On Monday, 12 February, we welcomed 22 nursing students with a special mihi whakatau in Nga Whetu Marama (Tiaho Mai) as they began their four-week clinical placement in Mental Health and Acute Services.
These from Whitireia Polytechnic students are Pacific Island nurses who worked and registered in their home countries of Tonga, Samoa, Fiji, Niue, and Kiribati who now have permanent residency.
Nursing Student, Tekaboi, who at age 58, is keen to keep learning comes from Kiribati and has been living in New Zealand since 2011.
"I heard about the course last year and tried my luck to apply; before this, I was working as a healthcare assistant," says Tekaboi.
She says the placement is going well and hopes to return to the hospital after her studies.
"The work is a bit different from my previous experiences. It's sometimes challenging like the machines are really different from back home, but the principle of care is the same,".
Whitireia Polytechnic's new Graduate Diploma in Nursing Pacific programme gives a pathway for these Pacific-trained nurses to apply to the NCNZ for registration and gain a practising certificate to work in Aotearoa as a nurse.
Health New Zealand Counties Manukau is proud to support this group facilitated by our Nursing Student Coordinator, and led by Pacific Health Development team, Nurse Lead Pacific (Mental Health and Addiction services), and the dedicated Education Units Clinical Liaison Nurses.