Programme to inspire teenagers takes top award

A programme that gives secondary-school students hands-on experience of health careers to encourage them into the sector has taken the top prize in the EEO Trust Work & Life Awards 2011.

Hawke’s Bay District Health Board won the Supreme Award for Programme Incubator, which engages teenagers with health workers and the jobs they do in a bid to encourage them into the skill-short sector. Students of Maori and Pacific Island heritage are a particular focus, as the DHB wants to build a health workforce more representative of its community.

The programme uses a lively mix of resources, visiting speakers and field trips. Students take part in activities such as listening to each others hearts and lungs, taking each other’s blood pressure and handling instruments.

Programme Incubator manager Wynn Schollum says doctors, nurses and other health workers readily volunteer their services. “The collective approach is what makes it magic.”

Dr Philippa Reed, EEO Trust chief executive and one of five Awards judges, says Programme Incubator is an effective way to inspire today’s teenagers to become tomorrow’s health professionals. “The DHB is aware the current talent shortage is only going to worsen, and it’s taken a proactive, teenage-friendly and long-term stance to moulding our future health workforce.”

Hawke’s Bay DHB piloted Programme Incubator in 2007 at decile 1A Flaxmere College; 18 schools in the region plus the NZ Correspondence School are now involved. A total of 72 students from last year’s intake are now pursuing health-related tertiary study. The programme has been extended to five other DHBs, involving 16 other schools.

The EEO Trust Work & Life Awards, now in their 14th year, celebrate organisations that actively invest in their businesses by investing in their workforce. The Awards attracted more than 45 entries, and were celebrated by 400 people in August, 2011.