PMA Scholarships 2022 – “Study hard and work hard and submit that application because we need you.”
Updates / News, 26 May 22
With applications for the Pasifika Medical Association (PMA) Scholarships 2022 closing soon, a past recipient is urging Pacific students and professionals to seize the opportunity and take a chance on applying.

Charlene McGechan was the recipient of the PMA Abel Smith Nursing Scholarship last year and is currently in her second year of nursing school at UCOL Whanganui.

In a live talanoa for 531 PI’s Pacific Days Show, Mrs McGechan spoke about how the scholarship has been beneficial in her journey towards becoming a registered nurse.

“I feel like my life journey and everything that’s happened in my life to this point has brought me here to Whanganui to study to get my registration and I’m looking forward to it. 

I was very grateful to be the recipient for the PMA Abel Smith Scholarship. It’s typical to think I’m not worthy of that. And I think it’s just the way we are as islanders; we would happily give the clothes off our backs for someone else rather than take it for ourselves.”

Mrs McGechan says despite feeling as though she had no chance at winning the scholarship, she pushed past those insecurities and made the decision to apply.

“It was just about telling myself that you are worthy just like everybody else and you'll never know until you submit the application and so I just did it and left the rest to God.”

She says the scholarship was not only a financial support, but it reaffirmed that she was on the right track.

“It was really nice to have that bit of acknowledgement but at the same time reinforce that whatever I had been doing up till that point was working; the late nights away from home, trying to juggle family and school life.”

Reflecting on her journey, she never considered nursing but believes the experiences she has gone through has served a purpose to put her on a path towards becoming a nurse.

“I never thought about nursing. Then I cared for my mother who unfortunately passed. I nursed her and cared for her. Even at that point, I still didn’t look at nursing but little did I know this was all part of what was going to lead me to where I am today. 

Roll on a couple of years and my brother was terminally ill from Bowel Cancer and was in palliative care; I was by his side for one Christmas and I watched as the nurses cared for him. It was at that moment that I said I want to do this. I want to be able to be in a position where I can help someone.”

Mrs McGechan strongly encourages anyone thinking of applying for a PMA Scholarship to take up the opportunity.

“If not now, when? Press that submit button and like me, you will never know. We need more Pacific Island nurses, we need to change the equity here in New Zealand for Pacific and Māori and in order to do that we need to have more of our people out there. Study hard and work hard and submit that application because we need you.”

 

Watch the full talanoa here.

 

To apply for the Abel Smith Nursing Scholarship and other PMA Scholarships, please visit the link below. Please note that all PMA Scholarship applications close Friday 27 May, 2022, so get in quick! https://membership.pacifichealth.org.nz/Scholarships-2022

 

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Date: Thursday 26 May 2022