The Health Quality and Safety Commission’s Open for Leadership Awards are given out monthly to DHBs around the country – two a month from February to November.
Each month two DHBs are asked to put forward one candidate in the first five years of their career or clinical practice, who has shown clear emerging leadership qualities and made a difference to patient care.
Six nominations were received by the Hauora Tairawhiti Board. One of the nominees will receive an Open for Leadership Award trophy, funding for training of their choice and national recognition.
One of Hauora Tairāwhiti’s nominees is profiled below.
Health Quality and Safety Commission Open for Leadership Award nominee, New Graduate Nurse Kayla Peters.
New graduate Nurse Kayla Peters has been nominated for a HSQC Emerging Leaders Award, after her extraordinary management of a tragic case.
The patient was a child who had been abandoned in a shed.
Emergency Department Clinical Nurse Manager Jaki Boyle nominated Kayla, she says the case was “incredibly distressing” and involved a significant amount of child abuse.
“Kayla was professional and empathetic. Her engagement and management of this presentation was extraordinary for such a young nurse who had never encountered anything of this magnitude before.”
Jaki says emergency nurses are all exposed to this tragic side of community events, however this is usually done by more experienced nurses.
“Kayla was the primary nurse and was able to engage and develop a therapeutic relationship very quickly with a little girl, who could not speak English and who had been terribly abused.”
On a day where the ED was very busy, Kayla took the lead, working with paediatrics, Police and Oranga Tairāwhiti.
“Although very distressed, she debriefed the case with her peers and CNM, reflected on it and demonstrated skills well above her level of experience.”