Introduction to Media Relations

Nurse Executives NZAugust 15, 2014

Who am I?• Karen Barnsley, founding director, Cabix

Communications Ltd.• Like all Cabix people, I am a former journalist.• My experience covers daily newspapers in

New Zealand and Britain as well as BBC and Radio New Zealand.

• I have worked extensively as a journalist trainer and as a media trainer.

Today’s agenda

• The media environment• What makes news• Packaging your messages• Tips on interviewing • Dealing with difficult issues

The role of the media

• To inform, educate and entertain• To provoke and challenge the status quo• To crusade• To be a watchdog – social critic• To investigate• To record historic moments

And the role of the media is also..

• To provide a vehicle for advertising

• To make money

The changing face of the media

• Social media

• Competition

• Cutbacks

• Deadlines

• Inexperience

Values associated with the media

• Generally considered reliable • Most news considered to be based on fact • More credibility than a paid ad • Source of information • People have relationships with few

organisations so rely on the media

Reporter’s agenda

• Relevant• Unexpected• Today

• Health• Heart• Handbag/hip-pocket

Why some stories fly

• Relevance

• Hot topic

• Secret

• Complaints

Where does news come from?

• Tips from the community - patients• Other media and websites • Organisation’s magazines • Meetings – board, council etc • Court • Contacts• Media releases • Media conferences • Social media/blogs

• Health is news

• Nursing and nurses are news

Nurse Firing Highlights Hazards of Social Media in HospitalsJul 8, 2014 ABC News

One of the most dramatic scenes so far from the second season of ABC’s New York Med had nothing to do with gunshot wounds or heart transplants. It came when emergency room nurse Katie Duke was fired for posting a photo to Instagram.The photo captured a messy but empty trauma room that had been used to treat a man hit by a New York City subway train. Duke posted the photo with the caption “#Man vs 6 train.”Later that day, she was fired from her job at New York Presbyterian Hospital, she said.“I was told I was being fired for being insensitive,” she said.

Stressed Waikato nurses cry for help04/04/14

“It has become a regular sighting seeing new grad nurses crying in the dispensary because they have been put in unsafe situation, and don’t know what to do, end up compromising patient’s safety, by putting themselves and the patient at risk.”

“Everyone in my department is becoming dejected, moods are down, and we feel we are not being listened to.”

Nurse graduates struggle to find jobs

10/07/2013

One in three graduate nurses are unable to find jobs, but the Minister of Health denies too many are being trained.

Both turnover and job vacancy rates were low as nurses were staying in their roles due to the economic climate, Tony Ryall told the health select committee today.

He said the situation was worrying, especially as young graduates had ''given so much of their lives to get an education

Nurse yelled at family - father01/07/2014

While a father cradled his seriously ill infant, he was allegedly screamed at by a nurse at Waikato Hospital.

Nigel Wade, the father of a baby boy who had surgery on Sunday for a strangulated hernia, sent a letter of complaint to the Waikato District Health Board outlining accusations against some hospital staff.

Nurse injected two women with same needle

29/07/2014

A patient injected with a used needle has been offered an apology from the negligent nurse.

A report by deputy Health and Disability Commissioner Theo Baker published today censured the nurse responsible for sticking two women with the same needle. It recommended the medical centre update its protocol.

Overworked nurses ration patient care

27/05/2014

New Zealand hospitals are under-staffed, under-resourced and at times unsafe, nurses claim. In the fourth article of The Press health series, OLIVIA CARVILLE reports on care rationing - a hidden secret in our hospitals.

Every day nurses across New Zealand are being forced to make impossible choices.

They are unwillingly leaving patients lying in filth, ignoring call bells and skipping vital recordings.

Rest home nurse faces action after woman neglected

Thursday Aug 7, 2014

A rest home nurse manager faces disciplinary action after an 86-year-old woman rapidly lost weight and was often left in soiled clothing, a Health and Disability Commission report says.

Nurse chased patient for sex26/05/2014

A nurse who pursued a mental health patient for sex and showed her a movie that triggered suicidal thoughts has been struck off by the Health Disciplinary Tribunal today.

The tribunal this afternoon ruled the nurse be deregistered, on charges of malpractice and discrediting his profession, compounded by further "aggregating factors".

Nurses to perform bowel cancer tests

29/07/2014

The Government has announced some nurses will be trained to perform bowel-cancer tests as a crisis due to a shortage of medical specialists grows.

Health Minister Tony Ryall said specialist nurses would be trained to perform colonoscopies – a diagnostic test that can identify whether a person has bowel cancer and can find and remove pre-cancerous growths.

The first group of nurse endoscopists would begin training early next year.

 

Carry on nurse, ignore the bullRural nurses on call

Urenui district health nurse Shirley-Anne Managh has been looking after the needs of people in Urenui for 25 years.

Dogs are a minor distraction compared to visiting a family with a bull loose in the front yard.

The family came out and shooed it around to the back, Urenui district nurse Shirley-Anne Managh said.

Hospital to employ more nurses in ED

01/05/2014

Nelson Hospital will employ more emergency department nurses after a group of nurses took their concerns about understaffing to senior management.

About 17 nurses met the director of nursing and midwifery two weeks ago to present a business case for more staff.

New Zealand Nurses Organisation Nelson organiser Denise McGurk said by voicing their concerns together the nurses had brought about change.

Expert nurses diagnose 'same way as doctors'22/04/2014

Patients can trust expert nurses as much as doctors to diagnose tricky health complaints, according to Massey University research.

The new study aimed to silence critics of a push to give nurse practitioners similar powers to doctors to diagnose.

Another treatment role for 'super nurse'28/07/2014

"Super nurse" Lou Roebuck has added another string to her bow.She is now qualified to treat reproductive and sexual health, she said."It's very exciting."

So what can you do?

Remember:• Journalists are not experts in health • They are interested in your issues though• You provide an essential media resource • They provide a valuable platform for health

messages • Provide information that is interesting • ...and ready to use

Exercise – round one Questions:

Is nursing in New Zealand in crisis?

But clearly nurses are stressed and doesn’t

that put patients at risk?

Our health system is underfunded and under-

resourced – are nurses being set up to fail?

Exercise – round two

Questions:

Why does it seem that nurses are making more mistakes – are standards slipping?

But we see media coverage about professional lapses that have endangered patients – is our health service becoming more unsafe?

We know nurses are burning out because of the conditions – will things just get worse?

Dealing with difficult issues

• Be prepared – “an issue ignored is a crisis ensured”

• Have a strategy, stakeholder management• Do you front – what are the risks?• What can you say?• Think about your reputation• Ensure your people are prepared

Interview tips

Are you authorised to speak?

Find out •Where is the journalist from?•What is the format?•What are the issues?•Who else have they talked to?•What is their deadline

Now prepare

During the interview

Tell your story •Speak in statements •Stick to your key messages•Be positive •Don’t wait for the perfect question•Brand yourself •Bridge to your messages •Keep to four or five sentences