The door is still open to training more nurse practitioners – but the doorkeeper has changed.
Nurse practitioners can take on more complex and advanced roles than registered nurses, including prescribing medicines and admitting and discharging from hospitals.
The deputy director general of Māori health, John Whaanga, says a request to increase training places from the current 50 was received as responsibility for training shifted from the Health Ministry to Te Whatu Ora-Health New Zealand.
He says there is no single strategy that will fix workforce shortages in the health sector.
“We are looking to get a skilled workforce from overseas. At the same time, we are building our capacity and capability here. We’ve got current nurse training initiatives. We’ve got recruitment campaigns, including hose targeted specifically at Māori. There’s quite a big focus on the workforce and a broad acceptance that we need to be moving as fast as we can now and also with regards to the future,” Mr Whaanga says.
