India Weekender 23 Sep

10
NEW ZEALAND
Friday, 23 September, 2022
Kiwi Indians graduate from Health
Care Assistance programme
Read online www.iwk.co.nz
SANDEEP SINGH
Seven Kiwi-Indians have graduated
from Auckland Hospital’s newly
introduced Health Care Assistance
(HCA) Earn and Learn Program this week,
giving wings to their aspirations and
rising up on the professional healthcare
career ladder.
A total of 44 Health care Assistants
have graduated on Wednesday,
September 21 at the Auckland Hospital
as Health Care Assistants with around
15.9 per cent being of the Kiwi-Indian
origin.
Sarina Prasad, who was working as a
cleaner in the ward 77 (Orthopaedic)
of Auckland Hospital since 2014 is
one such recent Kiwi-Indian graduate
who has become a professional Health
Care Assistant after going through nine
months of earn and learn program at
Auckland Hospital.
Sharing her inspirational journey with
the Indian Weekender Prasad said, “I
am extremely delighted after having
graduated from this earn and learn
program and become a full-fledged
health care assistant.”
“Now I will be able to do what I love the
most – helping our wonderful, registered
nurses in serving patients in the ward,”
said a visibly elated Prasad.
Prasad had first arrived in New Zealand
from Fiji around 2009 on a spouse
work visa along with her husband
and has been working in Auckland
hospital since 2014.
“I was always excited when we were
called upon to help our nurses. But there
were many things that I could not do
despite having a passion because I was
not professionally trained to do so.”
Sarina Prasad (right) holding the certificate Jane Lees, Nurse Director Patient Management Services at Te
Whatu Ora Te Toka Tumei, Auckland.
“Now I will be able to help nurses
in delivering professional care to our
patients,” Prasad said.
When asked if she received ample
support from the ward 77 where she was
previously working Prasad emphatically
said, “In fact it were the colleagues at
my ward who inspired me to consider
opting for the Earn and Learn Program
and upskill myself into a trained health
care professional.”
The Health Care Assistance (HCA)
Earn and Learn Program is designed
to train and upskill primarily (but not
exclusively) those already working within
the health care sector (as non-technical
professional such as hospo, cleaning,
childcare etc) and retrain them as health
care professionals.
The course may augur well for the
current crisis of acute shortage of skilled
health care workers in New Zealand.
Revealing more details on this
program HCA Earn & Learn Programme
Lead, Helen Nattrass said, “This program
was launched in August 2021 as one
of the many measures of responding
to staff shortage in health care sector
where it aims to retrain health care
assistants without having to lose regular
stream of income.”
“It can be hard to give up income
to re-train, but with Earn and Learn
programmes students can now make
the transition, like Sarina did, from nonhealthcare
roles like cleaners, hospo,
childcare and caregiving.”
“So far the program has helped People
transition from roles like cleaners, hospo,
childcare and caregiving into healthcare,
Removed a financial barrier to training
from day one – they no longer have to
give up an income, Provide much needed
support to our nurses and other staff
during a particularly challenging year,
Opened the door to other health careers
like nursing, phlebotomy and midwifery
and increase our Māori, Pacific and Indian
staff to better reflect our communities.”
Helen Nattrass said.
Following this week’s cohort of
graduates another group of 18 students
from the second cohort, who finish
their studies in July, a subsequent third
cohort who enrolled in the program
in May will also be graduating soon. A
fourth group of students are set to start
in late September.
Expressing satisfaction on the
retention rates of the program, Helen
said, “The retention rate is high – from
the first group of 31 students, 26 are on
track to graduate.”
Health Care Assistant Earn and Learn
Programme
The programme:
The programme takes about 9 months
to complete, and students work to
complete a level 3 qualification in
Health and Wellbeing. They can remain
at Auckland City Hospital as one of the
valued Health Care Assistants, or the
qualification can be a springboard to
other careers in health.
What does a Health Care
Assistant do?
Our Health Care Assistants (HCA)
provide help and support on the wards
under the direction and delegation of a
registered nurse.
They work across clinics, wards,
the emergency departments and in
operating rooms, and have a wideranging
role, from supporting patients
with comfort and concerns to ensuring
the environment is ready to provide the
best care to our patients.
Te reo warriors hailed for saving Maori language
VENU MENON IN WELLINGTON
The public gathered in strength
outside Parliament on September
14 to witness the commemoration
of the historic day, 50 years ago, when
a group of Maori activists presented
a petition calling for te reo Maori
to be declared an official language
of New Zealand.
Children clambered atop statues and
streetlights for a better view of the
event, which was marked by speeches
delivered by Minister of Finance Grant
Robertson, standing in for Prime Minister
Jacinda Ardern who was away in the UK,
as well as kaumatua [ Maori elders] drawn
from among the original petitioners.
The descendants of some of those
petitioners were present on the occasion.
There was Minister of Maori
Development Willie Jackson, nephew
of Syd Jackson who founded the Nga
Tamatoa, the core activist group that
submitted the petition in 1972.
Also present to mark the occasion was
Rawiri Paratene, father of Green Party
co-leader Marama Davidson, who was
one of the original petitioners.
Jackson thanked his uncle’s
generation for stepping up to save
the Maori language.
The minister noted that they belonged
to a generation who were some of the
first to grow up without their indigenous
Robertson receiving petition at Maori language event
“When a strong, determined
and revolutionary group of
New Zealanders challenged
the Crown to do better, they
knew that if things didn’t
change, te reo Maori would
be lost. Because of their
actions, your actions, and
the actions of others like
them, Maori is an official
language of this country.”
language. Jackson added: “We must
akiaki [encourage] our people. We must
bring them along. There is real language
trauma and sometimes people need time
to heal. Kei te pai [It’s fine]
“If you keep whakahe whakahe
[criticising] our people, they may stop
speaking Maori.”
Earlier, at a function held at the
National Library, Jackson said he was
proud to present the government’s view
from a Maori perspective in terms of
“where we are now.”
Robertson said: “When a strong,
determined and revolutionary group
of New Zealanders challenged the
Crown to do better, they knew that
if things didn’t change, te reo Maori
would be lost. Because of their
actions, your actions, and the actions
of others like them, Maori is an official
language of this country.”
“These are events that are happening
today that those who signed the petition
[in 1972] may not have even considered
possible at the time.
"For the changes that they have made
to our nation, that you have made to our
nation, I am proud and I am grateful,”
Robertson added.
Robertson charted the progress made
by indigenous Maori in the land of its
origin.
“We have the kohanga generation. We
have more te reo Maori in the news. We
have our children learning te reo in every
setting in our educational system. And
we have a much greater appreciation
and understanding of te reo across
Aotearoa. In fact today, throughout
Aotearoa, people are learning te reo
in record numbers. We can always do
more, but the start has been made.”
Hana-Rawhiti Maipi-Clarke, a young
schoolgirl and niece of Hana Te Hemara,
who was a 22-year-old activist and a key
member of the group that presented the
1972 petition with 30,000 Maori and
Pakiha signatories, delivered a stirring
speech to round off the proceedings.
Clarke’s speech was followed by a
powerful haka and karanga performed
by schoolchildren.
Maori was made an official language
after Parliament passed the Maori
Language Act in 1987.