{"id":77444,"date":"2022-11-08T23:40:44","date_gmt":"2022-11-08T23:40:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/loopbeatzz.info\/wp\/low-decile-students-shown-they-can-go-to-university-and-join-the-health-workforce-stuff\/"},"modified":"2022-11-08T23:40:44","modified_gmt":"2022-11-08T23:40:44","slug":"low-decile-students-shown-they-can-go-to-university-and-join-the-health-workforce-stuff","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/loopbeatzz.info\/wp\/low-decile-students-shown-they-can-go-to-university-and-join-the-health-workforce-stuff\/","title":{"rendered":"Low decile students shown they can go to university and join the health workforce – Stuff"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ateliana Taufa <\/strong>knows about inequity, she saw it every day at school.
\u201cYou\u2019ll see these flash-as cars going into their school, and then at ours you will see these little bombs,\u201d the 22-year-old, whose old school, \u014ct\u0101huhu College (decile 1), borders King\u2019s College (decile 10).
It was at the former where a career adviser tried to dissuade her from her dream of studying dentistry<\/a>. Now Taufa, who graduates with an oral health degree from the University of Otago next month, will return to her old Auckland school to speak to students about academic opportunities.
Many of those she began high school with didn\u2019t make it to their final year. Many left for work, some for motherhood, while others went into gangs.
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Now Taufa is returning to work in South Auckland, in a role she likens to being \u201clike a dentist for little kids\u201d.
It was during her first placement in the same area that she \u201csaw stuff that I\u2019ve never seen\u201d.
\u201cI didn\u2019t want to go and work at a DHB, but after my placement I was sold.\u201d
She was one of dozens of students involved in the Socioeconomic Equity (EQ) Project, which supports domestic students from lower decile (1 to 3) schools<\/a> to progress into health professional programmes, and ultimately the health workforce.
Four years ago, 24 students were admitted to a health professional programme under the scheme, and this year the first cohort will graduate as health professionals \u2013 seven in physiotherapy, and several in pharmacy and oral health.
Dentistry and medicine students who came through the scheme will graduate in a few years.
Amy Hudson, 22, attended Kaikohe Christian School and was \u201cthe only person who went to university in my year\u201d.
\u201cIf I didn\u2019t come [to Otago] I\u2019d probably be working with my dad, a contractor who spreads fertiliser.\u201d
That was a summer job while she studied, but next month she graduates with a degree in pharmacy and will return to Northland. She will work as a pharmacist in Kawakawa (population 1500), some 30 minutes from her hometown.
The town\u2019s pharmacist, who had been searching for a replacement since another pharmacist went on maternity leave, helped pay for Hudson\u2019s internship programme.
Also part of the programme and due to graduate this month with degrees in physiotherapy are Anna Taylor, 21, of Levin, and Beverly Thompson, 21, of Kaitaia.
Both were from schools where trades were pushed \u201cbecause they don\u2019t assume we will go to university\u201d, Taylor, who is now working in Dunedin, said.
Growing up in her neighbourhood, she felt privileged \u201ccompared to some kids in my class who didn\u2019t have lunch\u201d.
\u201cAnd then you are the bottom when you get here,\u201d she said of the culture shock of attending Otago with students from all over New Zealand and the world.
Thompson initially didn\u2019t want to attend Otago as she thought Dunedin was \u201ctoo far away … and too cold\u201d.
But an open day visit convinced her, particularly the compact campus and nearby student quarter.
All four women highlighted the competitive nature of getting into first year health sciences, but felt supported by the EQ Project.
The programme recognised the significant educational and health inequities that exist, and how EQ students could make significant differences within their diverse communities, a spokesperson said.
More than half of all health professional programme students at Otago were from schools from the upper three deciles (in 2022, 55.8% were from decile 8 to 10 schools, and just 4.6% were decile 1 to 3).
The EQ Project offered support for its students including academic and social activities, which were underpinned by M\u0101ori values and about building a sense of EQ wh\u0101nau and community.
Thompson, who now has a job at Christchurch Hospital, admitted she did not know how to study when she arrived at Otago, but extra tutorials helped her.
All four women said the programme supported them from their first year to graduation, and they wanted others from similar schools and backgrounds to think about university as an option.
Hudson said whenever she returned to talk to her former school now, students were interested in studying at Otago, including medicine.
\u201cThat\u2019s a big change.\u201d
EQ students\u2019 ability to understand, relate and connect with their communities as health professionals offered unique value to the health workforce, the project spokesperson said.
The students also became advocates for the project, showing others a career in the health sector was achievable.
It was also important to raise awareness of the EQ Project among secondary school staff, including science teachers and career advisers, so students could be well advised on NCEA subjects before pursuing university studies, they said.
The programme would continue to work with socio economically-challenged school communities when school funding shifts from the decile system to the new Equity Index in 2023<\/a>.
\u00a9 2022 Stuff Limited<\/p>\n

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Ateliana Taufa knows about inequity, she saw it every day at school. \u201cYou\u2019ll see these flash-as cars going into their school, and then at ours you will see these little bombs,\u201d the 22-year-old, whose old school, \u014ct\u0101huhu College (decile 1), borders King\u2019s College (decile 10). It was at the former where a career adviser tried […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":77445,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-77444","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/loopbeatzz.info\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77444","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/loopbeatzz.info\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/loopbeatzz.info\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/loopbeatzz.info\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/loopbeatzz.info\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=77444"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/loopbeatzz.info\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77444\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/loopbeatzz.info\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/77445"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/loopbeatzz.info\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=77444"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/loopbeatzz.info\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=77444"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/loopbeatzz.info\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=77444"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}