PHN and POWA partner to forge student pathways into primary care

Timed serendipitously during NAIDOC Week, Brisbane North PHN in partnership with the Institute for Urban Indigenous Health's Pathways, Our Way Academy (POWA) were pleased to host a cohort of school-based and adult trainees at our Lutwyche offices for a meet and greet and tour.

POWA – Empowering Mob, Creating Pathways – supports Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people to complete training or traineeships across a variety of roles and qualifications in the allied health sector through real time on-the-job work placement offering practical hands-on experience.

Yesterday's visit was an important coming together of staff, trainees, facilitators and mentors from both of our organisations to gain a mutual understanding of how we can create pathways for First Nations people to learn about, and eventually work in, primary healthcare.

16 trainees and 6 POWA mentors met members our PHN team, learned about our PHN and the work we do improving health and wellbeing outcomes in our community, and are now prepared for potential work placement. Our staff were also able to learn more about the traineeships that our future workforce are undertaking, IUIH's work with POWA, and revisited the SEQ First Nations Health Equity Strategy.

“It gives me more opportunities to choose and also go down the right pathway to be successful.” – POWA trainee.

We were grateful for the energy visiting students brought to our office for the day and were similarly pleased to have been able to inspire them, with some acknowledging a newfound interest in:
“Seeing how else we can help mob, not just from clinical direct support.”
“Making connections with different people.”
“Experiencing different views and ways of doing things.”

As part of our reconciliation journey and action plan, Brisbane North PHN is working towards hosting POWA trainees for placement in the near future.

Quotes given with permission by visiting POW student trainees.