Sharon Payne

Sharon is a nurse practitioner with over 40 years of experience in nursing. She is a passionate nurse and nurse educator with specialist knowledge in emergency and urgent care.

As a devoted educator, Sharon provides education to primary health care facilities, rest homes, and St John ambulance.

Sharon leads multiple trainings and courses throughout New Zealand and Australia including; the CENNZ National Triage Training, Trauma Nursing Core, Emergency Nursing Paediatric, Advanced Paediatric Life Support, NZ Resuscitation Core, and National Burns. 

Since 2021, Sharon has mentored two nurses in Primary Care and three nurses in Emergency Care.

Sharon is employed by the Eastern Institute of Technology as a Nurse Advisor to Primary Health Nurse Practitioner. In this role she mentors interns on Nurse Prescribing and Nurse Practitioner practicum and other nurse-related study as postgraduate level.

Sharon also supports the New Zealand Police as a on-call Police Medical Officer.

Sharon is an active member of the national immunisation programme for influenza and COVID, and part of the review committee for a Pediatric textbook ‘Rapid Access Guide for Pediatric Emergencies’ - which won the 2022 Emergency Nurses of America (ENA) Team Award.

Sharon’s dedication to the industry has been recognised through a number of awards and scholarships, including; the Australasian Emergency Nurse of the Year in 2010, the Queens Service Medal for Service to Nursing in 2012, and the Hawkes Bay DHB Leadership Award in 2019.

The Mary May Blackwell Scholarship, awarded to Sharon in 2008, provided the opportunity to experience first-hand Pediatric Emergency Care in large international clinics and hospitals including Australia, America, and England.

Sharon has presented at emergency nurse events across Australasia, including the New Zealand Paediatric conference, College of Emergency Nurses Australasia and New Zealand, and the Primary Health Care conference.