially government funded Nurse Entry to Practice (NETP)Programme around New Zealand effectively enhances trainees ‘confidence and competence though a supported first year of practice.’

The Clinical Training Agency (CTA) funds $6,000 per graduate in a programme, to subsidise some of the District Health Board’s estimated costs in offering the NETP programme, along with the formal commitment to supporting nurses in their first year of practice.

The report has shown that while government spending on new graduate programmes are expensive, when adequately funded and managed the returns are great in measures of retention and recruitment of staff and in building a stable content nursing workforce. It promotes a number of important benefits in the continued funding of this programme.

The research found that the NETP provides for transferability of knowledge and skill across the nursing workforce and has had a positive impact on recruitment and retention of new graduate nurses into New Zealand DHBs although approaches to recruitment varied considerably nationally.
Preceptorship as a key component of the NETP programme is an effective model for supporting new graduate nurses, however the way this model is applied remains inconsistent with issues related to workload and training.

Three Whitireia Faculty of Health staff, Associate Dean Carmel Haggerty, Associate Dean Kathy Holloway, Senior Lecturer Dr Debra Wilson, along with Associate Professor at Victoria University, Dr Rose McEldowney have completed an extensive research project they began in April 2006. ‘Growing our Own - An Evaluation of Nurse Entry to Practice Programmes in New Zealand 2006-2009.’

A request for proposal was put out by the Clinical Training Agency branch of the Ministry of Health. “We were up against some very strong contenders with the RFP,” says Haggerty. “To get the contract was a real coup.”

The research brief was to evaluate the nurse entry to practice programmes across the board and to report findings and make recommendations in relation to this.

The team conducted research across all the 21 national District Health Boards and interviewed key national stakeholders and hundreds of new graduate nurses, their preceptors, senior nurses and management over the three year project. The research team was supported by an international advisory group.

“I feel very privileged to have worked with all these stakeholders on this research,” says Holloway. “We have been able to bring back an enhanced understanding of best practice to our Faculty.”

The report recommendations aim to develop on the consistency and standards of training provided in the NETP. Holloway, Wilson and Haggerty say they will go on to present their findings internationally and begin writing publications with the findings in consultation with the CTA.

“This has done a lot for our confidence,” says Holloway. “The knowledge we have gained and the links we have made are invaluable. The flow on effect from our research will bring new knowledge to the nursing programmes within Whitireia.”

The report was accepted on delivery by the Clinical Training Agency. Haggerty says “It was great to have our report accepted straight away. Often recommendations are given and reports have to be re-submitted a few times. We came back from the Christmas break to fix some small typos; that was it.”

“Managing the workload is always interesting,” says Holloway, who like Haggerty is working on her own doctoral research. “Over the three years we had lots to deal with and the last three months of pulling it all together were particularly challenging. But the outcomes have been outstanding and we are very proud of what we have achieved.”

The report delivered a number of strategic recommendations which can be viewed online at
http://www.moh.govt.nz/moh.nsf/Files/ctadocs/$file/growing-our-own-NETP-final-report-Jan2010.pdf

The Faculty of Health at Whitireia has provided entry to specialty practice in mental health, as well as in partnership with Hospice New Zealand and the New Zealand Plunket Society since the mid 1990’s. Since 2006, the Faculty has offered one postgraduate paper as part of New Graduate Nurse Programmes at Hutt Valley District Health Board, Southern Cross Health Care and Wakefield Hospital. The Faculty also recently successfully tendered in response to an RFP from Capital and Coast District Health Board to run one postgraduate paper within their NETP (New Graduate Nursing Programme), which began this year with 71 new students.

ENDS

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