Chris Ball, Master of Nursing graduate and Mental Health Tutor
EIT Tairāwhiti lecturer Chris Ball is to be capped with his Master of Nursing (March 25) and he’s eagerly looking forward to being part of the traditional and formal event.
Chris will work around his lecture schedule so he and wife June can make a “swift day trip” to attend EIT’s graduation ceremony, which was staged at Napier’s Municipal Theatre.
While completing the degree he started three and a half years ago is a great weight off his mind, Chris says he really enjoyed the study. As part of his degree, he undertook what EIT Head of School Nursing Susan Jacobs describes as “very interesting and scholarly research about mental health legislation”.
Born and raised on England’s south-east coast, Chris trained as a psychiatric nurse, latterly working in Warrington, Cheshire, a town he says is famous for the Warrington Wolves rugby team. He and wife June moved to New Zealand in 1999, lived for a time in the Hutt Valley and then relocated to Te Puia Springs in 2001 so he could take up a job with an iwi provider.
Chris welcomed the opportunity to immerse himself in Māoritanga.
“I’ve always been interested in different cultures,” he says, “and, coming from England, those of the Māori and Pacific Islands were completely new to me.”
Before emigrating, he visited New Zealand twice and our cultural mix was among the reason he and June made the move – along with better weather and the sense of space afforded by a small population.
His job on the East Coast covered a big area, from Tolaga Bay to Potaka, a tiny settlement beyond Hicks Bay.
“Then I had the opportunity for a lecturer’s job through UCOL which formerly ran the nurse training course at Tairāwhiti Polytechnic. Following the merger with EIT earlier this year, I continue to teach all the mental health areas in the programmes we offer. The delivery is different – with EIT, the teaching is spread over different papers, but basically the information is the same.”
Having finished his master’s degree, Chris says he isn’t missing having to leave his Gisborne home at 5.30am to get to EIT for morning lectures. He estimates doing the trip 20 to 30 times – “so that wasn’t too arduous”. The worst that happened was being ticketed for exceeding the speed limit by 5kph just south of Nukaha.
Other than that, he thoroughly enjoyed the degree programme. “I had excellent lecturers and it was a really great experience. The online component was terrific too.”