Trident is very pleased to have gained Gateway work experience placements for five of our students at the Whakatane Hospital this term. Arwyn Armstrong, Tia Pettifer and Ngarangi Wharepapa-Morehu are on nursing placements for five weeks while Lachie Stokes and Rhianna Hunt are on doctors placements for five weeks.
Each week all five students rotate around different wards with different medical staff who they shadow in their day to day practice.
Arwyn, who specifically wants to be a nurse once she has finished school, says she is enjoying getting to know how a hospital works. She says that everyone there really works as a team and it is the behind the scenes environment that has been a great experience for her already. The nurses that she has shadowed have been great at explaining their processes and routines and she has even be able to help with a few things.
Tia is not set on becoming a nurse but is pleased to have gained the placement as she wants to explore all options in the health services to inform her future studies. Being in the hospital she is exposed to an array of different career options and says there is never a dull moment there.
Lachie has followed a doctor in Orthopaedics and the Emergency Department so far. He is interested in exploring options for future studies. He is unsure of what he wants to do when he leaves school but is finding it interesting to explore the medical world as an option. He says he enjoys the behind the scenes part that the public don’t typically get to tsee, and talking to the doctors is great as they explain everything and help him navigate the medical language that is foreign to him.
Rhianna is also exploring options within the health services for her future studies. Like Lachie, she has been in Orthopaedics and the Emergency Department where she has been placed with the house officer and two other doctors. She has found a lot of value in having open and honest discussions with the doctors about insight into the job, the pros and cons. She says they have been great in not glossing over the cons and have told her about the long hours they put in with their patients. She has also questioned them around university as she contemplates her studies next year.
All students thank Mrs Benge for helping them gain placements at the Whakatane Hospital and look forward to continuing their time there.
Well done to our students who are helping themselves to make informed decisions about their future studies and careers.
NB- Unfortunately Ngarangi was absent so was not able to attend our meeting/ photo.