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Nurse leader Fakaanga Mapa, outside the Turuki Health centre clinic in Panmure, Auckland, where he is keen to help patients choose healthier lifestyle options

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Tongan-born and male, Fakaanga Mapa knows he is not what most people expect when they think of a nurse. Male patients in particular are often sur­prised to see him when they walk into Turuki Health Care’s clinic in Panmure, Auckland: “Oh, you’re a nurse, bro? I’ve never met a male nurse in my life!”

But Mr Mapa has found being Polynesian, male and fluent in Tongan has allowed him to engage better with patients, especially those who are also male and Pacif­ic or Māori. “I understand where they’re coming from, their cultural values and what they prioritise in life.

“We tend to provide for everyone else first, family, com­munity, our churches, and health comes way down the list. So, I’m trying to switch that around.”

Nursing brings that rewarding feeling of knowing you have helped people make positive changes to their health and life, Mr Mapa says.

Losing his parents young, his mum at 46 and his dad at 55, Mr Mapa has made it his goal to ensure the same does not happen for the rest of his fam­ily, including aunties and uncles who he has been encouraging to improve their health and educa­tion. “My mum passed when I was 18, so that’s helped me to help oth­er mothers so their families and their kids don’t have to experience what I went through. They can have their mother for longer.

“For men it was always ‘man up’ and get on with it, but that was very much the 1980s. It’s 2021 now, and we need to start looking after ourselves.”

Being named as a finalist in the New Zealand Primary Healthcare Awards | He Tohu Mauri Ora for Boehringer Ingelheim Practice Nurse of the Year Award caught Mr Mapa off guard – he was unaware his practice colleagues had nominated him.

Turuki Health Care’s primary healthcare manager Renee Muru-Barnard said, following the awards, the team “adores” Mr Mapa and the clinic has a wait list of nurses wanting to work there.

Winning the award is a big highlight of his career – responding to the COVID-19 pandemic is another. Turuki Health Care provided home visits and delivered food packages to assist patients.

It was his love of chemistry and biology while at high school in Tonga, that drew Mr Mapa into nursing when he arrived in New Zealand as a young adult.

His sister took him to the Manukau Institute of Technol­ogy (MIT) on the hunt for a chemistry paper – there wasn’t one, but the nursing programme was suggested instead.

With his mother unwell at the time, and a family history of diabetes and heart problems – “family was just dying around me, from conditions that are preventable” – he took up the offer.

At his all-boys boarding school Tonga College ‘Atele, Mr Mapa says he learnt great values, including respect and dis­cipline. But compared to his peers, nursing was an out-of-or­dinary path to take, he laughs. Most of the Tongan boys who went to MIT trained in the police force or became carpenters.

Going from the all-boys college to a female-dominated profession was hard, he says. “I was always asked if I was just here ‘for the girls’.”

Such comments motivated him to prove people wrong and he hopes to see more male nurses join the workforce.

Mr Mapa finished his degree in 2013 and has been work­ing with Turuki Health Care for the last seven years. He says it is an incredibly supportive workplace.

Three years ago, he was made clinic nurse leader. He is also a nurse preceptor, is completing his nurse prescribing papers and plans to train as a nurse practitioner.

He also promotes the clinic’s low-carb message to patients, helping swap cultural food like taro for healthier options such as pumpkin, leading to big changes for patients with diabetes. “Turuki are very good at encouraging people to grow, and work hard on increasing access to healthcare. I wouldn’t want to work anywhere else.”

As a father of four, work–life balance is important, he says. And he takes his hat off to his wife, who “does the hard yards” and always has his back.

Fellow award finalist was practice nurse Angela Moananu, based at Health Connections, a youth-specific health service with clinics both in south and central Auckland.

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Interested in entering the awards and becoming a Primary Star in 2022?