Staff at a private Rotorua Hospital have “upskilled” to help address staffing shortages after it struggled to recruit registered nurses, a manager says.

The change has meant the hospital was cancelling surgeries less often.

Southern Cross Rotorua Hospital developed a new “collaborative care” model of nursing last year as a way to manage patient loads as it struggled to recruit registered nurses amid staffing shortages.

General manager Stephanie Thomson told the Rotorua Daily Post it recognised it would need to deliver care differently.

Thomson said it had worked under a “primary registered model of care,” which meant a registered nurse would have three or four patients “and do everything for them”.

Meanwhile, there was one healthcare assistant for the ward, and their job was to restock linens and bandages, get medication and do dressings.

Thomson said they identified tasks to delegate to a healthcare assistant on the presumption they could hire healthcare assistants easier than registered nurses.

She said the hospital hired four new healthcare assistants, and “upskilled” them to mobilise post-operative patients, take vital signs and take electrocardiograms.

The registered nurses would oversee all the treatment, and focus on discharge planning, pain medication and planning care, while the healthcare assistants showered patients, mobilised them and helped with meals under the guidance of a registered nurse.

Registered nurses now had four to six patients, partnering with a healthcare assistant, with no impact on the standard of care, Thomson said.

Thomson said one impact of the model meant the hospital was cancelling surgeries “less often” and, in her view, the model could be implemented “in any busy ward”.

Southern Cross Rotorua Hospital general manager Stephanie Thomson (centre) with healthcare assistants Nayomi Munasingha (left) and Margaret Dennis. Photo / Andrew Warner

Southern Cross Rotorua Hospital healthcare assistant Margaret Dennis has worked there since September. She has been a healthcare assistant for 22 years.

Dennis said the collaborative care model gave them responsibilities such as checking vital signs.

“It’s patient-focused, it’s patient-driven and it’s part of a very supportive team.”

Dennis said healthcare assistants felt “much appreciated” in their roles, which gave them “good motivation” to provide “the best care that we can”.

“It’s a pleasure to come to work every day and we do have fun.”

Fellow healthcare assistant Nayomi Munasingha has worked at Southern Cross Rotorua Hospital for two years.

Prior to the new model of care, Munasingha said she was making beds and helping patients shower and with their food. She did not formerly do vital signs and electrocardiograms for patient admissions.

“After introducing this model, we got training and knowledge about that. I’m very happy to do that because we just feel like we are doing some of the work from nurses.

“I feel like I’m a nurse,” she said with a laugh.

“I really like what I am doing at the moment because I am helping people and I feel like they appreciate us.”

The collaborative care model was recognised with the 2023 Non-Clinical “Leaders in Quality Award” from the New Zealand Private Surgical Hospitals Association, the media release said.

The New Zealand Nurses Organisation and Nursing Council of New Zealand did not wish to comment.