Conference Proceedings - School of Nursing & Midwifery - Trinity ...

School of Nursing & Midwifery, Trinity College Dublin: 8 th Annual Interdisciplinary Research Conference
Transforming Healthcare Through Research, Education & Technology: 7 th – 9 th November 2007
Conference Proceedings
(2003:94) specifically indicated that a move towards community
care must be accompanied by lectures to promote cultural
awareness, as health promotion services and risk reduction will
happen in a variety of settings with services offered to diverse
populations.
It is therefore important to reiterate the New Zealand Government’s
commitment to Primary Health Care (King, 2001), as the
“customer” could literally be anybody the nurse encounters
professionally. King (2001:13) clearly stated that Primary Health
Care services will include services that improve the health of the
population through health promotion, education, counselling and
helping people to adopt healthy life styles, thus widening the list of
stakeholders in this study. These services can only be delivered if
the educational programmes for health care professionals are
changed. “I think there are clear directives from the government
about what our health strategies have to be, and particularly with
the funding arm” (Participant 2: 99:102). And: “I think that we are
very much governed on how we change the way we deliver health.
And a big push for community health. Previously it was all hospital
based. You came to hospital for 3 days and then you go home and
go to the GP. So that is not acceptable anymore” (Participant 2:
113-118). Also: “And that was changed because of the changes in
the NZ legislation. We did not want students to be disadvantaged”
(FGR: 160-162). This demonstrates that the people participating in
the development process were well aware of the need to change in
order to accommodate the new governmental guidelines for health
care provision. “And with the Bachelor of Nursing, we wanted to
have a graduate that was in line with the new DHB focus”
(Participant 4:18-20).
The Report on Primary Health Care and Community Nursing
Workforce, which was published by the New Zealand Ministry of
Health in 2003, also influenced the decision making processes.
However not all the stakeholders supported this governmental
strategy, as is demonstrated by the following: “I believe that the
needs of Pacifica, although very high, we include Pacifica in the
same group as you do Mäori, which we tend to do a lot, then you
have also got to include all those other ethnic diversities and the
whole cultural milieu, which next week you will be asking the
question Mäori for Mäori and Pacifica for Pacifica and Indian for
Indian. Is that you wanted. If you are going to go down that track,
then no I don’t feel…. it is a purely political thing and I feel it has
nothing to do with health” (Participant 9: 89-100).
A critical remark to this category can be made, because it was
found that all the stakeholders were very clear about their individual
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