Nurses expect healthy future

Northland is pumping out top-quality nurses and injecting them back into the region's health services.
Eighteen of the 22 graduates from NorthTec's Bachelor of Nursing programme in December have begun jobs in Northland.
All passed their compulsory state exam which has impressed the hospital's nursing director.
NorthTec has had a 100 per cent pass rate by its nursing graduates in the three state exams held since December 2007.
"It's fabulous, and we're very pleased to have given most of them jobs at hospitals within the health board," said Northland District Health Board's nursing and midwifery director Denise Brewster-Webb.
Fourteen of December's graduates have begun jobs at Northland hospitals - in Whangarei, Bay of Islands, Dargaville and Kaitaia - while some have jobs in aged care and hospice in Northland. Three have moved to Auckland and one to Australia to begin their careers.
Recent graduate Sarah Ginders has been working at Whangarei Hospital for a year.
The 22-year-old former Kamo High School student was looking at a career in medicine as a doctor when she began studying first year health science at Otago University.
But when she realised medicine wasn't going to give her the patient contact she craved, she decided to return home to study nursing at NorthTec. "It's a really good programme, the tutors are really supportive in helping you towards where you want to go."
Ms Ginders missed out on her first choice of paediatrics and is currently on a surgical ward. She started her career where she had done work experience and said it would stand her in good stead for the United Kingdom, where she was heading to work in July.
"After I've been there for a couple of years I'm definitely coming back to New Zealand, but I'm not sure about returning here (to Northland) yet."
Ms Brewster-Webb said NorthTec had a very good nursing programme and had developed a positive relationship with the health board. "We see nearly all the students when they do their placements at the hospital. This year most of that group are coming back to the health board, which is great."
Those who did choose to venture outside Northland, like Ms Ginders, would be welcomed back with open arms, as "we're always out there recruiting".
Local nurses who had done work experience within Northland knew the demographics and systems of the region which helped them adjust quickly to their nursing career, Ms Brewster-Webb said.
"There's a whole range of diversity in Northland, different people in different areas, so nurses here experience a huge range of working conditions."
NorthTec program manager nursing and health Dr Thomas Harding said the small and personal nature of the NorthTec nursing course made it so successful.