Young Southland Nurse Speaks Outs About Leaving Her Job

Kerri Templeton might have only been an emergency department nurse for almost two years, but already she has been making national news.

Her letter to Health Minister Andrew Little on his recent trip south was meant to be read to him personally, but since she missed the opportunity, the media has shared it with him instead.

Kerri has quit her job at Southland Hospital but she hasn’t quit nursing completely – she’s just burned out and can’t work with the failing healthcare system anymore.

So the 23-year-old is doing what many young people her age do, and is heading overseas to have a break, embarking on a six-month working holiday.

Her last day will be in February, and she feels guilty leaving her colleagues to pick up the pieces, but she’s also not alone – five others have also resigned. Some are heading overseas to work in nursing, and others have gone in new directions.

She expected backlash from her superiors and the Nursing Council but has received nothing but support for speaking out about how bad the conditions are.

Kerri said when she first started in her job she knew it was going to be hard, “but people need nurses and that’s the career I wanted to do. I guess I didn’t realise the impact it would have on me,” she said.

Her letter talks about the Southland nursing community being overworked, underpaid, understaffed and under appreciated.

“New Zealand’s healthcare system is collapsing right in front of your eyes and has been for the past 40-50 years. It will continue to do so unless you start making drastic changes immediately, and start treating our hospitals and staff as a system that is built on the health and wellness requirements of the population, and not a system that is based around financial figures,” her letter said.

Having put her “blood, sweat and tears” into her job the past two years, she said hers and many others passion was fading, because the environment they are working in “is killing it.”

Most importantly they feel as if they cannot meet the needs of their patients on a daily basis.

Nurses have a starting salary of $60,000 per year but in Australia they get $80,000 plus all the added benefits.

Andrew Little’s response to media was that he had spoken at length with the head of the department who was very clear about the challenges he faced.

He had been fully briefed on plans to extend the Invercargill hospital’s ED and add surgical theatres. Following this, he had sought an update from Te Whatu Ora on progress with those plans.

He also said the Government had committed to pay registered nurses around $12,000 more a year on average as part of a pay-equity process.

The deal was currently before the courts, and they have set aside $500 million a year for it.

Kerri said she felt like she had gone from being the hero to the villain for her part in this, “but it has never been about me, it’s about having a voice for the whole nursing community.”

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