Yes, I have met the Prime Minister

I can now officially say that I have shaken hands with our Prime Minister, John Key. (And this after only being in country for two years...Impressive)

It has been my privilege to have the opportunity to work with a wonderful group of specialist nurses out in the Horowhenua PHO. I was there for three weeks in Levin working in a mostly observational role with my nursing program getting a chance to really see, first hand, the impact of primary health care services in the community. I have to say that I have never been so impressed and inspired. It was the most amazing placement and I thoroughly enjoyed getting to work with such skilled nurses. The services available to people living with long-term conditions is just phenomenal in this country.

While I was working at the Horowhenua PHO we were invited to attend the ceremony for St. John ambulance service Urgent Community Care (UCC) pilot program. It was here that I got to shake hands with the Prime Minister as well as Otaki MP, Nathan Guy. They were there to present to St. John a check for $700,000 to support the UCC program in continuing in order to allow for time to evaluate the progress of the pilot program. Have a look at the above articles as they explain the program in more detail. In my personal opinion I think the UCC is an exceptional idea and I hope for the future it will continue and branch out into other communities. While I was simply there with my preceptor, it was cool to be there for this ceremony as I am also a volunteer with St. John and could recognise the huge impact this funding will have for their service.

Overall, my time in Horowhenua was just a wonderful experience. I stayed with a lovely family down there - with three small children under the age of five -you can imagine how quiet my house seems now that I am home! haha...

As school has pretty much consumed my life of late, and Travis has also been very busy, we haven't done much tramping or anything very exciting really. We hope to get out some time in the next two weeks to do something nice as spring is quickly arriving.

While I don't have any cool pictures to post; it is not every day that you shake the Prime Minister's hand, so I felt that it was "blog worthy".