For Erin and Michael Nunan, a Monash pharmacy degree has provided the foundation
for a challenging, rewarding and diverse working life – from the Solomon Islands Ministry
of Health to an Ebola clinic in Sierra Leone. It also introduced them to each other.
Erin and Michael completed their Bachelor of
Pharmacy degrees degrees at Monash in 2005.
As part of his course Michael worked in Vanuatu
for six weeks, thanks to the Mathew Peck Travelling
Scholarship. The experience changed
his perspective.
“The Mat Peck Travelling Scholarship was a
defining experience,” Michael says. “Working in
Vanuatu, I had one of those light bulb moments.
For an undergrad pharmacy student to spend time
working in a developing country was amazing.
This was what I wanted to do.”
After completing their internships and working in
Victoria and Queensland, Erin and Michael were
keen for an international experience. Responding
to an Australian Volunteers International
advertisement, they went to work in the Solomon
Islands in late 2007. For the next two years they
worked as pharmacists with the Solomon Islands
Ministry of Health.
Erin and Michael returned to Australia to work
for a year in 2010 before heading back to the
Solomons early in 2011. Erin joined the World
Health Organization to work in health resource
development and distribution. Michael took an
AusAid/PACTAM deployment specialising in
primary healthcare pharmaceutical supply.
In mid-2013, Erin moved to Swaziland to work with
the Clinton Health Access Initiative as a Pharmacy
Oversight Associate. Michael continued to work
in the Solomons until mid-2014, when he went to
join Erin in Africa and the couple travelled around
the continent for six months.
As Michael explains, it was around this time the
Ebola crisis was escalating. “We were hearing a
lot about Ebola. We were close to the epicentre.
I felt that I should try to contribute in some way.
Save the Children needed a pharmacist to work
in a Sierra Leone facility they were furiously trying
to set up, so I went over in December.”
Michael worked to help set up the pharmacy at an
80 bed facility providing hospitalisation for Ebola
patients – a large task at a frantic pace. “It was
incredibly demanding and stressful. Every day
there was another story. We had patients dying as
they were coming out of the ambulance; another
collapsed and died in the driveway. There was an
overwhelming sense of crisis and urgency.”
But the facility was quickly up and running,
and a remarkable team of people got on with
a difficult job. “The camaraderie was amazing.
By January, the number of Ebola cases started
to fall. Though we were just a small cog in a very
big wheel, you could see that all the interventions
were having an impact.”
For Erin and Michael, the opportunity to apply
their knowledge and skills in developing countries,
in situations of need, has been a rewarding
outcome. “The people we worked with, in both the
Solomon Islands and Africa, were just incredible,”
Michael says. “It was great motivation and reward.
There’s a sense that we had these skills we could
contribute – that we could help, so we should help.”
Now back in Australia, Erin is completing a
Juris Doctor with the University of New England,
combining postgraduate law with pharmacy.
She is also working on a World Bank contract for
drug funding in the Solomons and Pacific. Michael
is currently completing a PhD with the University
of Melbourne. He has also previously completed
a Graduate Certificate in Pharmacy Practice at
Monash and a Masters of Public Health at the
University of Sydney.
So what’s the next adventure for the intrepid Erin
and Michael? Baby Nunan! “We found out I was
pregnant while Michael was in Sierra Leone,”
Erin explains. “So, needless to say, I couldn’t
join him to work there too.
“We’ll wait and see what this next adventure
involves. It’s been good timing to work overseas
before we had a family. But we’ve seen so many
other families with little kids working in foreign
countries, and what a great time it can be,
I don’t think it’ll stop us. So I think there’s certainly
some more of these adventures in our future.”
We wish Erin and Michael well for their next
big adventure, which is due in September.
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