Scholarship Reports

NERF Trustees expect recipients to provide a brief report on how the funding they receive has assisted them. Positive impacts can happen in their career, in their studies or through assisting them to undertake research, organise a conference or undertake a project.

Scholarship reports on this page relate to:


Catherine Logan Memorial Scholarship

2015 Report on Postgraduate Certificate in Perioperative Specialty Nursing - Julie Denby

"This course incorporates an in depth understanding of anatomy and physiology on the grounds that knowing the normal is necessary before we can address the abnormal, its main focus is on evidence based nursing (EBP) practice and quality improvement. The aim of this report is to provide a summary of some observations and the contribution to perioperative nursing."

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Effie Redwood Endowment Fund

2016 Report-back on Funds for study materials and travel - Deborah McCarthy

"These funds have facilatated my success this year and made my study experience much more enjoyable knowing I had the resources available.:

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Margaret May Blackwell Travel Fellowship

2018-2019 - Reducing Poverty by Addressing Equity with a Focus on Prenata Alcohol Exposure and Intergenerational Trauma - Maria Hart

"The topic of supporting communities/whanu, hapu and iwi to limit the impact on children/tamariki of poverty, addiction, violence and relationship breakdown caught my interest and whetted my appetite in how to improve long term healh outcomes for children and faimilies who are living in poverty in Aotearoa".

2016-2017 Leadership in Developing Quality Nursing Initiatives in New Zealand - Karen Thurston, Nurse Practitioner

"In 2016, I applied for and was awarded the Margaret May Blackwell Travel Study Fellowship, to explore leadership in developing quality nursing initiatives in New Zealand. The focus of this was to contribute to the development of a nurse prescribing pathway within New Zealand’s current Well Child Tamariki Ora (WCTO) service delivery model. My key objective was gathering information to support the establishment of a Nurse Practitioner role within high deprivation communities to positively change the life course of some of New Zealand’s most vulnerable tamariki and their whanau."

2015-2016 Promoting New Zealand children’s active participation in healthcare - Amanda Scheibmair (née van Rooyen)

"Children’s active involvement in matters that are important to them, in particular their own healthcare, is one of their fundamental rights (UNICEF, 2014a). Adults however act as gatekeepers to children’s rights, by both allowing and enabling children to enact their rights. There is international growth in the area of adults recognising their obligation to ‘allow’ children to enact their rights, but there is less understanding about how to enable or assist children to enact their right to participate in healthcare."

2014-2015 Developing secure attachment for vulnerable children by enhancing caregiver child relationships - Anne Hodren

"In 2015 the Margaret May Blackwell Travel Fellowship was awarded to explore how international services reduce vulnerability and improve short and long term health outcomes in children through enhancing parenting capacity and child attachment. The second aim was to explore education offered to health professionals internationally in relation to infant mental health and how this knowledge supports their role in reducing vulnerability including eLearning and face to face training programmes."

2013-2014 Janice Wotten

Email grants@nzno.org.nz to access this report.

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McCutchan Trust

2017 Where are we? Workplace communication between RNs in culturally diverse healthcare organisations: Analysis of a 2-phase, mixed-method study - Assoc Professor Margaret Brunton

"The purpose of this study was to examine cultural influences on communication, perceptions and practices of registered nursing staff engaged in healthcare practice ... This is the first identified study of the cross-cultural communication interface between Registered Nurses from diverse ethnicities in the Aotearoa-New Zealand health sector. The use of the following 2-phase mixed-method study sought to obtain the advantages of combining both quantitative (online survey) and qualitative (interviews and critical incidents) methods of data collection and analysis to enhance the validity and reliability of the research project."

2016 Nurse Fatigue - Dr Karyn O'Keeffe

"The project is underway, with the view to a July launch of the online survey. Our activities to date include ..."

2016 A comprehensive evaluation of the Te Ngawari Mate Pukupuku U, care and support framework - Dr Peetikuia Wainui

"The McCutchan Trust Scholarship is enabling the nurse researcher to under take a comprehensive evaluation of the Te Ngawari Mate Pukupuku U, care and support framework I developed for wāhine Māori as patients in medical care with breast cancer. Once evaluated the model will be known as the Te Ngawari Hauora Model that will then be applied to all other diseases."

2016 Exploring teaching strategies that enhance reflective writing in undergraduate student nurses - Rebecca McDiarmid

"This project contributes to nursing through exploring strategies to enhance reflective writing the abilty for student nurses to develop skills associated with reflective writing (clinical reasoning, critical judgement, learning through experience, debriefing critical incidents) and the ability to articulate clinical competency within a professional portfolio are also enhanced."

2015 Financial support to the first phase of a PhD in Nursing Study - Teramira Schutz

"The scholarship has made it possible for me to pay half of my tuition fee and to purchase equipment, materials, stationaries and text books that are required for setting up a study space at my home."

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Special Projects

2016 Merging Health and Social Day Care - Dr Tina Darkins

"It is the proposition of this report that the effectiveness and efficiency of day care services for the elderly, frail and those with disabilities is enhanced by the melding of the social model with a more comprehensive medical/nursing model of day care. With such a holistic care model, community-based health services to the elderly and those with disabilities could be enhanced and operating costs reduced. Further, through this collaborative approach, similar benefits could be achieved for District Health Boards (DHBs) and General Practitioners (GPs), community nurses and other health and social service workers in the community. In addition, it is believed that there would be increased opportunities for clients to live in their own homes, within their community, for longer."

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Travel Grants

2015 Travel grant - Renee Whalen

"The conference I attended gave me further knowledge of my chosen field of interest - nutrition and prevention, and also the opportunity to meet other people from around the world also passionate about this."

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Undergraduate Study Scholarship

2020 Undergraduate study scholarship - Te Atamira Dakin

"This scholarship has enabled me to focus on my studies, as the year ends and us year 3 students refocus on state, the bills and endless need for money continues and when the focus at this time needs to be on preparation for state, sometimes that can be hindered by the need to work to ensure that there is food or gas in the car or stationary for studies."

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