In his opening address to the three-day New Zealand Nurses Organisation's enrolled nurses section conference in Dunedin yesterday, he said district health boards needed to recognise enrolled nurses' legitimate role. They should not see them as substitutes when they could not get a registered nurse, he said.
He acknowledged the work done to re-establish the role of enrolled nurses, and said the Government had strongly supported expanding the group's scope of practice.
"We want to give you the opportunity to expand on that and be allowed to be the fully contributing and valuable health professionals that you have always been."
The new qualification for enrolled nurses was an 18-month diploma, at level 5 on the New Zealand Qualifications Authority framework.
A new national curriculum would be introduced next year for nurses to refresh their skills, particularly in areas in which they had not been able to practise.
There was no doubt the health system needed enrolled nurses, Mr Ryall said.
While he was answering questions after his speech, the fire alarm sounded, leading to the evacuation of the University of Otago Castle 2 lecture theatre.
When the alarm went off, Mr Ryall had been telling the audience the amount of time district health boards spent arguing about costs for patients referred from outside their areas drove him "nuts".
He said it was the first time such an event had happened during one of his speeches.
The three-day conference will continue today with the enrolled nurses' section annual meeting, and sessions on managing aggression in co-workers, ethics and enrolled nursing in Australia.
