International experts line up for nursing summit

For immediate release
24 September 2007

International experts line up for nursing summit

An American academic with expertise in handling nursing shortages, is one of a line-up of international speakers coming to Wellington next week for an international nurse educators conference.

Professor Christine Tanner from the Oregon Health and Science University School of Nursing, will be addressing 330 nurses from New Zealand, Australia and beyond.

The 2007 Australasian Nurse Educators Conference, at Te Papa from Wednesday 3 to Friday 5 October, is being hosted by Whitireia Community Polytechnic and will be addressed by Health Minister Pete Hodgson and Maori Party Co-Leader Dr Pita Sharples.

Dr Tanner was the author of a 2001 study Oregon’s Nursing Shortage: A Public Health Crisis in the Making. She has served as the Senior Editor of the Journal of Nursing Education since 1991 and has conducted research for over 25 years on clinical judgment in nursing, writing numerous journal articles and four books.

The Nurse Educators conference is held in New Zealand every second year – being hosted in Australia on the alternate year. It’s for nurses engaged in education and research at polytechnics, universities and in clinical settings.

Among the international speakers are Canadian nurse/psychologist Gweneth (correct) Doane, who is Professor in the School of Nursing at the University of Victoria in British Columbia, Canada. Gweneth’s work as an academic has focused on enhancing family experiences of health and health care.

Professor Philip Darbyshire, who holds Chair of Nursing at the Women and Children’s Hospital in Adelaide, is also part of the line-up. With a clinical practice background in intellectual disability and paediatric nursing in Scotland, his current research and education interests involve approaches to understanding child and family health and illness and the development of Nursing Arts and Humanities.

Whitireia Dean of Faculty Dr Margaret Southwick says the conference draws on one of Whitireia’s core values – the concept of Manakitangi. “This term refers to encouraging and sharing of views, learning and resources, where individual self-esteem (mana) and group harmony result from caring about and supporting one another.”

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