Community nurses across the North Island are taking industrial action as a dispute over pay and working conditions puts renewed attention on the value placed on nurses caring for some of Aotearoa’s most vulnerable patients.
NZNO delegate and Total Care nurse Krystal Lewis says community nurses are among the lowest-paid nursing workforces in the country despite providing care that can prevent patients from deteriorating and ending up in already stretched hospitals.
The nurses work outside traditional hospital settings, providing care to patients in their homes and communities.
Their responsibilities can include wound care, medication support, clinical assessments and ongoing treatment for people living with complex or chronic health needs.
For patients with limited mobility, disabilities or significant health conditions, community nursing can provide an important connection between primary care and hospital services.
The industrial action puts the spotlight on what nurses say is a widening gap between the responsibility carried by community-based health workers and what they are paid.
Lewis says the workforce wants recognition for the clinical responsibilities nurses carry and the contribution they make to keeping vulnerable patients safely in their communities.
The dispute comes against a much wider battle over pay equity involving nurses and other female-dominated workforces.
The New Zealand Nurses Organisation has joined legal action challenging the Government’s changes to the Equal Pay Act, with the High Court becoming the latest battleground over the cancellation of existing pay-equity claims.
Unions argue the law changes stripped workers of a pathway towards addressing historic gender-based undervaluation of their work.
The Government has defended its changes to the pay-equity system as necessary to make the process more workable and financially sustainable.
For community nurses, however, the argument is immediate.
They say undervaluing the workforce risks making it increasingly difficult to recruit and retain experienced nurses in services designed to keep people well outside hospital.
That could have consequences throughout the health system.
When community healthcare capacity falls, patients who might otherwise be treated at home can require additional GP, emergency department or hospital care.
The strike therefore raises a bigger question about where New Zealand places its health dollars and whether enough value is being put on the frontline services that can prevent people from needing more expensive hospital treatment.
For nurses taking industrial action, recognition is about more than a pay packet.
It is about whether the health system recognises community nursing as an essential part of keeping whānau well and keeping patients out of hospital.
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