For Dr Margot Skinner, being recognised as an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit in the New Year Honours was both a personal honour and a recognition of the importance of physiotherapy as a profession.

As a long-standing practitioner, academic, and leader in physiotherapy, Margot’s career spans five decades and has included roles advocating for the profession at a national and international level. In that time she has helped physiotherapy grow into the significant and multi-faceted profession we know it as today.

Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit Dr Margot Skinner

Graduating from the New Zealand School of Physiotherapy in the early 1970s, Margot first worked in Oamaru, then in surgery and intensive care at Dunedin Hospital, before deciding to work abroad in Hong Kong – a decision that was formative to her practice and her later service to the profession.

“I think that was one of the turning points because it was different. My friends were going off to Britain and I had the experience of working in Asia and having to learn a different language and working with different cultures.

“It was a wonderful opportunity that helped to open doors in Asia and that influenced the work I later engaged in in the region. While I was there, I joined the committee of the Hong Kong Physiotherapy Association, which at the time was applying for membership of the WCPT – now World Physiotherapy. One thing that really made an impression me was the global links our profession has.

“Of course, when I came back to New Zealand I got involved again in the profession as Otago Branch Chair, then on the National Executive and was National President from 1992-96. Later roles included being elected Chair of the WCPT Asia Western Pacific Region, then as a WCPT Executive member followed by a 4-year term as Vice President.”

Alongside her work representing the profession, Margot was also growing her practice and knowledge and in doing so became a part of growing the profession in Aotearoa New Zealand as a whole. “There weren’t very many offerings at postgraduate level when I first qualified, but I actually did undertake an intensive care course as there was a certificate course run in Wellington in the mid-1970s,

“Then in the early 80s I realised that to move forward you needed further qualifications. Otago University was just at that time beginning to recognise other qualifications that people had that could contribute to entry into postgraduate programmes – although we studied at the University of Otago the physiotherapy qualification wasn’t a university degree – it was a Physiotherapy Board certification gained on passing the State examination.

“Because of the University’s new practice of recognising other prior learning I was able to use my qualification from physiotherapy to gain entry to a master’s degree – I was the first physiotherapist to use that route at Otago. That led on to working at the School of Physiotherapy which at the time was a part of the Otago Polytechnic.”

Bringing the experience of her master’s degree, and an acute awareness of how the profession was developing overseas, Margot played a key part in establishing the entry level physiotherapy qualification at Otago as a degree. “Of course, the original school was started by the University of Otago in 1913 and we felt we needed to take it back there so that we could have ownership of our own research as well as access to funding and to enable postgraduate study. Similar trends were happening in Australia and other key universities and schools of physiotherapy around the world.

“I was involved in a number of the negotiations that took place with the University and with key people in Wellington to enable the programme to be re-established at the University.”

The first step was the development of a conjoint degree course between the Polytechnic and the University with the degree awarded by the University. “That was the key thing that strengthened the case for us to become fully integrated into the University by 1996.”

That drive to develop the profession also led Margot to take on other roles over the course of her career including membership of the Physiotherapy Board, and other national and international positions within the profession.

Margot’s influence on physiotherapy extends beyond our shores. In her roles with World Physiotherapy Margot has been instrumental in the journey toward recognition of physiotherapy as a profession in China and in further developing and strengthening the profession in Sri Lanka, and Vietnam.

“Most recently through World Physiotherapy, two international colleagues and I had the opportunity to work with universities in Vietnam to introduce national competencies and to develop their entry level degrees to embrace international standards.

Margot speaks at an international rehabilitation conference

“I think it’s incredibly important to help to develop this standard in more countries around the world because I am very keen to have equity – a common entry level standard across the profession that is recognised at international level.”

Against the backdrop of her vast and significant contribution to one of Aotearoa New Zealand’s largest health professions, Margot’s receipt of a King’s honour seems inevitable. The news of the honour, however, still took Margot by surprise.

“You know it was a shock of course because you think ‘goodness is this a hoax or is it real?’ and then on reflection you begin to realise that obviously there are a number of people in physiotherapy and the wider community who have faith in you and want to put you forward for this honour.

“In that respect I felt very honoured and delighted that the profession has that faith in me. I also feel very honoured to be recognised alongside other physiotherapists who’ve also received honours at a national level.

“That said, I think you can’t sit still, you just continue to do what you can for the profession that has given us all so much.”

Having seen the profession bloom over her career, and having been so instrumental in this, we asked Margot where she sees that journey leading to next.

“There’s so much preventive work that we need to carry on with. The health of our population is not something that we can be greatly proud of.

“As physiotherapists we have an important role in advocacy, as well as in prevention and conservative management of patients before they get to the point of needing surgical intervention.

“I think that there’s a missed opportunity in primary care – a more collaborative approach by health professionals would make a real difference to efficient and effective services for our people.”

The Board congratulates Margot on this well-deserved honour and thanks her for her immense contribution to physiotherapy here and around the globe.