A chance to get a grip on what working in health is all about has won a Hawke’s Bay District Health Board career initiative another major prize.
Programme Incubator took out the supreme prize in the recent EEO Trust Work and Life Awards for its “proactive, teenage-friendly and long-term stance” to building the health workforce.
The programme brings health professionals into schools, offers online and classroom learning experiences and then takes students into the health sector to see it at work for themselves, including scrubbing up for theatre.
The hands-on initiative last year saw 84 per cent of the Hawke’s Bay students involved go on to tertiary study and 65 per cent of them (72 students) are now pursuing health-related study programmes.
Incubator manager Wynn Schollum said nurses make up the majority of health professionals visiting schools, including perioperative nurse educator Jean Koorey who kits up kids in the classroom with scrubs, masks, gloves and hats.
He said another example of the unique way Incubator works was a session in a teenage parent unit where a midwife helped students listen to the heart of an unborn child and the following speaker was a mental health nurse who “joined the dots” by talking about the impact of alcohol and addiction on an unborn child’s future life.
Schollum said the programme was now being offered in 40-plus schools across six district health boards.
