Primary Health Nursing Expert Advisory Group

This information is provided for all primary health nurses and any others who may not be familiar with the existence and work of the nursing expert advisory group to the Ministry of Health

Preamble : Why do we have an expert advisory group

The Primary Health Care Strategy (released in February 2001) aims to improve health and reduce health inequalities by moving to a system where services are coordinated around the needs of a defined group of people. Primary Health Organizations (PHOs) are organizations of providers working with communities to achieve this. The process of fully implementing the strategy is an evolutionary one over several years building on the strengths of the existing services provided by general practitioners, nurses, community health workers and others. Primary health care nurses were identified as crucial to the implementation of the strategy.

The Primary Health Care Strategy recommends the Ministry of Health:
* Facilitate the development of a national approach to primary health care nursing that will address the capabilities, responsibilities, and areas of professional practice
* Set educational and career frameworks and explore suitable employment arrangements.

There is an uneven distribution of primary health care providers, and primary health care nursing services are fragmented, delivered without national consistency, and are not aligned to meeting the needs of communities. Current models of primary health care nursing do not always facilitate the most effective delivery of primary health care nursing services in order to meet the health needs of defined populations.

A clear nursing service structure is needed at Primary Health Organization (PHO) level, which includes integration and coordination of all nursing activities in the sector. Models to align the primary health care nursing workforce to improve the health of populations and communities are needed.

Membership (current)

The Expert Advisory Group consists of people who have been appointed for their knowledge and expertise in matters regarding primary health care, and their understanding of the sector. Members of the group will not be representing specific organizations or groups. Individuals may be co-opted for specific projects. The Expert Advisory Group will include officials from the Ministry of Health as appropriate. Members of the Expert Advisory Group on Primary Health Care Nursing are:



Anne Lensen,
Nursing Advisor
Hutt Valley DHB

Linda Dubbeldam,
Practice Development
Coordinator Manawatu IPA

Marion Guy,
Practice Nurse
Primary Health Nurse

Dr Jan Pearson,
Royal New Zealand Plunket Society

Chris Millar,
New Zealand Nurses Organization

Jenny Carryer,
Executive Director
College of Nurses Aotearoa (NZ) Inc.

Te Miringa Huriwai,
Ngati Porou Hauora.

Rose Lightfoot,
Manager Te Tau Tokerau PHO


Margaret Horsburgh,
Director Faculty Education Unit
The University of Auckland

Alison Randall,
Accident Compensation Corporation

Kate Baldwin,
Otago DHB

All members are on the Expert Advisory Group due to their ability to connect into wider networks in nursing and in primary health care delivery. Members have accepted the responsibility to communicate widely and effectively. The Ministry of Health will review membership annually.

Terms of Reference
The terms of reference of the Primary Health Care Nursing Expert Advisory Group are to:

1. Provide nursing direction to the Ministry of Health and District Health Boards (DHBs) on primary health care development.
2. Provide nursing leadership and direction in order to inform nursing, PHOs, DHBs, and the Ministry of Health on nursing development.
3. Provide direction on career and educational frameworks to ensure national consistency and implementation of the primary health care nursing requirements
4. Provide direction on future funding and employment arrangements for primary health care nursing
5. Provide direction on models of primary health care nursing practice
6. Nominate representatives from the group onto primary health projects
7. Provide nursing direction on information systems and information management for primary health care.

Work completed

Consultation work and literature review to prepare and release the document "Investing in health: A framework for activating primary health care nursing"

A survey of the primary health care nursing workforce
NHIS ( 2003)

Work in progress

The Expert Advisory Group has two main directions at present.

1) A nurse advisory group member or a co-opted member is attached to each major work stream or project in the MoH which has relevance to primary health care.

Currently these are as follows-
Workforce - Margaret Horsburgh and Jenny Carryer
Public Health - Te Miringa Huriwai
After Hours - Linda Dubbeldam
Care Plus - Rose Lightfoot
PHO Monitoring - Margaret Horsburgh
Referred Service Management - Not yet underway
Refugee/Migrant - to be advised
Mental Health - to be advised

2) Members of the Expert Advisory Group are collecting data to investigate the funding processes of PHOs with a view to determining the most effective manner of deploying nursing services within a PHO

Work that needs to be done

Creating national position descriptions and titles for primary health care roles in order to avoid fragmented and uncoordinated development of nursing roles

Making it work

It is the responsibility of Expert Advisory Group members to share information from the group with their own networks

Most important is making connections between the many primary health care nursing networks which have developed around the country and members of the expert advisory group.

Each nurse needs to determine to whom they have the closest link and ensure that where possible they are aware of developments.