Studying for her nursing degree was an “amazing journey” and one in a series for Ingrid Foss, a Hastings mother-of-five who graduates from EIT on Friday (March 21).Launching into tertiary education, Ingrid had just enrolled for EIT’s National Certificate in Mental Health when she found she was expecting her youngest child, now aged six.  With classmates tracking the progress of her pregnancy and the arrival of baby Chloe, she persevered to gain her qualification – and with flying colours.

“The ink hadn’t dried on my certificate,” Ingrid says, when she started work at the Hawke’s Bay District Health Board’s mental health and support unit.  She then went on to become the first to complete EIT’s newly-established Diploma in Mental Health.

Even before beginning diploma studies, Ingrid had decided she should also work towards a Bachelor of Nursing.

“I wanted something that would make me stand out from other nursing graduates in what has become a very competitive job market.  So I decided to do the diploma first and then the degree.  I felt I really had to get my act together to gain acceptance into the degree programme but I already had the time management skills.  I knew it was within the realm of possibility.”

Looking back on her time at EIT, she now wonders how she managed study, full-time work, pregnancy and a new-born baby.

“The lecturers were great and I got excellent marks.  I went into classes and practicums with a smile on my face.  I went in there as a professional – it was about patient care,” she says.

Chloe’s older brother Daniel gets Ingrid’s “son of the decade award” for his support – “he put in many hours looking after his little sister” – and friends and other family members, including her mother Pam Zachan, were there for her as well.

Born in Napier, Ingrid attended Central Hawke’s Bay College and moved back to Hawke’s Bay from the Bay of Plenty in 1992.  It was a decade of voluntary work, including four years with the Napier branch of Riding for the Disabled, that put her on the health professional pathway.

Excited to be launching into her career with a position working in mental health, Ingrid says “degree studies have opened my eyes to other areas of nursing.  Practicums gave me the experience of working in hospital wards, the Takapau Health Centre and nine weeks last year in the Hawke’s Bay Hospital’s intensive care unit, with one week in-flight nursing.  I loved that.”

Ingrid feels EIT study has opened her up to world she hadn’t experienced before and that she now has the skills and knowledge to move forward – “my next journey has only just begun.”