In each edition of our alumni newsletter, we speak with one of our alumni about their time as a student at Erasmus School of Health Policy & Management (previously iBMG and SAG) and what they are doing now. This time we spoke with Hermien Post. Since graduation from iBMG, Hermien has worked for several of the government's ministries. She now works for government-wide programmes. She is also a Board Member of Amnesty International.
Three years after starting out as a physiotherapist, Hermien Post started itching to do something else. Inspired by her brothers (who studied Public Administration in Leiden), she visited the university to find out what options were available. By chance, she came across a leaflet from ESHPM’s predecessor, the Institute of Health Policy and Management (iBMG). It immediately appealed to her. She began studying at iBMG in 1993, at the age of 27, while still working as a physiotherapist.
What was your experience of your time as a student?
I had a super fun time studying. Before my daughters when to university themselves, I used to tell them that being a student is such a great time. At the start of every semester, I looked at the tables of contents in the textbooks and every time I was excited about what we were going to learn.
At the end of my second year of study, I was asked to work as a student assistant. I was part student assistant at iBMG and part research assistant at iMTA. This meant I no longer had to work as a physiotherapist. The work at iMTA ultimately inspired my thesis on cost-effectiveness.
How did your career unfold after graduation?
I started as a Policy Officer, first at the Ministry of Finance and then at the Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport. While there, one of my policy areas was labour market policy. At the time, it was already being predicted that there would be a shortage of health care staff by 2025. Seeing that becoming a reality now is an interesting sensation.
I worked at the Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport for 23 years. As well as a Policy Officer, I’ve also been a Department Head and a Deputy Director. However, managing large programmes is where my true passion lies, and I’ve been doing that for a few years now. For instance, I’m currently working on a programme involving personal care budgets. The previous programme focused on redesigning the information services landscape for infectious disease policy. For that programme, we looked at what we’d learned from the COVID-19 pandemic.
You were working at the Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport during the COVID-19 pandemic. What was that like?
When I retire, which won’t be anytime soon, the COVID-19 period will be one that stands out as very interesting workwise. During that time, we worked seven days a week. I remember taking a two-hour break on a Saturday (!) to visit my parents – which I actually felt guilty about afterwards.
Another time, while I was in an online meeting with the Minister, my daughter came to bring me my dinner. I remember him saying to her, “Look after your mother, because you’re not going to see much of her over the next few months”. And he wasn’t joking.
It’s still the case now, but even more so in that period, that you see something about your work in the newspapers every day. Often, it’s related to your own policy area. That’s something that’s quite special and fun about working for the government.
What lessons from your studies do you still apply to your day-to-day work?
The strength of health policy and management is always looking at a subject from a wide range of angles. You learn to look through multiple lenses: economic, political, environmental, demographic – you name it!
We also learned to use a seven-step plan: in tutorials, you had to explore a big problem by discussing it with each other using seven steps, and making a distinction between the main question and sub-questions. That’s a mechanism I still use when I need to figure something out. It’s a learning method that I’ve really internalised.
If you were able to teach a course for our bachelor's programme yourself, what would it be about?
I’ve been involved in information services for the past ten to fifteen years of my career. This is not just about technology/ICT, of course, but also about data sharing and privacy issues. I believe that you can’t make policy without considering information services. It wasn’t a course during my time as a student, but I hope that’s changed. There’s really a lot to say on this topic and I’d love to share my knowledge about it.
If anyone is interested in working for the government and has questions, Hermien is more than happy to chat.
In conversation with… you?
Do you also have fond memories of your time at SAG/iBMG/ESHPM that you would like to share with fellow alumni? Let us know by sending an email to alumni@eshpm.eur.nl.
