“We made a call for our Pacific nurses to step up, and they have,” says Abel Smith, the clinical nursing director for the Pacific Workforce at Auckland and Waitemata District Health Boards. “There’s been a huge demand for Pacific nurses to work on the frontline during Covid-19 in areas like swabbing, manning the mobile testing clinics and contact tracing.”

The Fijian nursing director and member of the Pasifika Medical Association Membership Board , says Pacific nurses on the frontline, especially those who speak their Pacific language, have made it easier for the Pacific community to engage with the new medical protocols.

“We are all mindful that any pandemic would impact the Pasifika community and we’ve got to mitigate that and protect our families by talking through the changes and reassuring them in our own way that these processes will protect them and their families”.

Abel has been working hard throughout this crisis, supporting the management of 700 Pacific nurses in Auckland while working for two different health boards.

“It’s been an unsettling period in the sense that everything is heightened. We are mindful of the ever changing health landscape and so we are constantly reviving the way we do things to meet the needs of our people. I look after a team of staff and I stay in touch with them multiple times during the day. Any new information I receive, I make sure they get it immediately so they can adjust their actions and ensure the community receive the best up to date care.”

Abel is proud to be a Pacific nurse and is especially proud of the Pacific nurses he works with, who he describes as the “unsung heroes” of the frontline.

“These nurses leave their families, their children and come to work every day without fail, risking their own health to ensure that the health of our Pacific community is prioritized and taken care of”.

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Date: Friday 25 April 2020