Health careers will be promoted to 33 rural schools by tertiary health students over the next two weeks.
Rural schools in the Manawatū, Hawke’s Bay, Wairarapa, Tasman, Marlborough, West Coast, Bay of Plenty, Gisborne and the Coromandel will be visited by 30 tertiary students split into four teams.
The Hauora Taiwhenua Rural Health Network said its programme of visiting rural schools has been popular initiative in previous years.
Encouraging rural students into health careers is seen as a way to address the shortage of rural medical professionals because they are more inclined to return to the regions to work.
“We have had the rural health careers promotion programme in three years ago and at least seven of the 15 present in that group are now Year 13 and heading into the medical field in one area or another,” Michele Liddle, Careers Advisor at Matamata College, said.
The students hold interactive, hands-on workshops at the schools, which have proven to be an effective way of engaging and inspiring pupils to think about health careers.
Funded by Manatū Hauora Ministry of Health, this year 73 tertiary students representing Ara Institute of Canterbury, Southern Institute of Technology, Otago Polytechnic, Waikato Institute of Technology and others applied to be involved in the rural school visits.
During these trips the four groups of tertiary students will also visit local health providers to meet with health professionals and gain an insight into rural community health.
These experiences also help the tertiary students foster connections within rural communities in the hope they may consider working there when they graduate, potentially helping address the chronic health workforce shortage throughout rural New Zealand.
