Educational placements
An initiative by Nursing lecturers Amy Simons and Jo Speirs benefits school children as well as their own students.
The number of nurses that can be trained is limited by the need to provide supervised clinical placements as part of their nursing education. Ideally, a range of placements would give Nursing ākonga (learners) a taste of nursing practice in different contexts. A high proportion of first year Nursing ākonga at Otago Polytechnic are interested in working with children, but at most a quarter will have the opportunity of a paediatric placement during their training, while others might gain a little experience working with children during a placement in a General Practice.
Jo Speirs and Amy Simons looked to international practice and identified that a possible solution to these issues was a placement providing health education in schools. In 2022 they ran a pilot programme with two primary schools and one secondary school. Groups of about five first year Bachelor of Nursing ākonga went into classrooms in their uniforms to deliver health education sessions, including preparing and offering an age-appropriate activity for the children. The schools selected the classes and topics. Each group then presented back to their whole year group, beginning with those who worked with the youngest children as an illustration of child development.
Reviewing the pilot, Jo and Amy were pleased that the placement provided a practical opportunity for learning about child development. Even though participation in the pilot was voluntary, ākonga were all keen to be involved. Their learning included practical consequences of socioeconomic differences - children don't make their own lunches or buy their own toothbrushes and dental floss. The schools appreciated the reinforcement of health messages. The health education placement in schools is happening again with first year ākonga in 2023, and this time their learning is being assessed as a formal part of their training.