People skills the right medicine for a career in health

Photo caption: Associate Professor Cathy Andrew is Executive Dean of the Faculty of Health at UC.

She says her pathway to becoming Amo Matua | Executive Dean of the Faculty of Health at Te Whare Wānanga o Waitaha | University of Canterbury (UC) was unconventional. 

“I’ve never studied full-time at a university, and I’ve never studied on site as a university student. For my bachelor’s, my master’s and my PhD I lived in a different location to where I was studying, and I studied part-time while working full-time, so I haven’t had the traditional academic history that most people have when they’re in an Executive Dean role.” 

During Associate Professor Andrew’s nursing career she worked in mental health, in the intensive care unit at Christchurch Hospital, and in private cardiothoracic care in London. She says she enjoyed supporting patients at pivotal moments in their lives. 

“I like people, and I want them to live their best life no matter what’s going on for them.

“As a nurse you see the fragility of human existence at its most raw, you’re with people in happy times and with people who are facing life changing events, for themselves and their family members. So that’s a challenge and a privilege all mixed into one.”

Associate Professor Andrew moved into the education sector in 1993, lecturing for several years before becoming Head of Nursing at Canterbury Polytechnic Institute of Technology (now Ara Institute of Canterbury). She started at UC in the School of Health Sciences in 2020. The Faculty of Health was established at UC in 2022 with Associate Professor Andrew as Acting Executive Dean, and she says it still feels new and exciting. 

“We’re much broader than most people realise. For instance, sport is one of the biggest areas in our faculty with a whole range of courses from sport science, physical activity and wellbeing, to sport coaching and marketing. 

“We’ve got our Health Sciences area where students can focus on people and their communities or working in the health system and health services delivery. 

“We have professional programmes, such as Social Work, Child and Family Psychology, Counselling, and Nursing. It’s a really fantastic blend and there’s so much bouncing of ideas between the different teams to inform teaching and research.” 

Associate Professor Andrew’s experience of studying by distance as a young person in Nelson gave her a passion for equity in education. 

“I feel very strongly that people living regionally and rurally should have the ability to access a university education if that’s what they want to do. It’s not cheap to get a tertiary education and if you add accommodation and travel on top of that, it’s a barrier for a lot of people. As an institution I think we have a responsibility to use education technologies and everything available to us to ensure that people can access what we’re offering.”

Associate Professor Andrew is also committed to programmes that boost Aotearoa New Zealand’s health workforce, and her significant contribution to nursing education in New Zealand was recognised when she was a made an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit in the 2023 King’s Birthday and Coronation Honours. 

She says it was a huge surprise to receive the email from the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet informing her of the honour and initially she thought the message was spam. She says she’s been lucky with the opportunities that have come her way.

Her career has spanned New Zealand, Australia, the United Kingdom, and the South Pacific. She has served as chair of the Nursing Education in the Tertiary Sector network for several years and been a trustee of the Nurse Maude Association since 2013, as well as consulting on nursing education nationally for the Nursing Council of New Zealand. 

One of the highlights of the Executive Dean role is being part of graduation ceremonies and seeing students achieve their qualifications. “I’ll call out a name and I know the backstory for that person and their whānau, what’s led to them being able to walk across the stage, and it can be quite emotional – your eyes well up.” 

Outside of work she is a dedicated family person. “That takes up a lot of my time and that’s what I love doing, spending time with my family. So that’s my happy place outside of work.”

Studying at UC’s Faculty of Health is an excellent pathway for those who like engaging with people, she says. 

“If you want to make a difference in the lives of others then health is a really good place to be. It’s about finding your niche because there is such variety.”