Better health for Pacific kids

Nursing PhD candidate Ellaine Ete-Rasch is looking to find out what’s going wrong in health services for Pacific children.

Nursing PhD candidate Ellaine Ete-Rasch

I am passionate about the health of Pacific children. The New Zealand health system is finding it a challenge to provide high quality and equitable health care for Pacific children and their families. My research explores why this is, and I hope it will eventually help achieve better health outcomes for this population group.

Top university, great staff

I chose Victoria University of Wellington because it has a prestigious and top-ranking reputation in research and I found it the best place to engage with for further postgraduate studies.

Staff here are dedicated, friendly and approachable—and always prepared to provide support despite their own workloads. This creates a positive environment that is conducive to my learning and enhances my performance. It has also eased my transition into this challenging and stimulating research journey.

Quality workshops

I have also found the workshops offered by the Faculty of Graduate Research throughout the year very helpful. These highlight key information on different aspects of research such as thesis writing, motivation, ethics and research presentation.

Valuable scholarship

My background is in primary health care nursing—particularly working with Pacific children and families. I have also worked as a Plunket nurse, nurse lecturer for an undergraduate Pacific nursing programme, and as a public health nurse. I was fortunate enough to receive the Pacific Health Research PhD Scholarship from the Health Research Council of New Zealand, which has helped support me during my fulltime PhD studies.

The nature of any PhD programme is challenging and dynamic. Nevertheless, these challenges are great learning experiences for growth. And support is always available.