Our December 2020/January 2021 issue offers our usual varied selection of articles chosen to meet the interests of nurses as the year ends. There is a focus on nursing overseas, the reality faced by many international qualified nurses of working in New Zealand, coverage of the South Pacific Nurses Forum held via Zoom in November, new resources in the NZNO library, and the challenges of nursing in an isolation/quarantine facility in New Zealand. This month’s science short examines how effective Pfizer’s mRNA vaccine against COVID-19 might be.

The November issue focuses on aged care. Articles range from “Gerontological nursing in a ‘covid-world’”, to the report from the United Nations on human rights and older persons in New Zealand and how nursing schools need to better prepare students to provide palliative and end-of-life care. There will be further coverage of NZNO conference and AGM in September.

The issue also includes an education advertising supplement

The October issue will cover the NZNO annual conference and annual general meeting, held via Zoom this year. Speakers at the conference included University of Otago professor Michael Baker and Auditor General John Ryan. There will be an interview with NZNO’s newly elected president, Christchurch mental health nurse Heather Symes. Other featured articles will be on Parkinson’s Disease and the nurses who specialise in this area, the links between health and climate change and the effective use of personal protective equipment.

Primary health care is the theme for our July issue. It features articles on a number of new initiatives submitted by nurses from around the country. Articles examine how primary health care nurses coped and adapted their practice during the height of the Covid-19 pandemic in New Zealand and how changes are continuing into the future. There will also be an analysis of recommendations in the recently released Health and Disability System Review. Our professional education feature focuses on the self-management of long-term conditions.

The May issue will continue analysing the nursing response to Covid-19, particularly over the last level 4 lockdown period. There’ll be interviews with nurses and midwives around the country about how they are responding to the pandemic and how their practice has changed. There will be a particular focus on aged care, where most fatal infections have occurred. Our professional education article will look at the experiences and self-management of pain in patients with long-term conditions. Personal protection equipment is the subject of our professional focus article

Sexual health is the theme of our March issue. There will be profiles of nurses working in sexual health care to young people and in sexual assault care, while others look at how to improve access and equity to long-acting reversible contraception and the issue of consent for intimate examinations. We will also be continuing our series on bullying, with a senior nurse telling her bullying story.

We begin the year with a focus on nursing education and issues facing students. We will also introduce a planned series of articles on the thorny issue of bullying in nursing – of students, particularly when on clinical placement, and of novice nurses by more senior nurses. Articles written by students include one on bridging the theory to practice gap, and another on peer mentor-ship in nursing schools.