safe staffing healthy workplaces unit

 

 

 

The Safe Staffing and Healthy Workplaces Unit is part of a collaborative agreement between the New Zealand Nurses’ Organisation and the District Health Boards. The Unit’s goal is to have staffing and workplaces that assure patient safety and satisfaction, support staff health and well-being and support organisational efficiency.

The Safe Staffing Healthy Workplaces (SSHW) Unit sits within District Health Boards New Zealand (DHBNZ) and responds to the issues identified by the Safe Staffing Healthy Workplaces Committee of Inquiry (COI) through their report published in 2006.

The Minister of Health specifically funded the Unit in recognition of the Government’s commitment to advancing patient centred improvements in service quality and these are expected to flow from the work of SSWU.

The Unit is directed and evaluated by Governance Group consisting of two NZNO representatives and two representatives from the DHBs.

 

 

 

sshw unit profiles

 

Jim Green - Chief Executive of Tairawhiti DHB

Lead Chief Executive for the District Health Boards on nursing and midwifery matters

 

 

After completing a Masters Degree in Psychology, Jim Green completed Registered Nurse training at Whangarei hospital in 1985.

Jim gained nursing experience in the health of older people, neurosurgery, and paediatrics at Auckland Hospital before going overseas to work in paediatrics in the UK.

On his return to NZ in 1987, Jim gained further experience in paediatric infectious diseases in Auckland before taking up the role of charge nurse of the children’s ward at Whangarei Hospital in 1990.

A variety of nursing and then general management positions followed in Northland culminating in Jim taking up the role of Group Manager Maternal, Child and Disability Support Services in 1998.

Jim was appointed Chief Executive of Tairawhiti District Health Board in 2000.

 

Sue Wood - Director of Nursing, MidCentral District Health Board

Co-Chair of Safe Staffing Healthy Workplaces Unit Governance Group

 

 

Sue trained on the West Coast of New Zealand, becoming a registered nurse in 1981. She worked in coronary care units (CCU) at the Palmerston North, Wellington and Hutt Valley Hospitals before moving to Melbourne in 1985. Here she worked as a nurse educator for a CCU course at the Royal Melbourne Hospital, then as quality co-ordinator for seven years in the same hospital. Sue returned to the West Coast in 1997 as Director of Nursing then on to her current Director of Nursing position at Palmerston North in 1999. During her time in Melbourne, Sue completed her Bachelors Degree and a Master of Nursing Studies at the La Trobe University where she wrote her thesis, entitled, 'Important Aspects of Nurse Care: Do Inpatients and Nurses Agree?'.

Sue was a member of the DHB/NZNO Committee of Inquiry into Safe Staffing and Healthy Workplaces and is currently Co-chair of the governance group for the Safe Staffing and Healthy Workplaces Unit.

 

Jane O'Malley - Director of Nursing and Midwifery, West Coast District Health Board

Co-Chair of Safe Staffing Healthy Workplaces Unit Governance Group

 

 

Jane O'Malley has been the Director of Nursing and Midwifery at the West Coast District Health Board since November 2005.  Prior to that, from 1997 she was a senior lecturer in the Department of Psychological Medicine, Christchurch School of Medicine and President of the New Zealand Nurses Organisation (NZNO) from 2001 until 2005.  Jane was a member of the DHB/NZNO Committee of Inquiry into Safe Staffing and Healthy Workplaces in 2005/2006.
Jane is co-recipient of a 2007/08 Rural Innovation Fund to develop a rural nursing workforce strategy. This included working with a university to develop an integrated post graduate programme of preparation for nurses to work at advanced practice levels in rural hospitals and communities. Jane holds a Masters Degree in Delivery of Nursing Services from New York University. Her PhD (2001) considered the impact of context on the delivery of acute inpatient mental health nursing care.

 

Geoff Annals - Chief Executive of the New Zealand Nurses Organisation

 

 

Geoff has held the position of Chief Executive of the New Zealand Nurses Organisation (NZNO) since 2001.  NZNO is affiliated to the International Council of Nurses and to the New Zealand Council of Trade Unions.

Geoff graduated as a comprehensive nurse from Waikato Polytechnic in 1982 and worked as a staff nurse at Waikato Hospital in 1983 until 2000. Here he worked in a range of clinical positions and held a number of senior nursing positions including Charge Nurse, Supervisor and Director of Nursing.

Geoff is a member of the Governance Group of the Safe Staffing and Healthy Workplaces Unit, a director on the Board of Accuro, a not-for-profit mutual benefits society that provides health insurance to health sector employees and their families, and also a director on the board of BGI, a social agency running a range of intervention programmes for at risk youth and their families.