About me

Hello! My name is Johanna and I recently graduated with my PhD in Development Studies from Massey University, New Zealand. This research looks at the experiences of overseas-trained doctors in Aotearoa New Zealand. My other research interests include migration and mobilities, health, voluntourism, education, and (post)colonialism.

Currently, I am working as a Postdoctoral Fellow on two research projects – one that relates to Fijian health system resilience, and another that looks at the experiences of seafarers and international seafaring organisations during the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond.

Doctoral research

Doctors trained in Australia, the United Kingdom and Ireland, or other “comparable health systems”, can usually register and receive a job offer before immigrating.

Those from countries that aren’t considered comparable – usually from developing countries, or the Global South – don’t have the same opportunities (see more here). As of October 2023, more than 50 foreign-trained doctors who have met the Medical Council’s standards were still caught in a bottleneck, waiting for supervised hospital positions that will allow them to be provisionally registered before their exam pass expires.

Not only patients waiting in line (2023)

Potentially hundreds of other doctors already in New Zealand are also waiting to take the required local clinical skills exam (NZREX), which is only open to 30 people at a time. The exam is now offered only twice per year, as opposed to the three or four times annually offered in the past.

A few hundred doctors may not sound like much, but patients are being turned away from GPs all over New Zealand. Up to half of practices are not accepting any new patients. Furthermore, some of the doctors waiting to work in New Zealand have already been offered jobs in those same countries with “comparable health systems” (read more here).

So why can’t they get registered in New Zealand? My doctoral research explored the experiences of overseas-trained doctors in New Zealand from a range of backgrounds to further unpack this phenomenon. Read more here.