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Nursing in New ZealandInternational Nurses Day Greetings to all nursing colleagues throughout New Zealand wherever you may work! As you may be aware, nurses around the world celebrate International Nurses Day on May 12 – the birthday of Florence Nightingale. Of course there are many famous nurses in our history, however without doubt, Florence’s reach and influence was felt around the globe, even way over here in New Zealand! The theme for International Nurses Day 2008 is Delivering Quality, Serving Communities: Nurses Leading Primary Health Care. Primary health care nursing is a crucial and essential means of delivering quality care to people around the world, and for many countries nurses are leading and providing the only health service individuals, families, and communities have access to on a regular basis. Here in NZ we are in a rather more privileged position than some, and nurses work in multidisciplinary teams delivering quality care to our population. Of course nurses are leading in our primary health care system too – we just need to make this rather more visible and widespread – a goal to aspire to for 2008 / 09. Primary health care may be the focus for International Nurses day, but we all know the boundary between secondary and primary health care is rapidly dissolving – without efficient acute care systems primary health care would not have the backup to deal with really complex care needs, and without primary health care, our acute care capacity would be soon overwhelmed. So – thank you at all our nurses here in Aoteoroa New Zealand, I commend you for the vital contribution you make to the health of all the communities making up this wonderful country of ours. Celebrate our profession with vigour today, remember the leadership and examples set by our predecessors, and be proud to be a nurse! Mark Jones Chief Nurse
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