A passion for public health, including helping lead Northland DHB’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic, has earned long-time Northland nurse France Badham a major award.

Badham – who has been a nurse for more than 40 years, much of it working for Te Whatu Ora – Te Tai Tokerau – has won the Ko Te Māranga Ora (Health and Wellbeing) category at the recent 2022 Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei Awards.

She won the award for her mahi and contribution to nursing and as a member of the Covid-19 Response Directorate in the region.

“France is a dedicated and caring nurse with a passion for the community and its wellbeing,” Pamela Marino, clinical nurse manager for the Covid-19 Response Directorate at Te Whatu Ora – Te Tai Tokerau, said.

Badham was 15 years old and working in the Palmerston North Hospital laundry when the spark for nursing was lit.

“I thought, ‘I wonder what the history is behind these things?’,” she said.

With the support of her stepmother, father, and husband she enrolled at Tikipunga High School as an adult student not really knowing what she was going to be studying.

It was a very bold step for someone who had attended only a few weeks of high school. It was to be the beginning of an ongoing learning journey that would encompass post-graduate study and more than 40 years in nursing, including working in Alice Springs ED in Australia with indigenous people and as an agency nurse in London.

Nursing is a team occupation, Badham said, and she is quick to emphasise that winning the award is an acknowledgement for everyone she works with.

“I readily acknowledge that I am just part of the most awesome team. Jeanette Wedding and Pamela Marino’s commitment to making this mahi accessible to the people who need it but might not be accessing the health system, and the way that they have looked outside of the square to get us out there into the community, makes me proud,” she said.

The award nomination came as a complete surprise.

“I was just blown away. This recognition is just incredible. I’m very humbled.”

The setting for the award evening itself was very glamorous she felt quite overwhelmed by the sense of occasion.

“It was an incredible place. I felt surrounded by magic. Knowing that every single person
that was there was related to me was wonderful. It was inspiring. I felt very small compared to the other people there and what they’d done and the big differences they’ve made. Hearing all the reo spoken around me and listening to all the stories makes me feel proud knowing our future is in very strong and capable hands. I wasn’t aware that I would have to give a speech and sing a waiata, so I was grateful my son and daughter, and Lavinia Peruma, and Malcolm Patterson were there to awhi me.”

She said nursing during the pandemic has been a profound experience for her.

Badham will soon be 64 but her passion for nursing remains undimmed and her wish to work in public health is strong. If she were talking to her 15-year-old self-contemplating the start of a nursing career now she says she would advise herself to “Go for it and give it heaps. And carry on with your learning. It doesn’t stop with your qualification. Stick at it and ask for help because there is plenty available.”

While winning an award has been a wonderful acknowledgement, she would like to see nurses, doctors, support staff and administrative staff and service workers in other sectors being valued for the work they do as part of the country’s backbone.

“We have been undervalued for so long.”