Welcome to the NETP/NESP intake to Te Whatu Ora Lakes

26/01/2023

The 2023 cohort of the Te Whatu Ora Lakes graduate nurse programme kicked off this week with a whakatau at Tunuhopu Marae.

There are 18 nurses, 16 on the New Entrant Training programme (NETP) and two on the New Entrant Specialist Programme (NESP), which is for nurses entering the mental health sector.

Graduates are in a range of clinical settings across the region, ranging from emergency departments and theatre in Rotorua and Taupō to community settings such as Pihanga Health in Tūrangi and hospice.

The grads will be supported through the year with study days to develop their new nursing skills as well as completing a range of other further education.

Once again, this year, the new graduates were welcomed to Te Whatu ora Lakes with a pohiri and whanaungatanga at Tunohopu marae in Ohinemutu, and a hikoi around the local area.

“We start with a visit to Tunuhopu as it helps the new graduates feel culturally welcome and ready for their cultural journey within health,” said Alice Street, Associate Director of Nursing (NETP and PDU).

Some of this year’s cohort are local to the lakes area, and others are from further afield.

“We look forward to having these new nurses in our varied areas so please give them a smile and make them feel welcome.”

She said it was the first time in “a very long time” that there have been graduate nurses at Lakes PrimeCare and Pihanga Health.

NETP nurses: Aaron Cole (Medical), Dannielle Sharp (Taupō Theatre), Sebastian Gabriel Tolentino (Medical), Lillian Tuhoro (Orthopaedic), Anna Fraser (Outpatients), Joann Hutton-Smith (Renal), Helen Salt (Taupō ED), Ngawaea Taia (Rotorua ED), Iris Tom (Rotorua ED), Anthony Jenkins (Surgical), Jazmin Brown (Taupō ED), Ruelle Ela Bacal (Rotorua Theatre), Nadia Reid (Taupō Inpatient Unit), Sophie Bell (Lakes PrimeCare), Emma Watson (Hospice), Giovanna Haines (Pihanga Health).

NESP: Sarah Grace Barton and Portia Janes.