A crowd gathered on Trafalgar St on Saturday to support local nurses on International Nurses Day. Photo: Sara Hollyman.

Nurses: Be fair to those who care

0
1386

‘Be fair to those who care’ was just one of the chants that rang out along Trafalgar St on Saturday, when more than 100 nurses and their supporters gathered to support the Nurse Florence movement.

The day marked International Nurses Day and co-organiser Maria Briggs said it should be a day for celebrating the work that nurses do.

“Unfortunately, a lot of our nurses are getting burnt out, they’re really struggling day to day. ”

“They’re feeling anxious before they go out on their shifts because they’re not sure what’s going to happen when they get there.”

She said that nurses are facing constant under-staffing issues and it’s time their voices are heard.

“Today we’re marching for safer staffing levels in our jobs, it’s really difficult out there, on the wards, the high numbers of patients, we just don’t have enough staff on at all times.”

Maria says that a lot of people are thinking that it’s just about the nurses wanting more money, but to them it’s much more than that.

“We want to be heard because nurses in general have got such a caring nature, they don’t usually like to speak up.”

“We look after our patients like they’re our family, our whanau, we just want to make sure that the rights of our patients are at the forefront and that they get the best care possible.”

The Nurse Florence movement was set up by two anonymous nurses from opposite ends of the country in a bid to give nurses a voice.

They wanted nurse’s stories to be heard anonymously and said nurses felt silenced in their jobs as they needed to respect the privacy of their patients.