Encourages critical thinking and analysis.
Sonya Morgan is a Senior Research Fellow in the Department of Primary Health Care and General Practice at the University of Otago, Wellington, part of the Faculty of Medicine within the Division of Health Sciences. With a Master of Health Sciences (MHealSc) and expertise in qualitative research methods, she has contributed to the department since 2001 across a variety of projects. In recent years, her work has centered on the Centre for Interprofessional Education, where she focuses on developing effective interprofessional education learning activities, enhancing interprofessional collaboration, and improving accessibility of primary health care services. Her career emphasizes practical applications in healthcare settings, including studies on multimorbidity care, youth health services, general practice environments, prediabetes management, and cancer care education.
Morgan's prolific research output includes highly influential publications such as 'Observation of interprofessional collaborative practice in primary care practice: A multiple case study' (2016, cited over 550 times), 'Interagency collaborative care for young people with complex needs: Front-line staff perspectives' (2019), 'Collaborative care in ‘Youth One Stop Shops’ in New Zealand: Hidden, time-consuming, essential' (2019), 'The Influence of Practice Interior Architecture on Informal Face-to-Face Communication—An Observational Study' (2021), 'Uncertainty and certainty: perceptions and experiences of prediabetes in New Zealand primary care' (2022), and 'Sizing Up General Practice Environments for Big-Bodied Patients: An Environmental Assessment of Three Facilities in Aotearoa New Zealand' (2025). Recent contributions feature 'How I Do It: Interprofessional Education and Radiation Therapy—Establishing Opportunities for Student Learning in the Workplace' (2025), 'Developing an effective IPE learning activity for midwifery and medical students' (2025), and 'Cancer care pre-registration interprofessional education with expert patients: A qualitative study' (2025). With over 780 citations documented on ResearchGate from 22 publications, her scholarship has advanced understandings of collaborative practices, interprofessional teamwork, and patient-centered care in primary health contexts, influencing healthcare delivery and education in New Zealand and beyond. She participates in projects like the Patient as Teacher study (2022–2024) exploring patient roles in interprofessional cancer education.
