Cleaners, hospitality workers and caregivers at Auckland City Hospital could soon be healthcare assistants.
It's part of a new "Earn and Learn" programme aimed at upskilling employees to help tackle the desperate shortage of nursing staff.
On Ward 77 at Auckland City Hospital, you'll find Sarina Prasad. For six years she worked there as a cleaner.
"When you do cleaning you aren't allowed to assist patients. Sometimes they want water, coffee or tea which in my cleaning job I wasn't allowed to do and I always wanted to help them," Prasad said.
And now she can because she's upskilled through a new hospital initiative to become a qualified health care assistant.
"I think it makes it really accessible for people to get paid while they are training. It is one of the ways to fill roles in the health care system," Earn and Learn programme leader Helen Nattrass said.
"There is a real demand for healthcare workers and this is an initiative we wanted to introduce to support our wards and nursing staff."
Health care assistants are a crucial workforce working across clinics, wards, emergency departments and operating rooms.
Previously they had to be fully qualified before they were considered for an assistant role, but this nine-month programme allows students to learn while they earn - getting the practical skills and qualifications on the job. And it's proving successful.
The first cohort of 44 students graduated on Saturday including Prasad and Keziah Toalii Nielsen, who assists nurses in theatre.
"It's always been my dream of mine to become a nurse. I saw the earn and learn programme as an opportunity to bridge me to nursing," Nielsen said.
Nattrass agreed and said it could also be a career some people end up sticking with.
"For some people, it might be their forever job or for others it might be a stepping stone on their journey. We have a lot of people who are keen to pursue nursing and midwifery and we have support in place if they wanted to."
Other hospitals are trying similar programmes with the aim of boosting the numbers of staff in a strained healthcare sector.
"Moving forward we want to have four intakes per year for this programme and to be our predominant means of recruiting health care assistants," Nattrass said.
Prasad is thrilled she is able to help out.
"Sometimes the nurses are so busy we need someone on the floor to help the patient. So here I am."
Back in the same ward she started, but this time qualified and ready to help those in some of their greatest times of need.
