April 2023 Chair Report

And just like that- it’s a quarter of the way through 2023!

It’s been an unruly start to the year, particularly for those teams working in the Northern sites, and especially Kerrin and the Hawke’s Bay team. The impact of Cyclone Gabrielle was immense for their communities, and affected their home lives, as well as their work lives.

We have been thinking of you as you pull back together, and return to business as usual to serve the communities health needs- your fortitude and resilience has been truly tested.

Our committee had our face to face meeting at the end of February in Christchurch, where we were able to make progress towards our projects for the year. We have now a number of gastroenterology specific online learning packages developed and awaiting final touches before we can send them out to be tested by users. If you have any learning packages, or presentations that you could share with us so we can create more modules online, this would be really helpful. We look forward to seeing these finalised and available to support the education of our nurses across NZ.

Leaders Day planning is well under way- it will be held in Wellington on Friday 8th September. More details to come as we develop the programme, and then release the link for online registration. In the meantime, keep the date free, and share with any senior nurses in Gastroenterology.

The GENCA conference is in May, in Perth. The programme is exciting, with concurrent sessions to meet everyone’s special interests. GENCA have a scholarship of more than $800 for education, even for new members. So if you are not a GENCA member already, it is worth considering. They have regular online learning, as well as updates in practice to inform and guide us.

I hope you enjoyed our first Panui last month- please give us feedback on this over the year as we continue to develop it into a great, quick-read, publication.

Merrilee Williams Your Chairperson