Angelina Kuttan
Principal Services Shipments Administrator, Healthcare Logistics
Bachelor of Health Science in Health Management
She takes great pride in knowing that her work has a direct positive impact on people’s lives, says health management alumna Angelina Kuttan who now works for Healthcare Logistics.
“When people think about healthcare they typically focus on clinicians, and while their role is undeniably important, healthcare involves much more than just that. When a doctor prescribes medication, people don’t consider the time and effort that goes into ensuring that the medication is made available to the patient.
“My job involves ensuring that pharmaceutical and healthcare-related companies from around the world can efficiently distribute their products throughout New Zealand. We distribute every single healthcare product you could ever think of, from highly controlled drugs to medical devices and equipment. I work in the shipments department, so I handle the creation of purchase orders, ensuring proper documentation from healthcare-related companies, liaising with freight companies, as well as assisting inward goods staff with incoming shipments and queries. I appreciate this behind-the-scenes work and am proud of the contributions I can make to New Zealand’s healthcare system.”
Finding her path
As much as she now loves working on the administration side of the health sector, Angelina admits that when she was in high school she wasn’t always sure what her future would be.
“During my final years of high school, I felt a growing pressure to choose the ‘right’ bachelor’s degree. I considered the potential salary, job demand and career growth of different professions. After a lot of thought, I realised the best way to choose would be to acknowledge what I was good at.
“In high school, I was only ever good at two subjects; Health Sociology and Business Studies. Naturally, I started looking for degrees that aligned with these areas of study, and that’s when I came across the Bachelor of Health Science in Health Management at AUT. I was interested in the idea of studying the non-clinical, business management aspect of healthcare, and I was impressed that AUT even offered such a degree.”
She has some great advice for other students who are weighing up their university options.
“My advice would be to make sure you’re studying something you think you could enjoy. It's perfectly fine to want to be practical when it comes to deciding what degree and what courses to study, but there should be a certain level of enjoyment to it. It really is as simple as that. Love what you study because it can lead to you loving what you do throughout your career.”
A transformative experience
Being able to study a wide range of courses was one of the aspects Angelina loved most about studying health management.
“My courses were an interesting mix of clinical, non-clinical and business courses. Because of this, I was able to gain a lot of knowledge, while truly enjoying my time at university. I think if I had taken courses limited to only one field of study, my experience may have been rather boring. The ability to study a diverse range of courses within my degree meant that I could enjoy different lectures, classes and lecturer styles of teaching, and engage in a variety of discussions about all sorts of topics. My degree felt like it offered a lot.”
Her final-year workplace experience was another highpoint for her.
“During the last semester of my final year, I completed a research placement at Wesley Institute of Nursing Education (Oceania Healthcare). I had the privilege of conducting a comprehensive study on the perceptions of internationally qualified nurses of nursing employment in New Zealand.
“This research placement helped me realise that healthcare issues extend far beyond the patient and clinical narratives we often hear about. There are deeper challenges, including the complexities of workforce shortages, the barriers faced by internationally qualified nurses in finding employment and the importance of job satisfaction amongst healthcare workers. Ultimately, my research placement was a transformative experience that confirmed my desire to be part of the ‘behind-the-scenes’ efforts that drive meaningful change in healthcare.”
