Rate My Professor Susan Bidwell

Susan Bidwell, PhD, is a Teaching Fellow in the Department of Public Health at the University of Otago Christchurch campus. She holds a Master of Arts from the University of Auckland, Master of Library and Information Studies from Victoria University of Wellington, Master of Public Health, and Doctor of Philosophy from the University of Otago. Her career in health information and public health analysis spans more than three decades. She started as a medical information specialist at Canterbury Medical Library from 1990 to 1997, then worked at New Zealand Health Technology Assessment conducting systematic reviews from 1997 to 2008. From 2008 to 2013, while completing her Diploma in Public Health and MPH, she was an analyst at Community and Public Health within the Canterbury District Health Board. Since 2013, she has been a part-time Qualitative Analyst for the Clinical Quality and Education Team at Pegasus Health Primary Health Organisation.

Bidwell specializes in qualitative research within public health, focusing on primary health care delivery, Māori patient experiences, community pharmacy practices, and healthcare responses to the COVID-19 pandemic. Her key publications include Hapuku, A., McKerchar, C., Bidwell, S., & Thompson, L. (2025). Māori navigating gut symptoms: “I mean, who gets cramp that often in their puku?” MAI Journal, 14(2), 152-163; Harris, C., Bidwell, S., Hudson, B., Patu, M., McKerchar, C., & Al-Busaidi, I. S. (2025). Te hāpai i te mana wāhine, te takahi i te mana wāhine: Māori women's experiences of empowerment and disempowerment in sexual and reproductive healthcare. Journal of Primary Health Care, 17(2), 154-160; McKerchar, C., Thompson, L., Bidwell, S., & Hapuku, A. (2023). Normal or diseased? Navigating indeterminate gut behaviour. Journal of Primary Health Care, 15(4), 350-357; Hudson, B., Walmsley, M., Bidwell, S., & Kennedy, L. (2024). Intercontinental translatability of a peer-led GP education model from New Zealand to the United Kingdom: A pilot study. BJGP Open, 8(3); Bidwell, S., & Thompson, L. (2015). Space, time, and emotion in the community pharmacy. Health & Place, 34, 251-256; Seaton, P., & Bidwell, S. (2022). The COVID-19 pandemic: Analysing nursing risk, care and careerscapes. Nursing Inquiry, 29(3), e12468. With 26 publications and 266 citations, her work informs culturally responsive health services in New Zealand.