A profile of Wellington’s urological nursing services

Kia Ora and greetings from ‘Windy Wellington.’ I am thankful for this opportunity to present a profile about the urological practice of the Capital and Coast District Health Board (DHB) located in Wellington, considered as the world’s southernmost capital city. The centre of government in New Zealand, Wellington earned the moniker ‘Windy City’ due to the presence of strong winds in the region.

The greater Wellington area has two District Health Boards, Capital & Coast DHB and Hutt Valley DHB. Capital & Coast DHB operates two hospitals, the Wellington Regional Hospital and the Kenepuru Community Hospital. It provides health care to approximately 250,000 people living in the greater Wellington area. The urology service also serves anadditional 141,000 people who are residing in the catchment area of the Hutt Valley DHB since urology service is not available there.

The urology service is operated by the Wellington Regional Hospital. We currently have four urologists, namely: Mr. Richard Robinson, Mr. Andrew Kennedy- Smith, Mr. Rod Studd and Mr. Grant Russell. All of the consultants have a different sub-specialty or area of interest. We have one house offi cer and three registrars, two of which are on the urology trainee programme.

The urology outpatients department has a custombuilt unit in which we do most diagnostic procedures including fl exible cystoscopies, prostate biopsies, and urodynamic studies. We also perform fi ducial marker insertion, stent removals, and minor urology surgical procedures. This is staffed by three full-time nurses and two part-time urology nurses. Robert (Bob) Hale, our clinical nurse specialist, is involved in urology education. This includes educating new graduate nurses, ambulance staff and
medical students in catheterisation, and ongoing education for ward and urology outpatient staff in all aspects of urology. Bob participates in the daily ward round and management of ward patients. He is also involved with community groups outside of the hospital, participating in support groups like the cancer society. Bob runs numerous nurse-led clinics including the ongoing follow-up of patients who have undergone radical prostatectomy and TURP surgery.