Expe­ri­enced remote area nurse John Wright has been appoint­ed as the new Board Chair of CRANAplus, the peak pro­fes­sion­al body for remote health in Australia.

Mr Wright has served as a Board Mem­ber since 2005 and as Deputy Chair along­side out­go­ing Chair Fiona Wake since 2019. He has been nurs­ing in remote Aus­tralia for over 20 years and cur­rent­ly works at Ten­nant Creek Hos­pi­tal as Nurse Edu­ca­tion and Research Coordinator. 

Fiona Wake will con­tin­ue as a Board Mem­ber and Emma Bar­ritt has tak­en on the role of Deputy Chair.

CRANAplus Chief Exec­u­tive Offi­cer Lin­da Kens­ing­ton said that Mr Wright has shown incred­i­ble com­mit­ment to remote health and brings a wealth of gov­er­nance expe­ri­ence to this role.

“John has been on the Board for near­ly two decades of growth and trans­for­ma­tion,” Ms Kens­ing­ton said. 

“Dur­ing his tenure, we have diver­si­fied our Mem­ber­ship and grown our capac­i­ty to deliv­er edu­ca­tion and men­tal health ser­vices to meet the needs of the remote health workforce.

“We are thrilled to retain Fiona as a Board Mem­ber and as we reflect on her con­tri­bu­tions as Chair, the Board and I can think of no one bet­ter suit­ed than John and Emma to step into their respec­tive roles.

“They embody CRANAplus’ val­ues, know the organ­i­sa­tion in and out, and are great rep­re­sen­ta­tives of the organisation’s Mem­bers, because of their com­mit­ment to con­tin­u­ous pro­fes­sion­al devel­op­ment, sup­port­ing the emerg­ing work­force, and giv­ing back to the profession.”

At home in remote Aus­tralia, John began his work­ing life as a farmer, shear­er, fenc­ing con­trac­tor, and grain han­dler before com­menc­ing a career in nurs­ing. Since grad­u­at­ing in the 1990s, he has attained a Grad­u­ate Cer­tifi­cate in Emer­gency Nurs­ing, a Mas­ters Degree in Remote Health Prac­tice (Nurse Prac­ti­tion­er), a Mas­ters Degree in Remote Health Man­age­ment, and a Grad­u­ate Cer­tifi­cate in Clin­i­cal Edu­ca­tion. He said he feels priv­i­leged to take on this new lead­er­ship role.

“I’m hon­oured to be recog­nised by my col­leagues and to be giv­en an oppor­tu­ni­ty to lead the Board,” Mr Wright said.

“Dur­ing the last 20 years, I’ve aimed to devel­op my gov­er­nance and lead­er­ship skills, but what I feel has real­ly pre­pared me for this role is my time nurs­ing in the bush. The chal­lenges I face along­side my peers in the remote health sec­tor have always moti­vat­ed me and now they’ll steer me in my role as Board Chair.

“CRANAplus has estab­lished itself as a remote health author­i­ty and a val­ued ser­vice provider that pro­motes the deliv­ery of safe, high-qual­i­ty health­care in remote and iso­lat­ed Aus­tralia. The organ­i­sa­tion has worked hard to achieve what is has to date, and what an oppor­tu­ni­ty we have now to build on its suc­cess­es and its capa­bil­i­ty to improve remote health.”

In John’s spare time, he is the main car­er for his wife Ani­ta who lives with a dis­abil­i­ty, vol­un­teers as a facil­i­ta­tor for the CRANAplus Remote Emer­gency Care, Pae­di­atric Emer­gency Care and Advanced Life Sup­port cours­es, and holds the posi­tion of Unit Offi­cer with the Ten­nant Creek Vol­un­teer Unit, North­ern Ter­ri­to­ry Emer­gency Ser­vices. He is also the Vice Chair of the Cen­tral Aus­tralian Rur­al Prac­ti­tion­ers Association.

More about CRANAplus

CRANAplus (Coun­cil of Remote Area Nurs­es of Aus­tralia +) is the peak pro­fes­sion­al body for the remote and iso­lat­ed health work­force. Our not-for-prof­it, mem­ber­­ship-based organ­i­sa­tion pro­vides edu­ca­tion, men­tal health sup­port, career sup­port, and pro­fes­sion­al ser­vices to nurs­es, mid­wives, and oth­er health pro­fes­sion­als to ensure the deliv­ery of safe, high-qual­i­­ty pri­ma­ry health­care to remote and iso­lat­ed areas of Australia. 

Media con­tact

Sam Richards
Com­mu­ni­ca­tions & Mem­ber­ship Man­ag­er
(07) 4047 6446
communications@​crana.​org.​au