Blokes Lunch a chance to check in

A dozen male students from the School of Nursing came together on Tuesday, enjoying the chance to connect and discuss challenges and opportunities over a Blokes Lunch.

The event was part of Men's Health Week, which is a global health awareness campaign that runs from 15-21 June.

The week focuses on the health issues all men face and raises awareness of steps men can take to help address these.

Busy schedules across Otago Polytechnic’s nursing programme meant many of the first, second, and third year Bachelor of Nursing students had not had the chance to meet ākonga from other years.

3rd year student Jury Zaal says the Blokes Lunch was an opportunity to get all the males from the course together, talking to each other, sharing experiences, and giving some guidance to their younger peers.

“As a third year, chatting with some of the second years, they tend to bring up a lot of placement hardships and challenges,” says Jury.

“Since we’ve been on more placements across a wide range of areas, we can share our experiences and we can empathise with them because we have had similar challenges ourselves.”

Fellow 3rd year student Keegan Hall says that support network of “men supporting men” was valuable for him starting out.

“I remember going to a Blokes Lunch when I was a first year student and I had a good time,” he says.

“I met up with some of the third years and they instilled upon me some of their values and lessons they’d learned over the years. So I think it's important that we as third years come in and do the same thing.”

Keegan works in the mental health space where there’s a higher percentage of male nurses, and believes it’s important to nurture male students.

“There's a lot of areas in healthcare in general where we need more male staff, and it's important that we look after each other and support each other because we need to be in these environments,” he says.

Jury believes male nurses can bring a slightly different perspective to the job, and admits he hears a lot of comments during placements saying we need more male nurses.

He likes the concept of Men’s Health Week and admits men can be pretty bad at talking to each other.

“Men do need to open up a bit more often. A place like this can always be helpful, just to get a starting point and seeing how much it benefits them.”

Why do we have Men’s Health Week?   (from Men's Health Week NZ)

• Men are on the back foot from the start. A boy born today will live nearly four years less than a girl born in the room next door. He will be over 20% more likely to die of a heart attack than the girl, and almost 30% more likely to get diabetes.
  
  
• Worse, he is three times more likely to die by suicide or in a motor car crash.
  
  
• 8 Kiwi families every day lose a loved partner, father or tupuna to a PREVENTABLE illness, one they didn’t need to die from.
  
  
• Māori and Pasifika men live significantly shorter lives on average than other races in NZ.
  
  
• Almost one Kiwi man in four will die before they reach retirement age. One in four of us won’t live to retire.

We can do something to change these numbers by making small changes to things we eat, drink and do.

It’s not hard – small steps can really make a big difference. Little changes can and do lead to big results.

Start small, walk a little, eat a little less….…..see and feel the changes, enjoy life more, live longer.