She treats rest home residents who remain registered patients at Three Rivers Medical, Puhi Kaiti Community Health Centre and The Doctors Te Whare Hapara.
The visiting service, which used to be provided by GPs, was created in collaboration four years ago by Hauora Tairawhiti nurse leader, primary and community, Dr Heather Robertson, and Three Rivers Medical co-owner and GP, Dr Fergus Aitcheson. ACC also played a role.
Previously, GPs were finding it hard to get away from their own practices to provide the care and clinics needed in rest homes, Dr Aitcheson said.
“This role came about through recognition that the group of seniors in aged care facilities were not well served by the traditional reactive GP model.
‘‘This is a group of people who are by definition frail and liable to develop acute illness quickly.”
Dr Robertson said they had to do something different. They needed to replace the old model with one that emphasised continuity of care.
“The new role was created for a nurse practitioner but we couldn’t attract one to Tairawhiti so we went for an experienced local nurse who could work under direction and delegation of a GP, someone who was working towards their nurse practitioner status, and Kylie was perfect.”
“It was a totally new concept and not everyone was keen on it, but now it’s embedded into how we support aged people in this region,” Ms Morresey said.
Nursing for 10 yearsShe has been nursing for 10 years, previously at Gisborne Hospital and Turanga Health. After only three years in the rest home role and before she became a prescribing nurse practitioner Ms Morresey won the Innovation and Patient Safety Award at the Nurses and Midwives of Tairawhiti Achievement Awards.
The judges noted that her work significantly decreased the number of people from aged care coming to Gisborne Hospital’s Emergency Department, or being unnecessarily admitted to hospital.
Ms Morresey said that while working towards her nurse practitioner status she could diagnose a resident’s condition and suggest a prescription, but she was restricted by her scope of practice.
There were treatment delays while she consulted with residents’ GPs and got the signatures she needed for the prescriptions, sometimes around 20-30 a day.
Beetham Health Care clinical manager Sandy Armstrong is at the frontline of health care for older people.
She says because Kylie can now sign off prescriptions elderly rest home residents are getting treatment faster.
“We’re ecstatic that Kylie can now provide this extra part of the service. She gives so much of herself to caring for our residents and now she can do it in a more efficient way.
“She’s thorough with her assessments, she communicates well with the residents, and to be honest we’d be lost without her.”
Earning nurse prescribing rights isn’t easy, and deservedly so, Ms Morresey said.
She completed a nursing degree, a postgraduate certificate, postgraduate diploma, and then a masters degree.
To finally become a nurse practitioner Ms Morresey had to put together an extensive portfolio of research and experience for submission to the Nursing Council of New Zealand.
She then had to face a panel of three senior health practitioners whose job it was to grill her on case studies she’d only just seen.
Ms Morresey credits her partner Murray Fleming, their three children, and her mother, stepfather and sisters for their support.
