The College of Nurses Aotearoa, New Zealand held a workshop at the Victoria University of Wellington which aimed to help attendees better their understanding and improve their methods of engagement with the health policy process in New Zealand.
The objectives set out by the workshop were as follows:
- Introduce tools and skills for health policy engagement
- Self-mapping in policy knowledge
- Understanding of NZ health, professional nursing structures and leadership
- Policy drivers, pressure points and funding
Dr Mark Jones, the Incoming Chair of the College of Nurses Aotearoa Board started the workshop by asking “What do we mean by health policy?” The complexity of the role of NZ nurses in advocacy and health policy development was then discussed to develop a foundation from which the subsequent suggestions could be justified.
Liz Manning of the College of Nurses Aotearoa introduced the Policy Skills Framework focusing on self-assessment. Attendees were asked to map their policy skills categorically in either Behavioural or Applied Skills.
Michele Rumsey (Director of WHOCC) then talked on the manner in which global policy is translated into local policy. Michele focused on integrating international and Pacific perspectives into the discussion.
Day 2 started with a panel discussing the financial considerations of engagement with health policy. The current finance and funding environment in New Zealand Ministry lends itself to the 4 stages of the Funding Cycle:
- The language of Government
- Wellbeing domains
- Social determinants
- Articulating the pressure points
Professor Jenny Carryer (ED College of Nurses) then opened after morning tea on the topic of professionalization and the politics of health policy. Influencing and lobbying in conjunction with gender and its impact in the nursing workforce and policy development engagement were highlighted in the discussion.
Prof Jenny Carryer discusses absolute evidence that #nurse practitioners are cost effective, efficient and could solve many of problems with shortage of GPs and #UHC And yet buy in is extremely slow why is that?
(Michele Rumsey, WHO CC Twitter)
Following, the Deputy Chief Executive New Zealand Institute of Economic Research (NZIER), Todd Krieble suggested strategies in shaping health policy. Namely, by using systems thinking in relation to policy development, political and legislative processes, one could “differentiate from everyone else with an opinion.”
