Wyndham Maternal Child Health Pilot Program a Winner

Wyndham City’s Maternal Child Health Pilot program has been overwhelmingly successful, resulting in four Maternal Child Health students who completed the program all being offered a permanent position with Wyndham City Council.

Wyndham City’s Employment Pathways program, in partnership with our Maternal & Child Health Team, have delivered the pilot program through funding by the Department of Health.

The four students are Registered Nurses/Midwives who participated in additional study in Maternal and Child Health. They were selected for the pilot program to enhance their professional development, learning and knowledge about nursing practice in a local government setting. The program started last month and finished on 17 October.

The pilot program gave an insight into various Council services, as well as a specialist psychology service for perinatal mental health, with current Maternal Child Health staff mentoring and supervising the student’s development.

The students have come from the hospital sector working in acute settings. Three of the four students are local and live in Wyndham and one student is from Geelong.

They have a passion to work with local families and were overwhelmed by learnings from the program.

Wyndham City Mayor and Healthy City portfolio holder Cr Adele Hegedich said: “Wyndham City is delighted with the outcome of the Pilot program. It is a shining example of students participating in a pilot placement program with a fabulous outcome.”

“We knew this program was great – but the positive feedback the students shared was more than we ever expected.”

The program aimed to provide the students with an overview of Council to enhance their knowledge, expertise and assist with their Maternal Child Health role in the future.

“It was a fantastic opportunity for them to get a feel and understanding of the different areas in Council and the support that is available. This is so important as Maternal Child Health nurses need to refer parents and carers to a wide variety of support services,” Cr Hegedich said.

Sessions provided the opportunity for the students to learn, ask questions, seek further information and bounce ideas off of each other and the Session facilitator.

For more information visit https://www.wyndham.vic.gov.au/careers/employment-pathways