[Perry]

Hello, Everyone.
Having never done this type of thng before I am a bit nervous, but here goes. My OH and I have finally made the decision to emigrate to N.Z., with our two children. We have submitted all of our paperwork(which has taken us months) and are awaiting a yes or no from immigration. We are hoping to move to Dunedin and one question that my wife Mandy (a nursing sister here in the U.K.) is very keen to know the answer to is what, compared to the nhs in England,is nursing like in N.Z ,as this is a major contributory factor to us moving. Any feedback would be most welcome, Thanks. Perry and Mandy.

[benandclare]

Hi Guys
We moved here in August and I started working as a staff nurse at the Christchurch Womens hospital (I had a senior nursing post when in the UK previously).

I am enjoying the work and my colleagues are great - all in all very similar to the neonatal unit that i was used to to.
however there are some things that they don't tell you before you start which you may want to know. I have to say they wouldn't have stopped me from coming but they are a consideration.

They are

No pension scheme - kiwisaver is available which is a national drive to get kiwis to save for old age but is nothing like as generous or organised as the nhs pension scheme.

Four weeks leave a year - plus the BH's if you are full time and only if you work them for part timers. Also in our unit it is very difficult to book any leave and some folks seem to have gone for many months with out holidays and certainly almost always have carry over leave for what seems like years on end. There is an extra week of leave for shift staff once a year is completed (making it 5 weeks for year 2 and beyond). So if your used to AFC holidays and having to organise your AL in year .....

There is no recognition of specialist knowledge/ skills in the financial sense (Band 5 - basic , band 6 specialist) although i know that is variable in the uk it is national here !! so all the staff are staff nurses plus a shift coordinator (who is on a different pay scale). Have a look a the MECA which is the national/local pay agreements - but they are not easy to interpret as to where you will be - as a staff nurse its band 5 as a coordinator it would be band 4 on a senior nurse scale (i think!)

Sick pay - 10 days a year of full pay - then nothing! But the days are accrued over time so for example if you were to work 5 years and have no sickness then you have 50 days and so on. I am looking at personal insurance in order to cover loss of earnings if for example i was to get run over or break a leg skiing! Otherwise we will be jolly hungry!

Please dont think this is a negative post though as I am getting on ok - but it would have been helpful to have been aware of them before getting here
Any Q's just ask

TTFN Clare :yes

[Karen]

Hi Perry & Mandy

Welcome to the forum!

I'm also a nurse from the Uk now working in Dunedin. We've been here for 15months and love it. I was on Band 6 in the UK but came over as a regular staff nurse and within 3 months was seconded to shift co-ordinator which was made a perminant position after 6 months in the role. Not sure what area you work in but l'm in Mental Health so my experiance of ODHB may be slightly different to what you'll find when you get here. Although at first glance the A/L is pretty shocking when compared to the allowance we got in the UK, we do get 11 public holidays a year and an extra week if you work shifts (after the first year) so it works out only slightly less! Currently all employees get 10 days sick a year however, the NZNO Union agreement has just agreed for all members to be given an additional 10 days manager'sdiscretionary leave a year.

Dunedin hospital is in the middle of Dunedin town centre so realy good for lunch time shopping but really bad for afternoon shift parking!!!! The wards all appear clean and well maintained and there seem to be good training opportunities for general nurses.

PM me if you think l can be of further help, sorry not too forthcoming but MH is based on a different site and l don't get to go the DPH very often!!! (Dunedin Public Hospital).

The one piece of advice l will offer is to join the NZNO Union (unions here are very influencial and determine how much you'll earn!!). You have the choice of 2 unions...NZNO or PSA. NZNO (New Zealand Nursing Organisation) is a very professional union (similar to NMC) only open to nursing members. The PSA tends to have a more agressive/militant approach and is open to anyone to join (not just nursing staff). The NZNO have just agreed a new pay scale for ODHB nurses while the PSA are still haggling for theirs. Just my humble opinion...hope l haven't offended anyone reading this!!

Karen

[snailandthewhale]

Welcome to the forum!
I'd agree with everything the others say, I really like it here. The annual leave is slightly less but this is the first year I'll have been able to take leave at the same time as the school holidays. In the UK the school hols were booked up years in advance!
There is a cut in pay, but I'm sure that none of us came here for the money.
I work at Auckland City Hospital, I'd recommend it to anyone.
K

[nickydwuk]

I think what most of us want to know is how does nursing in NZ compare to UK? What are staff:patient ratios's? Is equipment readily available and usable? Are their pressures on staff like they are here? Can you do a 12 hour shift and only sit down for your 1 hour break throughout the whole day? Are their targets more important than patients? What about the use of non-qualified staff (HCA's)? Any help with these questions would be great.

[Karen]

I absolutely can't complain about staff : pt ratios here...l'm in mental health/intellectual disability nursing so general is obviously going to be different but here on the ward we work on a 2:1 pt ratio!!!! That probably sounds like loads however the pt's can be very unpredictable and violent at times but overall the level of care delivered is acceptable with patient rights and best practice being at the forefront of everyday nursing care. ..there's always room for improvement but that's the same everywhere right?

Pressure on staff....always, the recruitment issues here are the same as the rest of the world...never enough trained staff but we also manage to have a good skill mix on 90% of the shifts.

Meal breaks and smokos are very strickly adhered to here...30 min for lunch as well as 2 10 min breaks (called a smoko) during your shift and as for sitting down...that depends on ward acuity that day. Some days it's sheer hell and others it's "all good'!!!

We use HCA's on my ward as do all the mental health wards in Dunedin but l do know that in Wellington, they're not used at all within their acute admission wards (not sure about other DHB's though). Sorry, don't know about on general wards at all.

Karen

[IanW99]

...
We use HCA's on my ward as do all the mental health wards in Dunedin but l do know that in Wellington, they're not used at all within their acute admission wards (not sure about other DHB's though). Sorry, don't know about on general wards at all.
...
Karen

Are you sure about Wellington, my OH used to work in Ward 27 and she said that there were HCAs there and there are also HCA's where she currently works in Porirua.

Ian

[Karen]

Hummm....not sure which ward my mate works on but they definately don't have any there, l'll ask her when she gets back from Oz next week though!

[snailandthewhale]

Difficult to answer, nickydwuk, as I don't work in a ward so know nothing about staff patient ratios etc.
All I can say is that my dept. is run more efficiently than places I worked in UK. I always ended up doing everything myself there, whereas here, other people do all the rubbish so that I'm left to do the nursing.
You get penalty payments if you get lunch late (or not at all), in the UK I was always working through my lunch break, didn't even get a thank you. They have lots of little morale boosting schemes.
Equipment varies as does nursing practise, some stuff is v. advanced and some stuff seems v. oldfashioned.
I can only speak for my dept. obviously, but the HCAs here work very hard and aren't really encouraged to participate in patient care, I think they get taken advantage of.
I feel a lot less pressured than I used to, that's for sure.
I'd never go back to the NHS.
K

[nickydwuk]

I feel a lot less pressured than I used to, that's for sure.
I'd never go back to the NHS.
K


That's reassuring. I think we are all trying to escape the pressure put on us by the NHS.

[britzy]

These are all the reasons we want to leave the NHS too,I work on a very busy CCU in England ,12 1/2 hr shifts often without breaks,spending most of my time managing beds and filling out paperwork.I went into nursing to care for patients like all of you did Im sure. My OH and I are looking at settling in Dunedin next year, we have both applied to Dunedin Hospital for jobs and are awaiting interviews.Good luck with everything ,hope all goes well for you. Helen

[wales4eva]

I met my wife in NZ in 1989...she worked as a midwife there and loved it...so ~I spent the last 18yrs of my life here in the UK..Guess what...we are going back to Auckland to live with two children and cherish the prospect..She is a community midwife here in the UK and has taken a huge drop in pay...shes not there for the money (but it helps)...shes sick of the oncalls, over burdened NHS and the UK greedy government taking all our money....time to leave I reckon...