Who We Are

Really enjoyed the training and new learning. Great Course and very relevant content; really enjoyed the role modelling activity – Awesome!

Great course, opens up and challenges thinking, questioning process when working with adolescence; a very good course. Thank you. Informative, encouraging and thought provoking.

It was a honour and pleasure to have you guys come out and share your wisdom thank you so much

Just needed to tell you that this stuff (oars and dares) is transformational. I've tried my first forays with adults (obesity and alcohol) and even with a couple of young people.

Many thanks for presenting at the Goodfellow Symposium. We were thrilled by the attendance, the atmosphere and the quality of presentations. Once again I appreciate your contribution to the success of the symposium.

Thank you Maria, Pat and team at Health Connections for the workshop you provided for our nurses (and one GP) in Christchurch. As a Team Leader I was very impressed by the quality of your processes right from the beginning of the negotiation for us contracting your service to the presentation. I appreciated the detailed programme ideas combined with the ability to “flex” to our specific goals and geographical setting. Sitting beside one of our local GP’s during some of the workshop it was great to hear her praise of your teaching frameworks as well. Your presentation was very well constructed with great prompts to remind us of previous learning – dusting off a few cobwebs but yet ensuring we had a solid base to incorporate new knowledge. In my role as Team Leader it was great to know my team were all on the same page with a secure foundational knowledge base and yet inspired for the next level. As a team we have been inspired to make better use of our HEADSSS assessments - increased confidence to use Brief Intervention and formulate more effective Youth and Whanau centred health plans. Your evidenced based presentation has also inspired a new level of hunger for up-to-date researched clinical practice for my team – all but one (who near retirement felt she had an excuse clause) have begun the process of doing their PDRP and are encouraging other locally employed school nurses also. Many also on the team are looking at semester two next year as a group to apply for post graduate study, even two looking at Nursing Practitioner level. When you consider the costs of investing in professional development and I now look at the ongoing benefits it has certainly paid dividends beyond expectations. Also wanted to make special mention of Maria, her exceptional knowledge base and ability to give examples from her practice and encourage the learner to reflect on their own practice was invaluable. Maria has also provided post workshop support with resources for our team which again has been fantastic. Have really appreciated being connected to the team at Health Connections and feel connected literally to a new support network in itself because of the knowledgeable and passionate team they are. Thank you Vivienne Neilson Team Leader School Based Nursing Nurse Maude Christchurch