Thank you for accessing the West Coast Nursing and Midwifery website section.
A considerable amount of thought has gone into deciding what to put in and what to leave out; a challenge when there is so much to say about working as a health professional on the West Coast.
I hope that the information you are looking for is here. However, if there is further or different information that you seek please contact us.
438 nurses (266 FTE) and 22 midwives (10.5 FTE) work for Te Whatu Ora West Coast. Midwives and nurses provide specialised support to people from birth and early childhood/family care, health promotion, screening and preventative intervention, acute care, rehabilitation, palliation and terminal care.
Nurses and midwives provide a 24 hours / 7 days a week service.
Everywhere you go you’ll find nurses and midwives – in hospitals and homes, community & health services, rest homes & aged care facilities, General Practices, schools and worksites. They provide care to people across the lifespan, across the continuums of health and illness, and right along the length of the coast from Karamea to Haast.
Midwives and nurses work to a set of standards laid out in the professional codes of conduct and are regulated through the New Zealand Midwifery and Nursing Councils.
They work within a health care team and with families and communities to provide assessment, identifying health care needs and then working to a plan of care to meet these needs.
Nurses and midwives work with individuals, families and the health care team to monitor the outcomes of care to ensure a good quality of service.
The Director of Nursing is responsible for professional oversight of the nursing workforce, to ensure its members work to the standards laid down by their respective professional bodies. This is done by working with nurses, midwives and other health professionals, managers and health care consumers, assessing what needs to be done; for example, with service provision or education and developing a plan to achieve the goals that ensure quality improvement.
Te Whatu Ora West Coast is a great place to work, it offers midwives and nurses opportunities to work to the full potential of their scope of practice and develop excellent generalist skills.
Moreover the search for new and different ways of providing care in this rural place promises an exciting future. I hope this website section will provide you with a snap shot of what we are doing on the Coast and what a career in nursing or midwifery on the Coast may offer you. I look forward to hearing from you.
Holly Mason
Director of Nursing
West Coast DHB hosts around 60 students per year, throughout all of our services including Mental Health. Elective placements working alongside Rural Nurse Specialists are very popular.
We invite you to visit the following webpages to view more information:
The West Coast District Health Board offers two Graduate Nurse Programmes. Both programmes are designed to meet the learning needs of the new graduate, developing clinical expertise in order to integrate effectively into the nursing team.
These include the Nurse Entry to Specialty Practice (NESP) Mental Health & Addiction Nursing and Nurse Entry to Practice Programmes.
For more information about these programmes, please visit the shared Canterbury-West Coast website.
For information about how to apply, please ensure you meet the eligibility criteria and complete the ACE application process.
You may also like to contact the WCDHB NETP Coordinator Joanne Hopson or the West Coast NESP contact Paula Mason via our Professional Nursing Department.
The WCDHB also offers a supportive Extended Orientation package for new graduate Enrolled Nurses who have recently completed the Diploma in Enrolled Nursing. For more information about this package, please contact Sarah Gilsenan via our Professional Nursing Department.
Applications for Postgraduate Study funding are now open (Applications closing date is Tuesday, 30th April 2024). Find out more here.
To apply please follow the instructions provided on our Application Process flow chart.
See also our ‘General Info’ section just below for further details.
Page last updated: 3 April 2024
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