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SHARP Administrator Kay Kent (left) holds aloft her NRHSN Life Member... |
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SHARP member Teena Downton (left) received the award of “Outsta... |
Kay’s life membership award for contributions to national rural health
The National Rural Health Students’ Network (NRHSN) has for the first time this year awarded its first Life Memberships including to Kay Kent from UOW’s Faculty of Health and Behavioural Sciences.
Seven other inaugural Life Members were announced at a formal dinner held during the recent National University Rural Health Conference.
The administrator and immediate past NRHSN senior representative of UOW’s Student Health Alliance for Rural Populations (SHARP), Naomi Piyaratna, was also among the new Life Members.
Life Membership is awarded to those held in high regard by the NRHSN and are deemed to have made exemplary contributions to the NRHSN and their rural health club over a period of more than one year.
Kay has been the Administrator of SHARP since first establishing the club as part of the National Rural Health Network. Since this time, she has given a tremendous amount of time, effort and energy to SHARP and NRHSN which has seen it grow to more than 600 members -- one of the largest and most active clubs in the NRHSN.
Kay has been credited with inspiring many students to consider a rural health career and establish networks with students who have similar interests.
She has been integral in developing positive working relationships with the wider and rural health community. This has led to successful and well-attended SHARP events such as the 2006 Working Together to Make a Difference Indigenous Health Forum, 2007 Mental Health Symposium and International Health Forums and 2009 Shining a Light on Schizophrenia Mental Health Symposium as well as Close the Gap Days.
Kay spends weeks away each year with SHARP members at Indigenous festivals, rural high school visits, rural road trips and at rural careers fairs.
Naomi Piyaratna was nominated for Life Membership of the NRHSN for her significant and exemplary contributions from 2006-2008 to the Student Health Alliance for Rural Populations (SHARP), which is the University of Wollongong Rural Health Club.
Naomi continued with her position until last year when she graduated with a Bachelor of Medical Science (Honours).
During her time in SHARP, Naomi worked closely with Kay Kent and other SHARP members to distribute NRHSN resources to club members in innovative ways which would also raise the profile of, and students’ interest in, the NRHSN. This included the launch of the DVD “Wide Horizons: Health Students Get Out of Town” to the university community in 2008; “Close the Gap Day 2008” and “Mental Health Week 2008”.
These actions were the start of SHARP developing links with numerous relevant individuals and organisations in the community such as the Neuroscience Institute of Schizophrenia and Allied Disorders, Helping Hands, Light and Hope, and Médecins sans Frontières.