Summer School is scheduled for January-February 2023
Here's the link for registration

Sands NZ & VCA are running the Summer School for midwifery and nursing students in February of 2023. We welcome all midwifery and nursing students from across the motu, at any year level, to join us in learning about how to support and work with bereaved parents, families and whānau.

We are changing things up this year for our learning sessions for midwifery and nursing students (based on feedback over the last two years). We are going to have each topic in two parts – a recorded presentation with the theory and research, and then a webinar with bereaved parents and whānau for discussion.

Students will have a week to view the online presentation (it will be about 30-40 mins) and resources will be provided on the platform so there won't be any follow up emails anymore. We will have a discussion webinar on Thursday mornings with bereaved parents/whānau. This will give students a chance to think about any questions they would like answered.

Here are some comments from our first Summer School in Dec 2020- Jan 2021...

"This was a really amazing tool to use to expand my kete of knowledge, this is not talked about often enough and we aren't really well prepared for these circumstances as a health care professional."

"The [Sands] volunteers are amazing, I cannot praise and thank them enough, thank you all for an amazing summer school and such an amazing opportunity to prepare for my 3rd year."

" I thought the seminars were fantastic. Really informative, they addressed many ways of looking at things. I think meeting some of the mothers from the Sands community was really helpful, I really appreciated them sharing their experiences to make things better for future families experiencing loss.:

Sands NZ has generously made these sessions free of charge.

If you have any questions at all, please email Vicki on [email protected]
Here are the topics for the 2023 sessions:
Grief 101

Sands Three-Point Model of Care & Memory Making 

What Should I Say and Not Say?

Pregnancy After Loss