A 15-year effort to fill gaps in the Taranaki health workforce has almost doubled the proportion of Māori working for the region’s public health service.
As New Zealand struggles to attract doctors and nurses in a global shortage, and regions are forced to compete with the big cities for health workers, Taranaki has nurtured a homegrown response.
Whakatipuranga Rima Rau (Generation 500) was set up in 2010 to attract 500 Māori into the region’s health sector over a decade.
Back then, Māori were 6.6% of the workforce at Taranaki District Health Board.
These days, 11.3% of Taranaki staff are Māori at what’s now Te Whatu Ora (Health NZ), which employs about half of the region’s health workers.
The Whakatipuranga Rima Rau trust didn’t hit the target of 500 doctors, nurses, support workers and other health and disability staff within 10 years, but its work continues under a new brand, Why Ora.
Why Ora currently has 209 Māori registered as in health jobs in Taranaki, with a further 58 in tertiary study for health careers.
Sixty-five senior high school students learned about hauora career possibilities at two recent workshops hosted by Tui Ora in New Plymouth and Ngāruahine Iwi Health Services in Manāia.
It was Why Ora’s first time partnering with Māori service providers, with previous Rapuara Hauora (health careers) workshops held at Taranaki Base and Hawera hospitals.
Students got a look inside Māori health workplaces and hands-on learning with professionals.
Why Ora kaiārahi (guide) Liahna Smith said taking an interactive approach inside kaupapa Māori spaces “made it so awesome for everyone involved”.
“The positivity about being Māori and working to serve whānau: 100% we would want to continue this approach in the future.”
Smith’s boss, pou whakahaere (chief executive) Tanya Anaha, said it fortified Why Ora’s determination to grow a strong, capable Māori health workforce.
“This partnership not only gave our taiohi (teenagers) a valuable opportunity to explore the many career pathways into sustainable, high-income roles within the health sector, but also allowed our providers to showcase the incredible services they deliver to our communities.”
Tui Ora’s kaumātua talked about the value of health and support services they receive, said facilitator Leanne Matuku.
One elder had a mokopuna in the student group.
“Now our kaumātua have seen the programme the vine is going to happen – whānau will be saying to each other ‘why isn’t your boy here’?” she said.
Ngāruahine Iwi Health Services kaiwhakarite (manager) Warren Nicholls said Rapuara Hauora events opened up pathways to meaningful work for taiohi.
“It’s very rewarding to establish a whakapapa connection or linkage that offers taiohi a further sense of identity and belonging – and both humbling and a privilege to share ourselves and our insights, to support these taiohi in reaching their potential.”
The late Dame Tariana Turia launched Whakatipuranga Rima Rau while in coalition with National during John Key’s premiership.
As associate health minister, she said it was “the most impressive expression” of kotahitanga, whanaungatanga, kaitiakitanga and rangatiratanga (unity, relationship, stewardship and self-determination).
“There is a wider vision yet – even more impressive than 500 jobs – and that is to create the expectation and indeed the reality that Taranaki will have a competent, skilled Maori health and disability workforce.”
Despite the doubled presence of tangata whenua in Te Whatu Ora’s Taranaki workforce, that 11.3% would need to double again to match the Māori share of the region’s population.
Why Ora has expanded its indigenous career empowerment mahi to also help Māori onto other career paths, particularly education.
LDR is local body reporting co-funded by RNZ and NZ on Air
