{"id":848511,"date":"2026-08-08T23:40:13","date_gmt":"2026-08-08T23:40:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/848511\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T23:40:13","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T23:40:13","slug":"new-healthcare-focused-school-subject-could-jump-start-next-generation-of-workers-doctor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/848511\/","title":{"rendered":"New healthcare-focused school subject could jump start next generation of workers &#8211; doctor"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"[&amp;_em]:font-serif-text-italic [&amp;_cite]:font-serif-text-italic\">A new healthcare-focused high school subject could jump start the next generation of medical professionals, a Northland provider says.<\/p>\n<p class=\"[&amp;_em]:font-serif-text-italic [&amp;_cite]:font-serif-text-italic\">That included a course on &#8220;health services and care&#8221;, which Ng\u0101ti Hine Health Trust clinical advisor Dr Mataroria Lyndon said would be a great opportunity to attract youngsters to the sector.<\/p>\n<p class=\"[&amp;_em]:font-serif-text-italic [&amp;_cite]:font-serif-text-italic\">&#8220;I came through as a doctor and did my training but never had the opportunity to be exposed earlier, especially at high school,&#8221; Dr Lyndon said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"[&amp;_em]:font-serif-text-italic [&amp;_cite]:font-serif-text-italic\">&#8220;Part of the learning will be around understanding care situations, communication&#8230; And then expose them at an earlier stage to the different types of health roles, whether that be medicine, nursing, community carers, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rnz.co.nz\/news\/political\/903824\/mental-health-support-providers-welcome-long-awaited-action-plan-to-improve-system\" class=\"underline-brand-hover visited:text-foreground-secondary hover:visited:text-foreground-primary\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">mental health workers<\/a>.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"[&amp;_em]:font-serif-text-italic [&amp;_cite]:font-serif-text-italic\">He said students would have a chance to observe different types of health roles in real world settings, which he hoped would include Ng\u0101ti Hine clinics.<\/p>\n<p class=\"[&amp;_em]:font-serif-text-italic [&amp;_cite]:font-serif-text-italic\">&#8220;As a subject now going forward it&#8217;ll help young people see a place for themselves in healthcare and in the community workforce,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"[&amp;_em]:font-serif-text-italic [&amp;_cite]:font-serif-text-italic\">&#8220;Traditionally we might think of health workers as doctors and nurses, but those at the Ng\u0101ti Hine Health Trust for example&#8230; There are community carers, there are podiatrists, nutritionists, community health workers, health promotion, it&#8217;s just a good opportunity to have those pathways into the health workforce much earlier.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"[&amp;_em]:font-serif-text-italic [&amp;_cite]:font-serif-text-italic\">He hoped students would feel inspired to enter the health workforce at a time when it was facing severe shortages.<\/p>\n<p class=\"[&amp;_em]:font-serif-text-italic [&amp;_cite]:font-serif-text-italic\">&#8220;We&#8217;re among the largest providers in Northland, so hopefully we can grow our own workforce to have more students in Northland studying earlier,&#8221; Dr Lyndon said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"[&amp;_em]:font-serif-text-italic [&amp;_cite]:font-serif-text-italic\">&#8220;Today&#8217;s students are tomorrow&#8217;s health professionals, so it&#8217;s exciting to see these opportunities.&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A new healthcare-focused high school subject could jump start the next generation of medical professionals, a Northland provider&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":848512,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[64,63,137,500],"class_list":["post-848511","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-healthcare","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-health","tag-healthcare"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/848511","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=848511"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/848511\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/848512"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=848511"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=848511"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=848511"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}