Postgraduate Funding for Registered Nurses
Applications for 2025 open August 1st 2024 and close Friday 4 October 2024
Before you apply:
PG Funding Application 2025 for Wairarapa Hospital and Specialist Services (HSS)
Applications open on 1 August 2024 and close on Friday 4 October 2024.
Please ensure your application meets the funding eligibility.
- This is not an enrolment to the Tertiary Education Provider (TEP). You need to enrol for your course directly with your education providers.
- This application covers the entire 2025 academic year and is your only opportunity to gain funding.
- All online applicants will be notified when funding becomes available, whether successful or not.
Before you start this application, you will need:
- Previous papers you have completed, and your academic results.
- A completed Professional Development & Career Plan, signed by you and your employer.
- The date of your last Performance Appraisal (HSS employees). This is available on People & Payroll.
- The date you last achieved a Professional Development and Recognition Programme (PDRP) portfolio progression or maintenance.
- Your FTE (e.g. 1.0 FTE +40 hours per week).
Funding application 2025 for Wairarapa Primary & Aged Residential Care Health Service Nurses
Applications open 1 August 2024 and close 4 October 2024.
Please ensure your application meets the funding eligibility.
- This is not an enrolment to the Tertiary Education Provider (TEP). You need to enrol for your course directly with your education providers.
- This application covers the entire 2025 academic year and is your only opportunity to gain funding.
- All online applicants will be notified when funding becomes available, whether successful or not.
Before you start this application, you will need:
- Previous papers you have completed, and your academic results.
- A completed Professional Development & Career Plan, signed by you and your employer.
- The date you last achieved a Professional Development and Recognition Programme (PDRP) portfolio progression or maintenance.
- Your FTE (e.g. 1.0 FTE +40 hours per week).
Before you apply:
Any registered nurse who wishes to apply for funding for 2025 will need to have a career conversation. Career conversations enable you to consider what your future aspirations are, and how your study pathway will support your professional growth.
Please email Hannah Chittick (PG Funding Coordinator) or Kathryn Wadsworth (Clinical Nursing Director) to book your career conversation.
Please bring to your career conversation and be ready to discuss:
- A copy of your academic transcript (if applicable - postgraduate only)
- Completed Professional Development and Career Plan
- What your study plan is for 2025
- What your future aspirations are
- How your plan of study aligns with the Nursing and Midwifery Priorities.
Following your career conversation, you will be able to apply for funding from the 1st of August using the online application form.
The application form will take approximately 20 minutes to complete and you will not be able to save your progress so it must be completed in one sitting.
Funding process
The 2025 application process if for the entire 2025 academic year i.e. Trimester One, Trimester Two and Summer School.
The steps below outline the process for funding applications
- Decide which papers you would like to apply for funding for and complete your Professional Development Career Plan in discussion with your manager to identify career goals and how you will attain them
- Contact and arrange a career conversation - remember to take with you a copy of your academic transcript and your Professional Development Career Plan.
- Apply for funding using the online application form from the 1st of August. It is important that all sections are completed. If you have any trouble with the application form, please contact Hannah.Chittick@wairarapa.dhb.org.nz for assistance. You will receive email acknowledgement of your application. Applications close on the 4th of October 2024.
NB: Hospital staff - Your service Director of Nursing (DON) and line manager will prioritise applications for their area considering roster implications, skill mix on ward, how this paper will improve patient outcomes, how it fits with your areas PD plan, and PDRP level of the applicant.
Eligibility Criteria
The criteria below is the minimum requirement for eligibility. Prioritisation of funding follows the initial application supported by line managers and Directors of Nursing.
- Current PDRP Portfolio (competent or higher) at the time of application.
- 0.6FTE and above.
- Applicants to have completed Career Conversation prior to application.
- Hold a current annual practicing certificate (APC) with no restrictions on that APC that would negatively impact on your ability to participate in the programme.
- Be currently employed as a registered nurse by a health service that is funded by Te Whatu Ora or Ministry of Health from Vote Health.
- Be a New Zealand citizen or hold a New Zealand residency permit as required by the New Zealand Immigration Service
- Meet entry criteria required by the education provider.
- Not a concurrent recipient of scholarships or funding for the same papers that you are applying for funding for.
Postgraduate Education
Postgraduate Education is a formal education programme within a university or approved tertiary provider. Te Whatu Ora prioritises funding for qualifications rather than individual papers, i.e. Postgraduate Certificate (60 pts), Postgraduate Diploma (120 pts) or Masters Degree (180 or 240 pts).
Postgraduate Education for nurses is encouraged and supported because it assists to:
- Develop expert practice and advanced practice roles.
- Improve the delivery of nursing care by encouraging the application of evidence based practice.
- Improve health outcomes.
- Promote ongoing professional development for nurses
Funded courses
Funding is made available through Te Whatu Ora if you, and the qualification you want to complete, meet certain criteria. This funding covers tuition fees, clinical mentoring and clinical release for nurses (trainees) to attend postgraduate nursing training programmes. Funding does not cover travel and accommodation costs for attending compulsory block course days.
Te Whatu Ora will only fund papers leading to a clinical nursing qualification i.e:
- Postgraduate Certificate in Nursing
- Postgraduate Diploma in Nursing
- Master of Nursing
- Master of Health Science
- Masters with Prescribing Practicum
Career Planning
Health Workforce expect that all nurses applying for funding have a robust career plan in place. This means you will need to submit a career plan with your application. Please click here to access a Career Plan resource that will help you to work through a four step process to help you formulate your Professional Development and Career Plan; knowing yourself, exploring possibilities, making choices and making it happen.
If you have received funding in 2024, then you will need to submit a review of the career plan that you submitted in 2023 and provide an updated career plan. Completing the career plan will also help you to think about matters such as:
- How will the paper you are taking benefit your service as well as help meet your aspirations?
- Where you want your career to be in five years time?
- What educational programme will fit in with your plans?
- How you want your practice to grow?
Prescribing Practicum Courses
If you are planning to undertake a RN prescribing practicum or Nurse Practitioner (NP) advanced practice and prescribing practicum course, approval to enrol is required at a service level and the DON. Support to undertake the practicum courses relies on organisational agreement for role development during and after the practicum. A Prescribing Practicum Support Plan must be prepared before commencing the paper. This information also informs work-site planning, funding prioritisation and workforce development.
A Prescribing Practicum Support Plan will address the additional expectations for clinical teaching, prescribing supervision (often medical or NP) and advanced practice mentoring associated with these papers. Postgraduate funding contributes towards the additional costs associated with completing a NP advanced practice and prescribing practicum (e.g. professional supervision, clinical release). For more information or guidance, please contact Hannah.Chittick@wairarapa.dhb.org.nz
Professional Supervision
If professional supervision is part of your practicum plan, a list of supervisors can be obtained by emailing Nursing@wairarapa.dhb.org.nz once your application is approved.
Clinical Mentoring
Application for up to 10-hours clinical mentoring support must be approved prior to undertaking a course requiring this.
This support is only available for courses that require clinical mentoring/clinical mentor in addition to academic teaching/mentoring. Clinical mentoring must be negotiated by the nurse enrolling in the course in consultation with their Line Manager and DON at the time of your career conversation. Approval will be documented in their confirmation email.
Clinical mentoring is the provision of clinical teaching and coaching to support the trainee (nurse) to extend knowledge and skills through clinical experience, critical thinking, skilled health assessment and comprehension of diagnostic measures and outcomes. These skills are required for evidence based clinical reasoning.
Assessment courses that may require clinical mentoring
An assessment paper that requires learning and practising new clinical assessment skills through accessing clinical mentoring to extend practice in the workplace or a new setting.
- Assessment and Clinical Decision Making (Massey University)
- Advanced Assessment and Therapeutic Intervention in Mental Health (Massey University)
- Advanced Assessment and Clinical Reasoning (Victoria University of Wellington)
- Advanced Mental Health Assessment (University of Auckland)
Cultural Support
Te Whatu Ora Wairarapa provides funding for cultural supervision/mentoring and resources to support Māori and Pacific registered nurses undertaking funded postgraduate study.
Cultural Support funding is open to any person who has whakapapa and cultural links to whānau, hapū and iwi (for Māori) or is of Pacific Peoples descent and has established cultural links to the Pacific Peoples' communities.
Definitions
Cultural supervision
Either a formal or informal relationship between members of the same culture with the purpose being to ensure that the supervisee is practising according to the values, protocols and practices of that particular culture. It is about cultural accountability and cultural development (Eruera, 2005).
Mentoring
Mentoring is an advisory role in which an experienced, highly regarded, collegial person guides another individual in the development and examination of their own ideas, learning, and personal and professional development. The relationship is dynamic, complex and reciprocal. It supports growth and bridges the gap between the educational process and the real world. The relationship identifies the talents the mentee already possesses and the nurturing and encouragement of these talents in order to fully develop them (Barker, 2006; College of Health Disciplines, 2005; College of Nurses Aotearoa, 2007).
Mentor
An appropriately qualified and experienced person, who facilitates learning, supervises and assesses trainees continually so that the trainee achieves their outcomes at the end of the programme. Mentors motivate and encourage trainees to continue their education (HW, 2006). A mentor may also be someone trained in providing clinical (professional) supervision.
Cultural development
This support can be combined with cultural supervision or mentoring but funds for cultural development are limited to:
- Cultural resources
- Membership to Māori or Pacific Health Professional Organisations
- Cultural activities including Kuia/Kaumātua, and peer support
