Nursing Council Consultation Document

In  2008 the Nursing Council undertook a consultation about the scope of practice for mental health nurses.  As this was significantly oriented towards clinical or inpatient services, Platform supported the submission made to the Council by Te Ao Maramatanga and also submitted its own response.

The Nursing Council of New Zealand is now undertaking a consultation about the scope of practice for the enrolled nurse and nurse assistant scopes under the Health Practitioners Competency Assurance Act (2003).  

Without clear direction about the future community mental health workforce it is difficult to see how the role of an enrolled nurse in the mental health and addictions field will be considered without taking into consideration the current role of support workers. These were issues that were raised in the paper Health Practitioners Competency and Assurance Act and the disability and Mental Health and Addiction NGO sector.  The issues raised were ignored by the Nursing Council. 

Platform would encourage organisations that employ nurses to either respond directly or contact us and we will use the information to produce a collective response.