Maike van Niekerk
BScN
DPhil in Psychiatry Student
Improving the psychiatric interventions for vulnerable patient populations
Maike is completing her DPhil in Psychiatry at the University of Oxford as a member of the Oxford Psychological Medicine research team.
She is originally from Canada, where she completed an oncology-focused Bachelor of Science in Nursing at Dalhousie University. Throughout Maike’s undergraduate degree, she has been a strong advocate for improving the overall psychological well-being of cancer patients. She is the founder of Katrin’s Karepackage, an award-winning charitable program that offsets the travel costs of cancer patients living in rural communities travelling for cancer-related appointments. For her scholastic attainments and humanitarian efforts, she was named a 2017 Rhodes Scholar.
Maike’s past research has focused on investigating the relationship between historical traumas, psychological distress, and cancer diagnosis among Indigenous peoples in Canada. Under the supervision of Professor Michael Sharpe, Maike’s current research aims to explore the psychiatric care of older general hospital inpatients and to enhance the psychiatric interventions for this patient population.
