Year of the Nurse & Midwife: Kaiāwhina and nurse – the perfect collaboration

26 Aug 2020, 15:07

Not much gets past two woman passionate about ensuring wāhine get their smear tests done.

Hawke’s Bay District Health Board kaiāwhina Margaret Alexander and Choices nurse Louise Morris are a team on a mission.

For five years they have committed to working together as a team a day a week, taking smear tests in Flaxmere and Maraenui, with other health priorities filing the rest of their week.

They certainly make that day count.

They sing each other’s praises, saying they could not have achieved their individual successes without the other.

“Louise is an amazing smear-taker – our people love her. She is so relaxed with them. She can take a smear anywhere and it’s over before they know it,” says Margaret.

It is Margaret’s eagle eye and willingness to tackle anyone that impresses Louise. Between them they tell a story of seeing a young woman sitting out on her front step in the sun.

“We drive past and then Margaret says ‘go back; I want to have a chat’,” says Louise.

Out of that chat four women in their twenties had smear tests done – and one retuned a high-grade positive. “They had no idea about smear tests, whether they should have one, or how they would get one,” says Margaret.

“That sort of result, which leads to someone who might have gone on to become really ill having treatment, makes the job really worthwhile.”

The trusting relationships they have between themselves and with the community are the keys. “A lot of what we do is about health literacy – educating our whanau on how to look after themselves, get the tests they need, like smear tests, to stay healthy.”

Some Wednesdays they may only have a few tests to do, but other days it can be nearer nine, which is quite a challenge.

“That’s why our kaiāwhina-nurse partnership and the collaboration between our two organisations are so important,” says Louise. “Without Margaret living and breathing her community and nurturing relationships, getting out there and tracking these women down, we would not be reaching them.”