Nursing Council Advice to Nurses

3 April 2020

From Sunday  26 September 2022 the Government no longer requires nurses to follow the mandatory vaccination requirements. The Nursing Council is maintaining this page as a historical record only. Please note that an individual employer might still have vaccination requirements and is permitted to ask about your vaccination status. If you are not vaccinated we recommend that you discuss this with any potential employers.

The Council recognises that nurses will most likely face challenging circumstances as health services respond to COVID-19.

Your first concern will be the care of your patients.  We encourage you to use your professional judgement to assess the risk to deliver safe care informed by the values and principles set out in the Code of Conduct. The key principles which should be followed include the need to work cooperatively with colleagues to keep people safe, to practise in line with the best available evidence and to recognise and work within the limits of your competence.

We recognise that in highly challenging circumstances, you may need to depart from established procedures in order to care for patients. If concerns are raised about your decisions and actions it will always be considered, taking into account the factors relevant to the environment, resources, guidelines or protocols in place at the time.

For more specific advice regarding COVID-19 please refer to the Ministry of Health website.