NSW Health Pathology has been named as a finalist in the People & Culture category of the 2025 NSW Health Awards for our Aboriginal and Disability Targeted Traineeships program.

Now in their 27th year, the NSW Health Awards recog­nise and cel­e­brate staff and vol­un­teers from across local health dis­tricts, pil­lars, net­works and health organisations.

The awards recog­nise the health pro­grams that deliv­er out­comes that mat­ter most to patients and invest in the well­ness of the NSW community.

Our Abo­rig­i­nal and Dis­abil­i­ty Tar­get­ed Trainee­ships Pro­gram was designed to tar­get roles that were usu­al­ly dif­fi­cult to recruit to by invest­ing in the recruit­ment of Abo­rig­i­nal peo­ple and peo­ple liv­ing with a disability.

Led by Jes­si­ca Lee, Deputy Direc­tor Peo­ple & Cul­ture and Kevin Stan­ley, Asso­ciate Direc­tor Abo­rig­i­nal Part­ner­ships & Inclu­sion, the pro­gram is being recog­nised for strength­en­ing diver­si­ty in our work­force and build­ing pos­i­tive work­place envi­ron­ments that bring out the best in everyone.

NSWHP part­nered with Real Futures, an Abo­rig­i­nal owned and run train­ing and employ­ment ser­vices com­pa­ny. Togeth­er, they designed and imple­ment­ed an inter­nal men­tor­ing pro­gram and devel­oped study groups, group yarn­ing and learn­ing sessions.

As a result, 43% of Abo­rig­i­nal trainees are in the sec­ond part of their trainee­ship, with a focus on work­ing on Coun­try and sup­port­ing local mob.

33% of trainees placed in the first phase of the pro­gram were liv­ing with a disability.

“I’d like to con­grat­u­late Jes­si­ca, Kevin, our incred­i­ble trainees who took part in the pro­gram, and the broad­er Peo­ple and Cul­ture team mem­bers who have sup­port­ed this project,” said Vanes­sa Janis­sen, Chief Exec­u­tive of NSW Health Pathology.

“I am always proud to see our peo­ple and the work we are doing being recog­nised and cel­e­brat­ed along­side our peers in NSW Health.”

Read more about our final­ist team here.

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