| |
|
Vol 2, no 59, 16 April 2009
|
|
|
|
|
|
 Former Tairawhiti District Health head nurse, Carol Ford, has returned to the district as a project nurse and HealthRight Lifetime Lifestyle nurse for Turanganui Primary Health Organisation.
Carol was Director of Nursing Practice at Tairawhiti District Health between 2000 and 2004, before embarking on a variety of primary and emergency department nursing roles around New Zealand and Australia.
She has returned to Gisborne energized, and eager to begin. “I left, but kept my house here on the understanding that I went away to learn more, and prepare myself to be more useful to primary health in Tairawhiti.”
Carol was Director of Nursing when this district’s two primary health organisations were formed, and says she was always supportive of the Government’s Primary Health Care Strategy and its aims.
“Its focus on improving and maintaining health with services such as promotion, education, and screening, and working increasingly with other sectors was, to me, the right focus. And so was the declared intention to release the untapped potential enabling nurses to contribute to improved health.”
Carol said the changes in primary health interested her from an organisational and leadership point of view. “People are being asked to work differently and I was attracted to learning more about how organisations and professional groups could be successfully led and guided through it.”
Her own experiences in primary health include a stint as Matawai’s rural nurse, projects at Te Karaka and Whatatutu, rural nurse locuming around New Zealand and Australia, and leading a CVD project for Ngati Porou Hauora PHO.
Carol has also completed a project for Southland District Health Board and the four Southland PHO’s, finished her Post Graduate Diploma in Primary and Rural health, and undertaken project management training.
Most recently, whilst settling her mother into her next phase of life, Carol worked in the Emergency Department for Hawkes Bay District Health Board.
Her diverse experiences (and she says, “maturity”!), give Carol credibility for taking on the new PHO role, which will include two days a week as a resource for HealthRight Lifetime Lifestyle.
Another two days a week will initially be spent reviewing pathways for smoking referral across this district’s primary sector, and maternity services. Carol has been asked to help ensure that any door opened can lead to a smoking cessation referral, and that the process is smooth and dependable for the patient or client. The review will also look at standardising reporting, quality control, monitoring, and feedback mechanisms in relation to smoking cessation.
Carol says she is excited to be working with Turanganui Primary Health Organisation’s Nurse Practitioner Diane Williams again. Back in 2003 she and Diane were members of the Tairawhiti Primary Nursing Group which successfully bid for Ministry of Health monies to have a nurse working at Juken New Zealand Ltd timber mill. Today that role is still held by Diane.
Working alongside Chief Executive Keriana Brooking who operates with “plain talking and integrity” was also a big draw card, Carol added.
Carol Ford is based at the Turanganui Primary Health Organisation Grey St office. Her contact details are: carolf@tpho.org.nz , (06) 863 2661 x 110, 021 243 2804 .
|
|
|
 ‘Polly at the Poly’ is a moniker Tairawhiti Polytechnic’s new nurse Polly Maxwell might just have to put up with now she is fully ensconced in her new role!
In an arrangement with the Polytechnic , Turanga Health is providing nursing services for students and staff in the Health and Wellness Centre on the Palmerston Road campus.
Polly, a registered nurse with Turanga Health’s Whanau Hauora (Family Health) service, is delighted to be part of the colourful campus life. The day The PHOnetic visited she had just completed a consultation with a 70-year-old student.
“It’s great. The clientele are varied. Not just young students.”
Tairawhiti Polytechnic’s Health and Wellness Centre offers free and confidential nursing services and patients also have access to all of Turanga Health’s services.
Polly says clients can benefit from longer consultations, and she is more than happy to see groups of people at one time. “Some of the younger ones come in their threes and fours. They are supporting one person, but then you hear about the issues others are facing, and can help and suggest things to them too.”
Polly is currently joined by nursing student Betty Quirk who is in the third year of her Bachelor of Nursing through UCOL.
The Tairawhiti Polytechnic nursing clinic is open 11.30am-2.30pm every week day. Students and staff can make an appointment on (06) 869 0810 x 857.
|
|
|
|
Six months ago Turanganui Primary Health Organisation’s mental health clinical liaison Robert Armstrong set about trying to quit his smoking addiction. Considering the industry relevance, PHOnetic Editor Hayley Redpath was quickly on at him to reveal how it was going.
Not sure at his potential for success Robert wasn’t keen to tell all. He said “ask me again in six months”. So she did.
By early October 2008, most New Zealanders had made up their minds which political party to vote for in the upcoming general election. But Robert Armstrong had made a different kind of decision. He wanted to give up smoking.
The 36-year-old who had spent the past 15 years smoking had chosen a totally random day, 1 October 2008, to knock it on the head. The decision was made back in June when Robert was sitting on his couch at home talking with wife Joanne about quitting the ciggies. He says the words started tumbling out.
“I said, I am going to give up on...... 1 October 2008. It was random. It was loose. But it made sense at the time!” says Robert with a wry smile.
Fifteen years earlier as a university student he had tried cigarettes. He’d had a few, and nothing happened. And then he had some more. Back then you could buy packets of 10 so he thought “as long as I keep buying packets of 10, and not 20, I will be alright.”
But smoking is an insidious thing. It creeps up on you and then ambushes its victim until he or she thinks they won’t be able to cope without them. Soon they have forgotten what it was like not to smoke.
Robert estimates he and Joanne have spent thousands of dollars on their habit. For a quick bit of maths, consider this: for the past three years the couple have each smoked 25 cigarettes. That’s $13 a day, 365 days of the year, times two. In those three years alone the couple spent $28,500 on cigarettes.
Oddly, it was their age, not their finances that propelled them into action. It seems turning 35, created a nagging thought for Robert.
“You start to focus in on your health after about age 35. Is that peculiar to myself?” he asks. He answers immediately. “Nah, that’s why you can’t get kids to stop smoking. The future is [waves his hand into the distance] it’s the future.”
So come to June, and Robert’s very resolute declaration. “I don’t know why it made sense for me. Why not tomorrow, or now? You kind of look forward to it in a way because a decision has been made. But then you get more anxious....”
Closer to 1 October 2008 Robert made some decisions he hoped would help. He chose to read Allen Carr’s book Easyway to Quit Smoking. He liked the fact he could continue to smoke while he read it! And he quietly told friends and family about his quest for a smokefree lifestyle.
Near midnight on September 30 he smoked what he hoped was his last cigarette. “It was a Tuesday night, I threw my last cigarettes and the packet into the fire and that was that........”
Wednesday 1 October 2008 was going to be an interesting day.
Read the next edition of The PHOnetic to find out how he did.
|
|
|
| Enter PHOnetic Readers Prize Draw!!
|
|
 To celebrate The PHOnetic’s 60th edition, and the support of all our readers, Turanganui Primary Health Organisation is giving readers the chance to enter The PHOnetic Getaway Prize Draw.
Click here to enter, and send us the email. This will ensure you have entered the prize draw which could see you and a friend win two night’s accommodation at the exclusive Rangimarie Homestay, Anaura Bay, with breakfast and evening meals, and some petrol, included.
Turanganui Primary Health Organisation Keriana Brooking says the PHO’s communication within itself and the wider health sector has been an important component as the organisation has grown in size and scope, and now it’s time to say thanks.
“Health delivery today involves much more than consultations, technology, financial transactions and paper work. Success requires excellence in communication whether it be with patients, staff, sector representatives or the Government.”
“The PHOnetic has been one way for us to demonstrate loyalty to our owners and providers. But we also wanted to offer a window into our world for the wider health sector, and so The PHOnetic’s subscription list has allowed us to keep everyone in touch with our ideas, decisions, and achievements.”
Keriana said some articles over the past three years had challenged readers and their organisations, but transparency was the key.
The winner of this year’s PHOnetic Getaway Prize Draw will stay in the Kawakawa Suite. The suite covers the top floor of Rangimarie House and features a romantic Balinese style bedroom and expansive deck with panoramic views of Anaura Bay and the surrounding area. Fridge, tea and coffee making, cutlery and crockery are available in the suite and breakfast and dinner can be served inside or al fresco with other guests. Click here to view the prize.
Readers have until 5pm Monday 27 April to enter The PHOnetic Getaway Prize Draw. The winning entry will be drawn under police supervision on Tuesday 28 April and announced in the 60th edition of The PHOnetic Wednesday 29 April.
The PHOnetic will accept entries from each email address only once. For more information click here. Individuals can subscribe to The PHOnetic from an alternative email address, then enter. By subscribing to The PHOnetic you are opting into The PHOnetic database and will receive fortnightly e-newsletters.
|
|
|
|
|
|
This section of our newsletter is devoted to you and your projects. If you would like to advertise your event, seminar or meeting, email details to The PHOnetic.
If you do not wish to receive this newsletter, please click here and send an email requesting that you unsubscribe.
Alternatively you can request an addition to The PHOnetic's email distribution list.
What's New in Smoking Cessation presented by Tairawhiti District Health and The Quit Group. Three hour training facilitated by Dr Peter Martin targeted at Well Child and primary health nurses and midwives. On completion you will become a Quit Card provider. Wednesday 29 April 9am-12 noon, Thursday 30 April 9am-12 noon, and 1pm-4pm. Turanga Health Conference Room, 145 Derby St. Free. Please register interest with Dianne Akurangi on 869 0500 x 8770 or email her. Limited numbers.
Turanga Health Influenza Injection Available for staff at Turanga Health on Friday 17 April, 12.30-2.30pm 2009.
Medico-Legal Issues Training - Linked to QP 12 Professional Development Goal 12 Thursday 16 April 6.45pm - 8.45pm. Includes medico-legal responsibility, Medical Council referrals, legislation, professional standards and guidelines (Cornerstone and competencies), obligations and challenges for general practice providers. Pirates Conference Rooms, 15 Anzac St, Gisborne. Please note that to meet QP 12, Goal 12, a GP, nurse and administration staff member from each practice team must attend.
Tairawhiti District Health Board meeting, Tuesday 28 April, 9am, Morris Adair Building, Gisborne Hospital.
Community and Public Health Advisory Committee/Disability Support Advisory Committee meeting Tuesday 21 April, 9am/.11am, Morris Adair Building, Gisborne Hospital.
Hospital Advisory Committee meeting, Monday 27 April, 10am, Morris Adair Building, Gisborne Hospital.
Visit www.tdh.org.nz for all TDH meeting agendas.
|
|
|
|
|
|