Scholarship great incentive for South Auckland nurse

Scholarship great incentive for further study for South Auckland nurse
29 October 2014

South Auckland community Māori mental health nurse Donna Tearii says being awarded a Medibank Community Fund post graduate scholarship for Māori nurses is a great incentive to further her studies.

Donna completed a nursing degree in 2005, followed by a post graduate diploma. She will begin studying for her master’s degree through Massey University in early 2015.

Each scholarship is for a year. They were created by Medibank Health Solutions to extend the reach and skill base of health services in the community and are administered by Māori workforce development organisation Te Rau Matatini.

Donna says the practical experience she had working on a mental health ward when she was training was one of the reasons she gravitated to and has stayed working in mental health nursing.

She eventually hopes to have her own mental health clinic in South Auckland, and has a particular interest in health research, education and supervision.

“We have a lot of mental health issues in South Auckland and a real responsibility to ensure best practice when caring for our mental health patients.”

She says being awarded the scholarship came as a surprise and took a while to sink in. She is discussing with her manager the best way to make use of the funds as she continues her studies. “It’s a lot of money and it’ll be used very wisely. I have 12 siblings and we were taught to be resourceful with money.”

Donna is also looking forward to learning more about the mechanics of telenursing when she spends time shadowing a telehealth nurse at Medibank’s Healthline call centre in Wellington as part of her scholarship.

“It’s quite new to me, so I’m interested to see how nurses use their knowledge and experience in a telehealth setting.”

Medibank Community Fund website

About Medibank Health Solutions

Medibank Health Solutions New Zealand offers innovative and cost-effective healthcare services to business and government. Medibank Health Solutions:
• is a national provider of homecare services for ACC
• provides the Phone@Home telephone service for people with mild to moderate mental health concerns
• operates Healthline, a 24-hour a day, 7 days a week health advice line for the Ministry of Health
• operates other telephone health services, including a Mental Health Line for a number of District Health Boards
• provides the Lifetest insurance co-ordination service for insurance companies.

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