​WORKING as a database administrator for Turanga Health means Franzee Nuku spends a lot of time at her desk, but her employers were never going to let her get away with just that.
 
“During my school days I used to play a bit of sport but, with three children, it can feel like you don't have time for that sort of thing,” says Franzee (Ngai Tāmanuhiri).
 
“But at Turanga Health they take you to try out all sorts of fitness options to help you stay healthy and feel better about yourself, and now I love the Les Mills classes I get to do at the YMCA gym.”
 
When she is at her desk, though, she plays a key role in logging everything from whānau referrals and registrations to actions carried out by staff and outcomes. Her work creates the data set that is then analysed to help Turanga Health plot its future goals.
 
And it's a perfect fit for Franzee who, while juggling the demands of early motherhood, chose business and technology as the focus of her studies.
 
That led to the role she started in 2019 with Turanga Health, which she says has helped her in more areas than career and fitness.
 
“They have really helped me develop as a person,” she says. “When I first started I was super shy but the staff have been a huge help in supporting and encouraging me to step up every single day.”

​GROWING up in Iloilo City, in the Philippines, Prue Langdon watched her sister train as a nurse then travel with her skills and decided that was the life for her
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Now a community nurse with Turanga Health, Prue first worked in a medical-surgical ward before moving to New Zealand in 2011.

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There was, as expected, a delay while she processed her overseas registration so she was delighted to be confirmed a New Zealand Registered Nurse just two years later.

After that, much of her employment was in aged care with her last posting in that environment being the demanding role of co-ordinating an entire unit that included both rest home and dementia care.

In the interim, the keen traveller had been passing through Christchurch Airport when she met her now husband. The couple now have two young children and Prue says they are their absolute joy.

“In nursing, your main aim is to help people but I also needed to be available to my own children so working with Turanga Health gives me the best of both worlds.”

Prue has a client base of around 100 whānau who she sees with varying regularity -- depending on their needs – and supports in their sometimes complicated navigation of the health system.

“Turanga Health has a big focus on whānau and the flexibility of being a community nurse enables me to spend time with my own family while still doing work that I love,” Prue says.
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“It's a great environment to work in and gives me the opportunity to make a real difference in people's lives.”