The need to nurture Aotearoa New Zealand’s healthcare workforce

This commentary examines the ethical significance of recently published research demonstrating the extent to which healthcare workers experienced stress and increased challenges in the workplace due to inadequate access to personal protective equipment (PPE) during the first COVID-19 surge in Aotearoa New Zealand. The inadequate state of New Zealand’s PPE stockpile and distribution system at the beginning of the pandemic was a critical signal, a “canary in the coalmine”, of broader challenges facing the New Zealand healthcare system, particularly for healthcare worker safety and wellbeing. As New Zealand reforms its health system with the aim of improving access to and equity of care, an opportunity exists to apply critical lessons learnt from the COVID-19 pandemic about the need to prioritise the wellbeing of the healthcare workers we are dependent upon to deliver that care. Failure to apply this new knowledge will see the system similarly unprepared for future public health emergencies, which are likely to be imminent, and potentially with healthcare workers less willing to accept the burdens placed on them. The Nurture Framework, which has emerged from the voices of healthcare workers within this research, should be adopted as part of health reforms and ongoing emergency preparedness planning. Trust, transparency, respect and safety, the four values of the Framework, are fundamental for all workers who contribute their skills, knowledge and time to our healthcare organisations.