The New Zealand Nurse Practitioner Conference 2026 was a valuable opportunity for Migraine Foundation Aotearoa New Zealand to connect with nurse practitioners and share the most-up-date information, resources and best practice guidelines.
An estimated 400 nurse practitioners attended the biannual conference, held at QT Rydge’s Queenstown, 17–19 June 2026. About 140 nurse practitioners made a beeline for our education stand, keen to learn more about migraine and how they can better support, care for and educate their patients.
We had some great conversations and it was fantastic to connect with so many nurse practitioners working throughout New Zealand in a variety of healthcare settings including primary and tertiary care in both rural and urban centres.
All the nurse practitioners we spoke with had a genuine interest in learning more about migraine. Many acknowledged that managing people with migraine can be complex, and knowing which medications are the most evidence-based, and which guidelines to follow can be a challenge.
Therefore it was such a good opportunity to strengthen migraine knowledge and support enhanced migraine care through providing our acute treatments for migraine and preventive medications for migraine factsheets, both recently endorsed by the Royal New Zealand College of GPs, the latest bpac migraine article and quick guide, our plain English patient brochures in 6 languages and our myth-busting cards that challenges some common migraine myths. We discussed the updated migraine HealthPathways (Auckland), answered lots of questions and shared how our charity can support people with migraine.
There are nearly 1,000 nurse practitioners in New Zealand and they play a vital and growing role in migraine management. We hope we can return to the conference in 2028 and were thrilled to find out that following the 2028 the conference will be an annual event. It highlights the incredible role nurse practitioners play in our healthcare system.
Thank you to AbbVie for sponsorship of our education stand and attendance and Fidelity Life for supporting other associated costs through its We Support Who You Support grant earlier in the year.
