May 17, 2023
Gisborne nurses cry enough
Gisborne Hospital nurses have called a one-hour strike next week over staff shortages, unsafe working conditions, burnout and poor staff retention.
Nurse Christine Warrander says they’ll walk out of the wards from 1:30pm-2:30pm on May 24, leaving management to put in life-preserving services.
She says nurses are at breaking point.
“A lot of us at different times are in tears over the shifts and over the days because we know we are not doing the job to our best capability. We used to be stretched having five patients. Now it’s not unusual for us to have eight patients, sometimes nine patients. You are literally running from one patient to another,” Ms Warrander says.
She says Te Whatu Ora uses a shortage of nurses as an excuse for poor conditions, without doing anything to fix problems such the high costs imposed on nursing students or the bureaucracy involved in getting nurses from overseas.