Kilmore District Health CEO
Who are the women who have inspired you in your life and/or career, and why?
My mother was a nurse for many years, working across general, aged and mental health services, eventually ending up as a senior community MH nurse (one of the first appointed into what was then new roles). Interestingly, her office for that job was the same room she had as a “sister’ when living in the nurses quarters of that hospital during WW11. She was a hard worker, always a professional and well respected by her colleagues and patients. When I started nursing in the early 1980s I met many clinicians who had very fond memories of working with her. She retired in her mid 60s, still with lots of energy and enthusiasm for life and the people around her.
I have three beautiful, talented and fantastic daughters (and one equally talented son) who have been fortunate to inherit (or develop) the same zest for life and focus on work as my now long departed mother.
What advice would you give to future women and girls in your industry?
It has been an interesting career as a man in what was in the earlier days a female dominated woman’s industry. I used to smile when introduced as a ‘male nurse’, aren’t we all just nurses?
As a career, nursing allows you to move across a range of different roles and jobs, it is a ticket to travel and great kick off for life long learning. The only advice I have is to enjoy the opportunity that nursing brings every day.
If you could meet anyone, living or dead, who would you want to meet, and why?
I would really like to meet the original John Snow , who identified the source of the Cholera outbreak in London in the mid 1800s. His study revolutionized the thinking about disease control, in particular the importance of safe drinking water….and was one of the major public health reforms ever that has saved millions of lives world wide, the repercussions still very applicable today, especially as ‘winter is coming’.
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