And then I got the Commonwealth chief nurse job . And as the Commonwealth chief nursing and midwifery officer I had further involvement with WHO , attending as part of the government ’ s delegation to the World Health Assembly , and also being the Australian representative at the executive board of WHO , which was really a wonderful opportunity and a great experience .
I feel , as I say , quite privileged to have had the career I ’ ve had . I think nursing provides these opportunities if you ’ re prepared to take them .
It provides lots of pathways for people . And I think you can see that in the four people that have been selected for this from our part of the world . We do have , in many ways , quite different career paths , which really demonstrates the opportunities that nursing provides to people that enter the profession .
How have you seen the role of the nurse evolve over your career ? I saw that probably the most being at the university where I ’ ve had the time or the opportunity to have to look more in depth at what goes into nursing curriculum these days .
And I contrast that with what I learned 40 years ago . So much of what they learn , we never learned . I think that , not just the knowledge that we expect nurses to have these days , but the decisionmaking , the autonomy we expect them to practise with , and the technical skills that we expect them to have as well is so far different to what it was when I started nursing , and it ’ s changed enormously , but also the roles have evolved .
The advent of the role like the nurse practitioner ; we ’ ve now got independently practising midwives in this country . We ’ ve seen some of those roles shift and change as well , which has given other opportunities , for not just the profession , the nurses and midwives , but it also enhances the services available to the community . There has been enormous change .
“ I feel quite privileged to have had the career I ’ ve had . I think nursing provides these opportunities if you ’ re prepared to take them .
What do you see in the future as important areas for the profession ? I think one of the challenges we have is to help community and governments to understand the unused potential that lies within nursing and midwifery . I think about the current pandemic , I do think we ’ ve underutilised nurse practitioners . There ’ s real opportunities there . And I think in looking at those sort of roles , and how we can better build team based models that utilise the skills and capabilities of our expert nurses , particularly in clinical settings , we can actually enhance and improve our services and make them more accessible to people . ■
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