In this month’s newsletter, we would like to introduce PhD graduate, Jo Hills from the College of Nursing and Health Sciences.

Jo’s recently submitted thesis, “Decisions in crisis: examining the psychological impact of individual choices made during disasters” received outstanding results from the examiners.

We asked Jo to share what her research was about, what led to a PhD and what were the highlights.

What led you to undertake a PhD? What inspired or motivated you?

I am very passionate about working in the disaster field and mental  health and wanted to study in this field and felt a PhD would allow me to explore this field more and discover something that maybe hadn’t already been explored.

What have you been doing since you completed?

I work part time in a research role at university rolling out a training programme to improve mental health in disasters, continue to work with my own client base and I attended the cyclone in Queensland and the floods in NSW to help people with their mental health and logistics in the disasters ! Phew  ! and I only completed the PhD a few months ago !!

What was the topic of your PhD and why was it important to you?

Decisions in crisis and the impact of those decisions – it was important to me as I frequently interact with people during and after disasters that tell me they really regretted decisions they made – I wanted to explore this more to see if it was a common theme and if so, why, and to try to figure out what we can do about it to minimise harm in the future

What was been one of the most enjoyable parts of the journey?

Interviewing my participants and travelling (metaphorically) with them in their journey in their disaster experience

How did you overcome any challenges of doing a PhD?

Self discipline and making myself write and keep going even when I got stuck ! Just take baby steps to write a little bit more… then flowed into keep writing lots more !

What advice would you give to those who are about to undertake a PhD?  

Just do it !!! But do something you are really passionate about !!