The Hauora Māori Day is a day when Māori community members are invited to attend a studentled clinic by University of Otago medical students on a Marae. The day provides an opportunity for the students to demonstrate their Māori cultural competencies and clinical skills, by engaging the patients and delivering a screening service. Students are supported by clinicians, consultants and senior doctors who take a hands-off approach and are there to oversee the students, stepping in only if complications arise.
This project started off as a curriculum initiative from within our Māori/Indigenous Health Institute teaching unit. However, within a short span of time, we realised that it would need to involve our whole clinical school and health community to make it work. Therefore it became a partnership between our unit, the course convenors within the University of Otago, the District Health Board, tribal authorities and primary care organisations within our local community.
