\u201cI was at Auckland Hospital, and I taught clinical pharmacology at med school [the University of Auckland] for decades.\u201d<\/p>\n
Women\u2019s health and the work of women in the medical field were core parts of her career, with Briant running evening family planning clinics on Karangahape Rd for a few years and working with the New Zealand Medical Women\u2019s Association.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe took it on ourselves to meet in Auckland with all the young women who were coming for an interview for med school. A bunch of us would invite them for lunch and then berate them about the difficulties of combining career and motherhood. Just so that they had thought about it before they leapt in.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe issue for half of the medical students who are women is the never-ending conflict between biology and training. So, when most people want to have a family, and when is it going to be good to do that?\u201d<\/p>\n
Although it was possible to train and work part-time in the medical profession, Briant said it was still very challenging to balance with children and family.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t have any kids of my own. That was a decision too far for me. The way I was brought up with a totally at-home mother who totally looked after everything \u2013 I couldn\u2019t quite take myself out of that to be a part-time in both roles. So, I made a non-child choice way back \u2013 which is fine. I\u2019m happy about that.\u201d<\/p>\n
That did not stop her from saying it was a good career option.<\/p>\n
\u201cI would say it\u2019s a most satisfying, interesting career, that has so many opportunities and directions.\u201d<\/p>\n
There are few better examples of that than Briant herself, who also spent time volunteering as a doctor for World Vision in Thailand and had stints as chairwoman of the New Zealand Medical Council and the NZ branch of International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War.<\/p>\n
She received the New Zealand Suffrage Centennial Medal in 1993 and was appointed a Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire for services to the medical profession in 1994.<\/p>\n
Later, she worked with the international medical relief organisation M\u00e9decins Sans Fronti\u00e8res (Doctors Without Borders)<\/a> and went to Palestine for a year.<\/p>\n \u201cI did that in 2003 and 2004 for a year. Life for Palestinians when I was there was very bad. And we naively thought it couldn\u2019t get any worse. Well, clearly it has with Gaza<\/a> being now completely annihilated in terms of infrastructure, and [people] still living in horrendous conditions,\u201d Briant said.<\/p>\n She also spent six months helping to run a trauma programme for children in Jenin, in the north of the West Bank.<\/p>\n With M\u00e9decins Sans Fronti\u00e8res, she also spent time working in Rarotonga, the Republic of Abkhazia in northwestern Georgia and Pakistan before she eventually returned to Gisborne.<\/p>\n \u201cBecause P\u0101t\u016btahi is my origin, I came back here to retire.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve got heaps of family here. Yes, my brothers and my many nieces and nephews and great-nieces and nephews. No doctors, a number of nurses and a radiographer.\u201d<\/p>\n Around 2007, she said she returned to work as a physician at Gisborne Hospital because of a \u201cdire need for person power\u201d.<\/p>\n