Nurses in the spotlight

There are plenty of milestones to celebrate at WITT Te Pūkenga on International Nurses Day (Friday 12 May). And what better way to celebrate than with cake for all nursing kaimahi and ākonga on campus on the day.

“The focus for this year’s celebration is ‘Our Nurses Our Future’ and we want everyone to see what an amazing career you can have with a nursing qualification,” says WITT Te Pūkenga Deputy Director and Lead  Nursing Helen Lelean.

Nursing has been a mainstay programme at WITT over much of the last 50 years and this year record numbers of learners are enrolled in the Bachelor of Nursing programme.

Next year WITT Te Pūkenga will introduce the new unified nursing curriculum, also being rolled out across New Zealand.

In other changes, WITT is also offering the new Enrolled Nursing (Level 5) progamme starting in July this year. The programme has been so well received there are only limited places left.

“We’re not surprised that the new programme is proving to be really popular – you can enrol in July this year and be out working as an Enrolled Nurse at the start of 2025,” says Helen.

Ākonga learn the theory and clinical nursing practice required to apply for registration as an enrolled nurse with the Nursing Council of New Zealand and work under the direction and delegation of a Registered Nurse. The Enrolled Nursing qualification is also recognised internationally.

WITT also offers professional development for nurses already in the workforce with a range of short courses including diabetes care and management, introduction to supervision, trauma informed care, preceptoring and intravenous cannulation.

To round off the reasons to celebrate, nursing lecturers Helen Lelean and Coral Tamblin are both celebrating 30 years of being qualified nurses, Tara Malone 30 years since she began her training and Kylie Robertson celebrates 25 years as a registered nurse.

“When I first enrolled in my studies I never dreamed that I would one day be on the other side of the classroom teaching new nursing students, but that goes to show the versatility of a nursing qualification – you never know just where it can take you,” says Helen.