Hospice Scholarships

Introduction

Since 2007, BNI New Zealand and Hospice New Zealand have proudly stood together as national partners, working to ensure equity of access and consistent delivery of palliative and end of life care for people with a life-limiting illness.

Over the past 16 years, BNI New Zealand has donated $197,000 to fully fund the BNI Palliative Care Scholarships Programme, supporting Hospice New Zealand’s commitment to growing leaders in palliative care.

The national priority for the BNI Palliative Care Scholarship Programme in 2021 and 2022 was to continue supporting the professional development of psychosocial and allied health staff employed at member hospices. This area of the workforce remains at a disadvantage when accessing professional development funding. Each scholarship contributes towards tuition/course fees for post graduate study via an accredited institution. We sincerely appreciate BNI New Zealand’s support for this important aspect of our work.

Scholarship Recipients

In 2022, 10 scholarships were awarded. The applications were assessed by a panel that included two Clinical Advisors, the Hospice NZ CEO, and the Education Programmes Facilitator.

In total, scholarships were awarded to staff from 15 hospices across the country. Recipients held a diversity of roles, from counsellors and family support coordinators to a music therapist and clinical community liaison manager.

The Impact of the BNI Scholarships

Janine Flowers – Family Support Coordinator, Rotorua Community Hospice
Master of Counselling, Waikato University
Awarded 2021

"Through my role of Family Support Coordinator at Rotorua Community Hospice, I have become aware of how little New Zealand society talks about death and dying. I am interested in the use of language in palliative care, and how some people struggle to talk about the process of dying. This can lead to some patients and families being ill prepared for death which can complicate the grieving process.  This interest led me to undertake the Waikato University’s Master of Counselling which specialises in Narrative Therapy and the social construction of language.

The BNI scholarship has provided financial support alleviating some of the financial burden which comes with post graduate study. The opportunity provided by BNI has supported my practice in working with patients and whānau, through providing grief and loss counselling based on sound therapeutic knowledge.

I really appreciate the opportunity that the BNI Palliative Care Scholarship provides in supporting higher education, which in turn supports the people who use Hospice Family Support services."

___________________________

Anjalee Pieries – Operations Manager, Amitabha Hospice
Psychological Wellbeing in Organisations, Massey University
Awarded 2021

"The course study has equipped me with the necessary knowledge on how to improve psychological well-being in a workforce by bringing benefits to both individual employees and the hospice as a whole. All our staff and volunteers are constantly helping people who are experiencing much emotional distress at their end of life’s journey. As this is a very demanding and stressful job, it is important to create a healthy and stress-free environment for all our staff.

 Thanks to this learning opportunity I gained much knowledge of current theoretical and methodological issues covering psychological aspects of health and wellbeing in organisations. It also gave me the ability to critically evaluate theory and practice in this area and to apply psychological knowledge and methods to identify problems in workplace health and safety and finally it gave me the ability to identify factors that contribute to overall wellness and performance at work.

In order to meet the evolving NZ palliative care needs of patients and their family, it's critical to promote professional development. I would like to take this opportunity to thank BNI New Zealand for providing hospice staff with this invaluable opportunity."

Julianne Rose - Counsellor & Family Support Team Leader, North Haven Hospice
Live Online Mindful Self-Compassion, The Centre for Mindful Self-Compassion
Awarded 2022

"This was a great online course. It was therapeutic for me first off after the long lock downs and the other stressors from the effects of covid19 precautions that was put in place.

For my practice as a counsellor I was able to use the tools I learnt with patients and the their whānau with some good success. I also put on a 4 week 1hr session for staff and volunteers to pass on some of the tools and practices I learnt - some very positive feedback.

It was also good to experience an online course like this, maybe something that I can offer in the future for patients and their whānau. Thank you so much for the scholarship I am very grateful."

 Clarice Chung – Clinical Lead, Allied Health/Physiotherapist, Totara Hospice
Postgraduate Certificate in Health Science, Auckland University of Technology
Awarded 2022

A few quotes from other scholarship recipients highlight the diversity of study people have undertaken and the value of the BNI Scholarship Programme: