Three generations of nurses graduate from MIT

This story originally featured in the Papakura Courier and online on stuff.co.nz. 

This May, Georga Brinkman will be the third generation of nurses to graduate from MIT nursing, following in the footsteps of her mother, Manja Brinkman, and grandmother, Hendrieka van Weeghel.

Georga is now a Graduate Nurse in Radiology at Middlemore Hospital, joining Manja, who is the Clinical Nurse Manager in Women's Health and Urology at Manukau Superclinic. Hendrieka worked in the Post-natal, Rehabilitation, Orthopaedic and Medical wards prior to becoming a Practice Nurse in Waiuku up until her retirement last year.

Over the past 32 years, all three have worked at Middlemore Hospital, across many of its wards.

"It's fun for the three of us, seeing all the things we can share together because we've gone along the same path," says mother Manja. "You have so many experiences in nursing, you can tell so many stories, you meet so many people from different ways of life. And they become part of you, and part of your story."

Originally arriving from Holland in 1984, when Manja was just 11, the family has a strong connection to Manukau. "I'm a South Auckland girl," says grandmother Hendrieka. "We've been a South Auckland family ever since we arrived in New Zealand."

"We're immigrants; we don't have that extended family," says Manja. "But we have MIT, Middlemore Hospital, and nursing; they're an extension of our family and our life experience. For Georga, it's meeting people who say they've worked with her grandmother. It's that whole continuity."

"I love working at Counties Manukau," says Manja. "I love the diversity, and the view we have of life. As a nurse, you always want to feel like you're making a difference, and I think working in South Auckland you do make a difference."

Grandmother Hendrieka started her nursing career in 1968 in Holland, when at 18 years old, her friend suggested they sign up for basic nursing training together.

In 1984, she moved with her husband and four children to Mangere East and worked as an enrolled nurse at Middlemore Hospital.  After 14 years, she decided to study for her registration through a Bachelor's degree at MIT.

"I was very unsure of myself," she says. "English was my second language and I didn't have much formal education. But because of the support I had, from Manja and my friends at MIT, they got me through."

She says she loved her career in nursing. "You work with people, I really love that. And no day is the same, that's for sure. It's very flexible, so it's worked very well at all stages of my life."

For her daughter Manja, 43, nursing was always an ambitious career choice. "Manja has a big drive," says Hendrieka. "She just goes for it. That is her whole life like that."

Manja enrolled in the Bachelor's degree when she was just 17 years old, the youngest in her class. Her career has since worked around two children and seven years living in Vancouver, Canada.

"Nursing is one of those occupations where anybody can find their niche," she says. "I've gone through different stages in life too, where I've enjoyed different things."

But granddaughter Georga, 22, was always certain she wasn't going to follow that path: "I remember saying as a child, 'I'm never going to be a nurse like my mother.'"

But part-way into a degree in criminology, she realised she was on the wrong track. "It was very wishy-washy, and I needed the black and white. I couldn't work in the grey area. I realised I'm a practical person, I like to do things with my hands."

Her mum and her grandmother helped her through her studies. "I was her study buddy," says Manja.

Georga says "as soon as I started my work placements I saw the theory happen in real life, and it all clicked together and made sense. I'm excited now. I just want to be a nurse."

Manja believes that it's been unexpected turns that have taken them to where they are now. "We're all natural born nurses, but we have different strengths," she says.

"I think it's great. It's so important to get a qualification," says Manja. "Education is so important, and that's one thing I'm really proud of – we've all got qualifications, great jobs, and we're happy."

Georga will graduate with a Bachelor of Nursing degree on Saturday 28 May, along with 1,072 other students as part of MIT's 2016 Graduation.

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