Mention Chris McKenna and most of Hawke’s Bay’s nursing workforce will be able to put a face to the name.
A nursing and midwifery stalwart, Chris turned down a placement into Auckland’s Medical School because she thought she’d get homesick, so chose a career in nursing instead.
“It sounds ridiculous I know, but it’s the truth. I just didn’t want to leave home so I stayed in Hawke’s Bay and trained to become a nurse.”
Now with 40 years of nursing under her belt, the past 15 of which as Hawke’s Bay DHB’s chief nursing and midwifery officer, Chris says nursing has definitely been the right fit for her.
“I’ve never regretted becoming a nurse and have had a fantastic career. I’ve seen a lot of changes, there have been hard times and really good times. I’ve also managed to have four kids during my career and am a grandmother to 10,” she says proudly.
Camaraderie within the nursing and midwifery workforce is as strong as ever, Chris says.
“We look out for each other, nurses and midwives are incredibly hard working. Read any patient feedback survey and they are largely glowing with comments about the incredible nursing care they received or positive birthing experience.
“Nurses and midwives are the gateway to patient safety and wellbeing, there’s no two ways about that.”
A huge nursing and midwifery advocate, Chris says she is incredibly proud of the gains made to more widely recognise the value of the professions, although there is always more work to do.
“I’ve wanted to see things happen in my career that have become a reality, such as recognition for advance practice in nursing where Nurse Practitioners are authorised to prescribe any prescription medicine, or from a limited schedule of medicines.
“It’s also great to see more formal career pathways become embedded supporting future recruitments of new grads and succession planning.
“Better utilising the right resource to meet patient demand has also seen the introduction of a new system called Care Capacity Demand Management (CCDM) which effectively saw the Board approve a nursing and midwife investment of $1.128 million in 2017 for the creation of 17 new fulltime equivalent roles.”
Chris says the world’s your oyster if considering a nursing or midwifery career.
“Nurses and midwives work right across the community and hospital setting, with a significant growth in mental health nursing and planned care.
“There are many specialist nursing choices out there, including primary care nursing who are very generalist and work so incredibly hard and very deserving of equality and recognition,” she said.
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