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New Maori nurses are struggling to find jobs, even though the health system is claiming that it needs more nurses who can respond to the needs of Maori patients and clients.
Whitirea has just graduated the third cohort from its Bachelor of Nursing programme, with 100 percent of its students passing the state finals exam.
Willis Katene, the dean of its Faculty of Te Wananga Maori, says most of the students were older Maori women looking to re-enter the workforce.
They're now looking for jobs, but it's a tight market.
"We hear that the need is there but the jobs aren't. But we encourage our people to persevere because it is not going to be like this forever, and we know that with an aging population the health needs are going to be greater in the next 20 to 30 years and what we are hearing, especially from the DHBs, is they are becoming more proactive about wanting to employ nurses who are able to work well with our people, Ms Katene says.
She says the Whitirea course tries to normalise te ao Maori in the way the three-year programme is delivered, so the nurses build up confidence in themselves as Maori, especially in their use of te reo Maori.
FOR THE FULL INTERVIEW WITH WILLIS KATENE CLICK ON THE LINK
https://secure.zeald.com/uma/play_podcast?podlink=MjI2NTQ=
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