EIT graduate Jenny Easton is always going to be a Hawke’s Bay girl at heart, but she’s loving her first nursing job in Timaru.
Jenny grew up on family farms in OngaOnga and Otane and, after finishing school at Central Hawke’s Bay College, studied for her Bachelor of Nursing at the Eastern Institute of Technology.
She recently moved south to take up a position with the South Canterbury District Health Board at the public hospital in Timaru. Now she’s eagerly anticipating a trip home to take part in EIT’s graduation ceremony on March 25.
“My Mum, Dad, partner and brother will be at graduation. Hopefully it will be warm. I’ve missed the warm weather so much, even though we have had a 40 degree day down here.”
The 21-year-old is also looking forward to catching up with classmates and to meeting her lecturers.
She says she feels very lucky to have gone to EIT – “it’s modern with great resources, a lovely campus, close to home and (as a recipient of a Year 13 Study Grant) the fees for my first year and a half were free”.
After completing her Bachelor of Nursing studies, Jenny accepted a New Graduate Registered Nurse position in Timaru because she wanted a generalised setting to start her career.
“People have said you learn more and get to know the people really well in a small hospital, and I wanted to get out of my comfort zone and move away from Hawke’s Bay.”
Flatting with two others, Jenny finds Timaru has plenty going for it.
“It’s a nice town, two hours to Christchurch and two hours to Dunedin and close to the ski fields. It has a lovely beach called Caroline Bay. The weather’s a bit colder than in Hawke’s Bay so hopefully I’ll acclimatise.”
Having spent three weeks assigned to another Registered Nurse for her orientation at Timaru Hospital, she now has a six-month rotation working in a surgical ward where patients have included survivors of the Christchurch earthquake.
“One of them told me she had come here in a 4WD with a family member because the ambulances were too busy.”
Jenny would like to have several years’ hospital experience, preferably in the surgical area, and to then move into practice nursing, community nursing or perhaps mental health.
“I’m not too sure about travelling yet, but I’d maybe look at Australia which is always very tempting for nurses.”
But right now, she’s enjoying Timaru – hanging out with other new graduate nurses, making new friends and picking up interests that were parked while she undertook her nursing education.