I graduated in the Bachelor of Nursing Science Programme from the University of Indonesia, Indonesia in 2008. I studied the Erasmus Mundus Master of Nursing Programme in Portugal, Finland and Spain in 2012-2014 with a scholarship from the European Union. Meanwhile, I worked in hospitals and a journal office, and in my alma mater as a lecturer.

During my undergraduate study, I actively participated in many organisations and led various social, educational and advocacy programmes. Highlights included establishing a student organisation for emergency response and leading national nursing student movements to initiate the legislation process of the Indonesian Nursing Act to protect nurses in the workplace. I received some merit-based and competition-based scholarships and awards during my undergraduate study. After graduation, in addition to professional organisations, I volunteered in several disaster response missions. At the moment, I contribute to national and international oncology nurses’ associations.

In terms of research activities, I started to involve in large-scale research projects after graduation. The topics included malnutrition, nursing information management system, and cancer. The latter is my main research interest and the focus of my research projects. Before enrolling in the current PhD programme, I received a scholarship to study in Edinburgh, Scotland and then worked for a NIH-funded research project on HIV partner notification, led by a researcher from the University of Illinois at Chicago, USA.

I am grateful for eventually finding my path and studying in the Nethersole School of Nursing, CUHK with a highly attractive funding from the Hong Kong PhD Fellowship Scheme (HKPFS). The School’s faculty members gave me tremendous support in obtaining the scholarship. They saw my potential and supported me all the way through the application process. It clearly reflects that they made concerted efforts to strive for the best possible outcome for their students.