Road Show to Recruit Maori School-Leavers; Health Sector Education

By DAVIS, Joanna

Health officials are trying to encourage more Maori into health jobs to turn around huge under- representation in the sector.

Canterbury District Health Board (CDHB) Maori and Pacific health director Hector Matthews said Maori tended to take easy options at school, opting out of science subjects and not aiming high enough when choosing a career.

Next month, the board will launch a road show around South Island high schools targeting Year 9 to 11 Maori students and aiming to attract them to a health career.

Cazna Luke, from Mokowhiti Consultancy, which will lead the recruitment effort, said: “We want to get the message across that there are many exciting career opportunities available within the health sector, other than the traditional nurse or doctor.

“Our aim is to catch students before they make subject decisions at high school which may later mean pathways into health careers are closed to them.”

Matthews said he hoped an independent evaluation of the project at the end of the year would help secure Health Ministry funding.

He said society had turned around low numbers of women in medicine and needed to apply similar strategies to Maori.

He said having Maori providers would improve the confidence of Maori using the health system. “I get lots of comments from Maori patients saying that little things can make a difference, like when they walk into a health service and if someone says `Kia ora’ and pronounces their name properly, doors just open up.”

Matthews said it would also be a more accurate reflection of the community. A 2005 survey of the CDHB’s more than 8000 staff showed only 1.5 per cent of the workforce identified as Maori. This compared with about 9% of Canterbury’s population.

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