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10 - 11 November 2026 | Crowne Plaza, Auckland

Nursing and the law

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Stay up-to-date on the latest legal issues in nursing practice at the Nursing and the Law Conference

Nursing and the Law 2026 is a must-attend conference for nurses, nurse leaders, and healthcare professionals navigating an increasingly complex legal and regulatory environment.

With escalating demands around accountability, patient rights, safe staffing, and emerging issues like end-of-life care and AI, nurses are more exposed than ever to ethical and legal risk. This event provides essential updates, expert insights, and practical tools to help nurses stay compliant, empowered, and protected in your practice. Whether managing teams, making clinical decisions, or advocating for patient safety, this conference will equip the attendees with the knowledge to uphold professional standards and deliver care within the law.

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Key themes not to be missed

Legal Compliance in Practice

Understanding new laws, scopes of practice, and regulatory updates.

Navigating privacy, confidentiality, end-of-life and ethical decision-making.

Role of the Practice & Risk Management

Clarifying roles, delegation, documentation, and professional liability.

Expanded autonomy in primary, mental and rural care.

Workforce wellbeing and Developments

Addressing legal duties around mental health, moral injury, and safe staffing.

Digital Nursing & AI – benefits & risks.

Te Tiriti o Waitangi & Cultural Safety

Embedding equity, partnership, and culturally responsive care

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We are currently working on the programme and agenda. 
If you would like to have input into our research programme please email xxxx@brightstar.co.nz 

KEY SPEAKERS FROM 2025

Our 2025 key lineup brought together thought leaders, trailblazers and expert practitioners in nursing.

View speakers

Catherine Byrne

Chief Executive/Registrar

Nursing Council of New Zealand

Kerri Nuku

Kaiwhakahaere

New Zealand Nurses Organisation

Kate Weston

Executive Director
 
College of Nurses Aotearoa (NZ)

Supporting organisation

We’re super excited to have the College of Nurses Aotearoa as a supporting organisation for this conference.

If you’re a member of the College of College of Nurses Aotearoa get in touch with them to get a discount (code) on the current pricing.

College of Nurses Aotearoa logo

Why you need to attend

  • Professional Development & Risk Management: Stay current on legal updates and learn to reduce risks in your practice.

  • Cultural and Ethical Practice: Understand your obligations under Te Tiriti and navigate the use of new technologies like AI.

  • Advocacy & Networking: Advocate for safe staffing solutions and connect with leaders in the field.

Venue

The location and how you can get there

Address

Grand Millennium Auckland
71 Mayoral Drive, Cnr Vincent Street, Auckland 1010

2026 Agenda:

8:50

Registration and Coffee

9:00

Opening Remarks from the Chair

Kate Weston, Executive Director, College of Nurses Aotearoa

9:10

The Changing Nursing Regulatory Landscape: Sector Developments, HPCA Reform and What Comes Next

  • Examining key regulatory and professional developments affecting nursing across Aotearoa

  • Understanding the direction of proposed HPCA reform and where it sits within wider health-sector change

  • Exploring what current and future changes could mean for nursing practice, professional accountability, and public safety

  • Considering the implications for nurses, employers, regulators, and healthcare organisations

  • Understanding evolving expectations around competence, conduct, scope of practice and fitness to practise

  • Preparing nursing leaders and teams to respond confidently to a changing regulatory environment

Kate Weston, Executive Director, College of Nurses Aotearoa

9:50

Health Reform, Te Tiriti Obligations and Nursing Practice

  • Understanding Te Tiriti obligations within the current health system

  • Exploring how health reform affects nurses, providers and patient rights

  • Strengthening equity-focused nursing practice and decision-making

  • Supporting culturally safe care across clinical, community and aged care settings

  • Translating legal and policy obligations into practical nursing responsibilities


10:30

Morning break

11:00

Nurses and the Health and Safety at Work Act: Duties, Risks and Responsibilities

  • Understanding health and safety duties in nursing and healthcare settings

  • Clarifying responsibilities for nurses, managers, employers and organisations

  • Managing workplace risks that affect staff, patients and service delivery

  • Making sure safety concerns are raised, discussed and followed up properly

  • Supporting nurse leaders to create safer systems of work


11:40

Session TBC

12:20

Lunch Break

13:20

IPP3A and Health information privacy: New notification duties for health providers

  • Understanding IPP3A and its relevance to health information privacy

  • Knowing when notification duties may apply

  • Managing situations where information is provided by family, whānau, guardians or other third parties

  • Understanding practical steps for compliance in clinical and community settings

  • Reducing privacy risk through clear processes, documentation and staff guidance

Simone Tune, Special Counsel, Duncan Cotterill

14:10

Speaking up safely: Reporting concerns, managing dilemmas and protecting patients

  • Understanding when a concern needs to be reported or escalated

  • Knowing the difference between informal concerns, serious incidents, complaints and mandatory reporting

  • Managing ethical dilemmas when loyalty, confidentiality and patient safety conflict

  • Understanding who to report to and what pathways may be available

  • Documenting concerns clearly, accurately and professionally

  • Supporting nurses who are worried about retaliation, consequences or speaking up

Wendy Blair, Competency Advisor, NZNO

14:20

Afternoon Break

15:10

HDC Decisions: Key Lessons for Nurses and health providers

  • Understanding key themes emerging from HDC decisions

  • Learning from cases involving communication, escalation, documentation and standards of care

  • Recognising how small failures can contribute to larger patient safety issues

  • Strengthening complaint response, open disclosure and reflective practice

  • Translating HDC findings into better systems, training and governance

Morag McDowell, Health & Disability Commissioner, Te Toihau Tautiaki Kaumātua

16:00

Panel Discussion: Workforce pressure, fatigue and legal accountability in Nursing

  • Understanding workforce pressure as a legal, safety and patient care issue

  • Exploring fatigue, burnout and workload as risks for nurses and organisations

  • Discussing bullying, harassment and psychological safety in healthcare workplaces

  • Clarifying responsibilities for nurse leaders, employers and teams

  • Identifying practical ways to support safer, more sustainable nursing workforce

Simone Tune, Special Counsel, Duncan Cotterill

Lucy O’Hagen, General Practitioner, Ora Toa Cannons Creek, Porirua

Other panelists TBC

17:00

Summary remarks from the Chair & Networking Drinks

8:50

Registration and Coffee

9:00

Welcome back remarks from the chair

Kate Weston, Executive Director, College of Nurses Aotearoa

9:10

Clinical Independence and Legal Accountability in Nurse-Led Care

  • Understanding legal accountability in advanced and autonomous nursing practice

  • Exploring governance requirements for Nurse led services and independent clinics

  • Managing clinical independence, documentation, prescribing and escalation

  • Clarifying responsibilities around referrals, continuity of care and patient safety

  • Understanding the risks and obligations involved in setting up or working within Nurse-led models

  • Supporting the safe growth of Nurse led care across the health system

Belinda Johns, Barrister, Quay Chambers

9:50

Nurses in coronial and criminal proceedings: Rights, responsibilities and practical preparation

  • Understanding when nurses may be involved in coronial or criminal processes

  • Knowing what to do when receiving a summons or request for information

  • Preparing statements, records and evidence carefully and professionally

  • Understanding rights, responsibilities and sources of support

  • Managing stress, communication and professional risk during legal proceedings

Nick Laing, Partner, Duncan Coterill

10:30

Morning break

11:00

Older People, rights and risk: Navigating complex aged Care decisions

  • Understanding rights and protections for older people in care settings

  • Navigating capacity, consent and family involvement in aged care decisions

  • Managing risk while respecting autonomy, dignity and choice

  • Recognising legal and professional responsibilities in aged care practice

  • Strengthening documentation, communication and escalation in complex cases

Erin James, Aged Care Commissioner, Te Toihau Tautiaki Kaumātua

11:40

Beyond Consent: Applying Right 7(4) in Everyday Practice

  • What is Right 7(4) of Code of Health and Disability Services Consumer’s Rights.

  • Informed consent and elements of consent.

  • Treatment without consent and provision of care pursuant to Right 7(4)

  • In clinical practice, what does it look like. Practical guides

  • Building an educational package for hospital clinical staff

  • Creative delivery of staff information under resources constraint

Nat Woodward, mental health clinical nurse specialist, Counties Manukau Health

Sylvia Wang, mental health nurse practitioner, Counties Manukau Health

Jerson Valencia, nurse consultant, Counties Manukau Health

12:20

Accountability and Delegation in Nursing Practice: Understanding Responsibility, Scope and Risk

  • Understanding professional accountability when tasks are delegated

  • Clarifying the difference between delegation, direction, supervision and responsibility

  • Knowing what can be delegated, to whom and under what conditions

  • Managing delegation across healthcare assistants, enrolled nurses, students and wider teams

Rebecca Keenan, Barrister, Liberty Law

12:50

Lunch Break

1:50

Social Media & professional boundaries in Nursing: Privacy, reputation and regulatory risk

  • Understanding professional expectations for nurses on social media

  • Managing risks around patient privacy, confidentiality and identifiable information

  • Knowing what can and cannot be shared online, including photos and workplace content

  • Understanding how personal posts, online comments, complaints and posts can affect professional boundaries and reputation and cause regulatory consequences

  • Exploring real-world case studies where social media use has led to privacy, conduct or professional accountability concerns

Kate Rouch , Partner, Dentons

2:20

AI in Nursing documentation: Legal risk, accuracy and accountability

  • Understanding where AI may be used in nursing documentation and clinical workflows

  • Managing risks around accuracy, completeness and professional judgment

  • Clarifying accountability when AI-generated content enters the clinical record

  • Protecting patient privacy and confidentiality when using digital or AI-enabled tools

  • Maintaining human oversight, review and correction of AI-assisted documentation

  • Preparing nursing teams for safe, ethical and lawful use of AI in care settings

Carey Campbell, Clinical Director, Amalga

2:50

Summary remarks from the Chair & End of Conference

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2026 Speakers:

Carey Campbell

Clinical Director
Amalga

Erin James

Aged Care Commissioner
Te Toihau Tautiaki Kaumātua
Erin was appointed as Aged Care Commissioner in April 2026. She is an experienced public sector leader with expertise in oversight, monitoring, and system improvement roles across the health, disability, and human rights sectors. Erin is passionate about the protection of people in care settings and improving the experiences of health and disability consumers and whānau. Most recently, she was the Director OPCAT at the Office of the Ombudsman, leading national oversight of the conditions and treatment of people deprived of liberty in health and disability settings, including secure aged care facilities. She is committed to improving the safety, dignity, wellbeing, and rights of older people in Aotearoa New Zealand.

Belinda Johns

Barrister
Quay Chambers

Lucy O’Hagen

General Practitioner
Ora Toa Cannons Creek, Porirua

Kate Rouch

Partner
Dentons
Kate is a Partner at Dentons in our Public Law and Litigation team based in Wellington. Kate is a highly experienced litigator and advocate having acted for both the public and private sectors. She blends practicality with an acute understanding of the law and a meticulous eye for detail.
 
Her specialist areas include complex civil litigation and in particular natural disaster damage and building litigation where she acts for government entities and construction industry professionals. She is also experienced in insurance litigation, disciplinary processes, and debt recovery. In her previous roles Kate acted for the Crown in criminal prosecutions and before that, as defence counsel to legally aided clients.

Simone Tune

Special Counsel
Duncan Cotterill
Simone is a Special Counsel at Duncan Cotterill. She is a specialist medico-legal lawyer with 25 years of experience across health, criminal, and public law. She has prosecuted over 50 criminal jury trials for the Crown and spent the last decade as a senior in-house legal counsel at Health New Zealand | Te Whatu Ora. Her expertise includes providing advice on all manner of medico-legal issues, including issues in relation to the Privacy Act and Health Information Privacy Code; Code of Rights issues; assisting in responses to the HDC, Coroner, auditors and other regulators, applications in the High Court for guardianship orders, withdrawal of life support orders, and treatment orders under the PPPR Act and appearing at coroners’ inquest hearings. Simone also drafts policies and consent forms for health providers, provides regular training to healthcare workers and managers and represents health professionals in complaints and disciplinary proceedings.

Rebecca Keenan

Barrister
Liberty Law

Wendy Blair

Competency Advisor
New Zealand Nurses Organisation
Wendy Blair is a New Zealand trained Registered Nurse, who completed her PhD in 2021 through the University of Newcastle, Australia. She is a closet practice developer and as such firmly believes in the need for person centred approaches to nursing care, management and education. She believes it is critical to understand the context practice occurs within and the impact of that on safety for patients and staff. She has worked in a variety of different nursing contexts including medical/surgical, critical care, clinical and tertiary education, and as a Professional Nursing Advisor. Her current role is Competency Advisor for the New Zealand Nurses Organisation (NZNO)

Kate Weston

Executive Director
College of Nurses Aotearoa (NZ)
Kate Weston is the Executive Director of Te Whare Tohu Tapuhi o Aotearoa  The College of Nurses Aotearoa. The College is a membership organisation for nurses, advocating for  the profession of nursing.   Kate has extensive nursing leadership experience, with a career spanning four decades, including Nursing Leadership and management, and professional nursing advisory roles. Kate has a particular interest in medico-legal and ethical issues in professional nursing practice and the health quality and safety.

Nick Laing

Partner
Duncan Cotterill
Nick is a medico-legal expert. Nick acts for health service providers and health practitioners alike in health practitioner discipline and negligence claims (including before the Coroner, Health Practitioners Disciplinary Tribunal, Health and Disability Commissioner, Privacy Commissioner and Ombudsmen). Nick also regularly advises on medico-legal aspects including duty of care, patient consent, privacy and treatment issues, and applied aspects of intensivist treatment.

Morag McDowell

Commissioner
Health and Disability Commission
Morag McDowell, Health and Disability Commissioner, began her term in September 2020. Morag took up the role after serving nearly 13 years as a Coroner based in Auckland. She was formerly a Crown Prosecutor, Director of Proceedings for the Health and Disability Commissioner’s Office, and a Senior Legal Adviser at Crown Law. Since completing her Master of Laws degree, her legal practice has had a strong focus on healthcare law, and she has appeared in different courts and tribunals on a variety of health-related litigation. She has also lectured and published on a range of medico-legal issues. Morag is committed to promoting and protecting the rights of health and disability services consumers where the Code sets the benchmark for good practice, and opportunities for learning and quality improvement are embraced. She strongly values the importance of fair, timely, transparent, and culturally appropriate processes where people are engaged, and given the opportunity to be heard.

Supported by:

College of Nurses Aotearoa logo CMYK_main blue

College of Nurses Aotearoa

If you’re a member of the College of College of Nurses Aotearoa,
get in touch with them to get a discount (code) for the current pricing.

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Tickets

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$ 1400 + gst
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$ 1600 + gst
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Ticket Terms
All prices are in New Zealand dollars ($NZD)
A surcharge of 2.5% + GST applies to credit card payments on top of the total amount.
Pre-Sale Tickets are valid only for the specific event for which they were purchased and cannot be transferred to other events. To remain valid, Super Saver and Early Bird tickets must be paid by date quoted.
Group ticket options are valid for registrations from the same organisation, booked at the same time.
By selecting any special pricing offer for classes of organisation, sector, or individuals or using any promotion code, you are asserting to the organiser your right to claim any such pricing offer, and acknowledge the organiser’s right to audit such claim and, if in the opinion of the organiser using its sole discretion the conditions for special pricing are not met, reject any registration.

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