Due recognition
Ex-Commonwealth chief nursing and midwifery officer makes WHO list .
By Conor Burke
Four Australians recently made the 2020 List of 100 + Outstanding Nursing and Midwifery leaders around the world .
The list was announced to mark last year ’ s International Year of the Nurse and Midwife and is a joint venture from the World Health Organization ( WHO ), United Nations Population Fund ( UNFPA ), Nursing Now , International Council of Nurses ( ICN ), International Confederation of Midwives ( ICM ), and Women in Global Health ( WGH ).
The list features the achievements of nurses and midwives from 43 countries and across six global regions , to recognise these women and the millions of nurses and midwives around the world .
Nursing Review caught up with one of the Aussie honourees , Professor Debra Thoms , who is currently trying to stay retired after a short stint at QUT and a long , distinguished career .
NR : Congratulations , how does it feel to have made such a huge list ? DT : It ’ s very exciting and quite humbling really . And I am in some good company .
It must be a bit different to be recognised in a year when we were recognising nurses during a pandemic . Does it make it even better ? I think it would have been special anyway , but as you say , given what 2020 was , and what 2021 looks like it ’ s going to be , it just gives it that bit of extra specialness .
We can ’ t really avoid talking about the last year . How was it for you professionally ? It was an interesting year . I think that in Australia , we ’ ve obviously not suffered to the extent that some of our colleagues have overseas . 2020 was an interesting year for me anyway , because I spent the year at QUT as the Acting Head of School , in an academic capacity , which has not been my usual working environment .
So that was going to be different anyway . And then the COVID pandemic overlay meant that afforded a series of different challenges in terms of continuing to provide good education for the next generation of nurses , through the nursing program .
You ’ ve had a most distinguished career , looking at some of the roles you ’ ve held . How did you get started in nursing ? I think I ’ ve been enormously privileged in my career . I have had some really great experiences . When I left school in the 70s , I did what was called a Combined Degree Nursing Programme . So nursing was still in hospitals then .
I then worked for a short time in Sydney at the Prince Henry Hospital . And then I went bush and worked as a remote nurse in the Northern Territory . That ’ s where my move into management started to happen . I worked at the Royal Darwin in nursing administration and also did my midwifery up there , which was fabulous .
Then I came back to New South Wales . It was when I was doing my masters , I did that full time . But I then got a job in New South Wales at Manning Base Hospital at Taree , as the deputy director of Nursing .
I ’ d really firmly moved into a management career by then . And had a range of roles there in nursing management , including at the Royal Hospital for Women , where I then became the executive director of the hospital , which is a broader-based health management role . And we moved the hospital during that time , which was a great experience . And it was a wonderful place to work . I was there for eight years .
And then I became an area CEO . That ’ s what they were called then ; they ’ re called LHDs now . I was based out at Dubbo . It was the Macquarie Area Health Service but it ’ s now part of Western New South Wales .
I later returned to nursing , because in my heart I was always a nurse , and nursing was where I wanted to be . And I really wanted to be much more centred in nursing , in roles that more directly engaged with my profession . I loved the general management role , but I really wanted to come back to my profession more centrally , I suppose .
And that ultimately led to me being an area director of nursing in southeastern Sydney . And then I got the job in South Australia as their chief nurse . And then came back to New South Wales as chief nurse in New South Wales Health , and I was there for about six years .
I then took a short break out of public sector health to be at the Australian College of Nursing for three years . I was their inaugural chief executive , when the two state-based colleges came together .
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