After eight years in this role, she relocated to Hawke’s Bay. Unable to transfer as a Plunket kaiawhina, she worked three months in a rest home and hospital before deciding to do her nursing training at the Eastern Institute of Technology in Hawke’s Bay. She graduated in 2005.
Making a difference
Accepted on a new graduate programme in three different places, she chose orthopaedics, “but community nursing and Māori health have always been my passion. I simply want to make a small difference helping our people”.
For the last year, Morgan has been the practice nurse manager for a medical centre in Rotorua.
“Nursing always has its challenges, some positive, some negative. I love the mission statement ‘freed to care and proud to nurse’. People are at the centre of our work – he tāngata, he tāngata, he tāngata. I love being at the frontline – empowering, encouraging and educating our patients to achieve better health, whatever their situation.”
Morgan first became aware of NZNO and Te Rūnanga (TR) in 2007 when Midlands TR representative Ngaitia Nagel invited her to a TR meeting. “A month later I attended my first NZNO annual general meeting [AGM], which got me interested to learn more about NZNO.”
Shortly after the AGM, Nagel resigned and Morgan, as proxy, stepped into the position. “I feel I have grown and learnt so much from this organisation, which makes me proud to be a nurse.”
Morgan also served as tumu whakarae of te poari in 2016, but resigned after a year due to leadership demands at her then workplace Te Manu Toroa Kaupapa Māori Health Services in Tauranga. Four years later, she decided to stand for vice-president “to be a voice for our members. It is not about what I want to achieve, but what we all achieve together as members in a bicultural partnership. We are in this journey together – He waka eke noa“.