Cultural safety focus for Emergency Department Conference

Equity & cultural safety focus for NZ Emergency Department Conference

Equity in healthcare for patients accessing hospital emergency departments (EDs) is the theme for close to 100 emergency doctors, nurses, managers and stakeholder partners attending the New Zealand Emergency Department Conference in Taupo.

The conference, hashtagged #nzedconf19, will be held Thursday 24 October to Friday 25 October.

The Australasian College for Emergency Medicine (ACEM) President-Elect Dr John Bonning, a member of the organising conference committee, says, “the equity theme acknowledges Te Tiriti o Waitangi and the inequalities that exist in our health system for different ethnic groups, particularly for Māori patients, and the need to ensure that the ED workforce includes sufficient Māori practitioners.”

“As emergency department staff, we have an important role to play in addressing bias, where it exists in emergency departments and the hospital system, so our services are culturally safe for all our patients,” says Dr Bonning.

Ministry of Health's Deputy Director General of Māori Health John Whaanga (Ngāti Rakaipaaka, Ngāti Kahungungu, Ngāti Rongomaiwahine) will give the opening address. Following the opening address, the following presentations will take place on Day One:

The Experiences of Māori Health Professionals in the Emergency Department
• Dr Inia Tomas (Te Rarawa), ACEM Fellow/Emergency doctor at Middlemore Hospital
• Marama Tauranga (Ngāti Maniapoto, Tainui, Taranaki) Bay of Plenty DHB Health Equity Manager, former Tauranga Hospital ED nurse manager.

The Māori World view and the Values of Manaaki Mana
• Graham Bidois Cameron (Ngāti Ranginui, Ngāti Hinerangi, Ngāti Rangiwēwehi), Bay of Plenty DHB.

Key Relationships between Emergency Departments and Key Partners
• NZ Police Assistant Police Commissioner for Waitemata Tusha Penny (Ngāti Porou)
• St Johns National Patient Pathways Kris Gagliard
• Homecare Medical CEO Andrew Slater.

Are our Emergency Departments a Safe Place for Māori?
• Dr Inia Tomas (Te Rarawa), Middlemore Hospital
• Dr David Tipene-Leach (Ngāti Kahungunu, Ngāti Kere), Kaihautū/Chair for Te Ohu Rata o Aotearoa – Māori Medical Practitioners Association (Te ORA)
• Kiri Rikihana (Ngāti Raukawa, Te Ati Awa, Ngāti Toa), Australian and New Zealand College of Anaesthetists (ANZCA)
• ACEM Fellow Dr Peter Jones, Director of ED Research, Auckland City Hospital & University of Auckland.

Day Two on Friday 25 October, the presentation topics include women staff in emergency departments, changing perspectives in cultural safety and learnings at Christchurch Hospital’s Emergency Department, improving care for older people in ED plus:
• Whakatane Hospital’s Kaupapa Māori ED Service (KMEDS) Theresa Ngamoki (Te Whānau-ā-Apanui) will present on reducing the Māori ambulatory sensitive (avoidable) hospital admissions (ASH) rates in the ED.

• Waikato Hospital consultant psychiatrist Dr Wayne de Beer on a retrospective review of suicide and deliberate self-harm assessments in ED.

• Wairapapa Hospital Charge Nurse Manager Kathryn Wadsworth presents on Wairarapa’s ED response to a ‘hard to reach’ community call for help.

• Mahi Tahi: Working Together to Tackle Racism in our Emergency Departments will be a panel discussion with emergency doctors involved in Te Rautaki Manaaki Mana: Excellence in Emergency Care for Māori Strategy. An equity for Māori in EDs project. Facilitator for this session will be Gabrielle Baker (Ngāpuhi, Ngāti Kuri).

Organising conference committee members are: FACEM Dr John Bonning, Waikato Hospital; FACEM Dr Ruth Large, Waikato Hospital, FACEM Dr Matt Valentine, Whakatane Hospital BOPDHB; Dr Mariska Lambert, Taupo Hospital; Stephanie Watson, ED Charge Nurse Manager Tauranga Hospital; and Marama Tauranga, BOPDHB Health Equity Manager.

This conference is supported and sponsored by the Australasian College for Emergency Medicine (ACEM) and the College of Emergency Nurses New Zealand (CENNZ).

ENDS

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