September 10, 2024

NZ Blood Service (NZBS)

Dunedin

OTHER & FULL TIME

Registered Nurses - Therapeutic Apheresis Service (Dunedin)

Located at our Dunedin NZBS Donor Centre
Current NZ practising certificate required
Full time or part time, permanent
Must be currently entitled to work in New Zealand

About New Zealand Blood Service
New Zealand Blood and Organ Service (NZBS) is dedicated to saving lives. Every year, tens of thousands of generous people donate their time, blood and plasma to us for free. In addition to our vein to vein service in transfusion we also provide national services in organ transplantation, cellular therapies and tissue banking. We exist to ensure the efficient delivery of safe blood and tissue products on a time critical basis throughout New Zealand and through the generosity of our donors, we are able to help save lives.
Our shared values are at the heart of our organisation's culture and guide our behaviour each and every day. These values inspire, motivate us and drive us to provide the very best service to the New Zealand public.
Watch this video to see what our people say about the NZBS values they admire the most.
About the Dunedin Therapeutic Apheresis Service
The New Zealand Blood Service has been contracted to provide a Therapeutic Apheresis Service to Health NZ Southern patients at Dunedin Hospital.
Therapeutic apheresis is the ability to remove red blood cells, white blood cells, platelets and plasma for medical treatment, which can be used in a wide variety of conditions. Using a centrifuge machine, blood is taken and spun to separate certain components, before returning the remaining blood cells, platelets and plasma back to the patient. The initial procedure that will be available is:

Therapeutic plasma exchange- removal of plasma with disease causing agents, replacing it with donated plasma.

It is expected that once Therapeutic Plasma Exchange is up and running NZBS could be providing approximately 100 – 200 procedures per annum. This will be overseen by a multi-disciplinary team from NZBS with input from specialty areas.
With the establishment of this new Service in Dunedin Hospital, a phased approach will be applied as we work alongside a number of key stakeholders from Health NZ Southern and NZ Blood to establish all parts of the Service. Phase one will focus on the establishment of Therapeutic Plasma Exchange with phase two and three focusing on stem cell collection in addition to other therapeutic apheresis procedures.
This is an incredibly important step in providing care to patients that meet the threshold for such procedures within the Health NZ Southern catchment area.
About the role
We are seeking applications from Registered Nurses to join our Donor and Patient Services team.
Extensive training will be provided in all aspects of the collection of whole blood and plasma utilising your health assessment, critical thinking and reflective practice skills as a core component of this. Extensive training will also be provided in Therapeutic Apheresis, with an initial focus on Therapeutic Plasma Exchange and management of patient care with the delivery of this procedure. Once the Service is established further training will be provided in therapeutic apheresis procedures such as stem cell collection, white cell depletion and red cell exchange.
You will be part of the formation of our new Dunedin Therapeutic Apheresis team, a requirement of which will be to cover an on-call service to facilitate the service. This is an exciting opportunity to work alongside a wider multi-disciplinary team in Dunedin Hospital in a number of specialty areas.
About you
As mentioned, this role provides an essential service in collection of blood products and donor health education in addition to being part of establishing a brand-new therapeutic service. If learning and development vitalise you, then you've found a perfect opportunity.
The following considerations will be applied when determining who the successful applicants will be:

Current NZ practising certificate required as a Registered Nurse as well as holding the current entitlement to work in New Zealand
A minimum experience of 3 years in an acute setting (this could include working in acute inpatient areas, Emergency Department, Intensive Care). Clinical experience working in these settings must have been within the last 5 years.
Ability to work on-call out of business hours, weekends and Public Holidays.
Work a minimum of 0.8 FTE but must also be available to work up to full time on an on-call week.
Be available for travel to be trained in Therapeutic Apheresis Procedures in another region where NZBS currently provides Therapeutic Apheresis (for example Christchurch, Hamilton or Auckland). Initial training will focus on Therapeutic Plasma Exchange and is likely to take 2 – 4 weeks, dependent on the number of procedures.
Local training will be provided in all aspects of donor care and blood and blood product collection.
As the Therapeutic Apheresis Service has a provisional go-live in December 2024, unfortunately, any pre-planned leave over the Christmas and New Year period is unlikely to be accommodated.
Be confident working across different settings with both donor and patient care.

Salary starting at $75,773 to $106,739 depending on skills, registration, and experience.
As the Therapeutic Apheresis is largely autonomous, successful applicants must be confident working autonomously, and have the ability to effectively work within a multi-disciplinary team alongside key speciality areas and display excellent communication skills.
Opportunities like this one don't come along often. Apply today!