Ellie Wernham
Ellie Wernham
Graduate in Postgraduate Diploma in Public Health
“From my midwifery background I had gained plenty of on the job clinical experience but I really wanted to work in other roles specifically relating to health research and policy”.
Like many frontline health workers Wellington midwife Ellie Wernham decided she wanted to understand and influence the systems and policies that shaped health outcomes for her clients.
Looking for a bridge, she discovered the postgraduate Diploma in Public Health (DPH) offered by the Department of Public Health at the University of Otago, Wellington.
Offering a broad and solid education in public health, the qualification is open to anyone who has completed an undergraduate degree and has an interest in public health. Typical students have backgrounds in medicine, nursing, allied health, health promotion, and policy analysis; but as a group there is a huge diversity in backgrounds.
The DPH can be taken full-time over one academic year or, more flexibly, part-time and is taught at the Newtown campus. As well as two core papers, students choose papers to match their areas of interest and learning requirements.
“The variety of papers to choose from means the programme can be tailored to your needs”.
What also attracted Ellie to the DPH was the reputation of the Department’s teachers as active and highly respected researchers whose work gets noticed by local and central government. For example recently the Department’s research has been instrumental in policy decisions relating to housing insulation, Campylobacter in poultry and tobacco legislation
“The staff has an incredible breadth of experience and the standard of teaching has been excellent. I feel privileged to be taught by people who are involved in many significant roles in research and policy”
Having successfully completed the Diploma in Public Health Ellie has recently begun a Master’s thesis. Watch out for her research to make a splash next year.
