Bachelor of Nursing - HAUORA TARANAKI - Diane Sharpe

Diane Sharpe always wanted to help people so, the 22-year-old Coastal woman went to WITT to study for a Bachelor of Nursing degree. “I could not really see myself doing anything else,” she says. After three years’ intensive study, Diane graduated in 2007 and went straight into the community as a practice nurse for primary health organisation Hauora Taranaki.

“It’s worked out really great being out in the community.” Her job involves working in a handful of medical centres around north Taranaki, including the Devon Medical Centre in New Plymouth.

She loves the variety of being a practice nurse. “No day’s the same and it gets very busy.”

The best part of her job is the interaction with patients. “I can see anybody from six weeks old to 95 years old,” she says.

Her role involves people and their needs, including wound care, diabetic education and management, weight control, administering injections, taking blood samples and cleaning out ears.“You get to know the patients when they are well and when they are unwell – it’s very holistic,” she says.

Also on the job, Diane has gained her immunisation certificate, is a trainee cervical smear taker, a support person for people wanting to quit smoking and has also completed a course on self-management from the patients’ perspective.

She also learnt a great deal while studying at WITT. “I did a lot of different placements and I got a variety of everything, from rest homes, to primary health, occupational nursing, in the (hospital) wards and in ICU (Intensive Care Unit),” Diane says.

“The tutors were always really supportive, especially when you were out on your placements.” Diane says the tutors on the Level 7 course were also extremely knowledgeable and the facilities were excellent, especially the clinical skills laboratory classroom at the hospital.

“That’s where we did all our clinical, hands-on training before we got to work with patients.”