In 1980, after try­ing a few oth­er career paths, Ann decid­ed to give nurs­ing a go. 

Her ear­ly days at the Roy­al Bris­bane train­ing hos­pi­tal were affirm­ing; at last, Ann thought, a career that made her feel as though she had ​“gone home”. 

Yet it was quite a shift from the white­coats at the Roy­al Bris­bane to khakis of the Roy­al Cooktown. 

“Our Med Super, I thought he was the gar­den­er! He looked like The Croc­o­dile Hunter,” laughs Ann, reflect­ing on a fond, but sur­pris­ing start to her remote career. 

“It was quite dif­fer­ent, but again, I loved it from the moment I got there,” she says.

“It is where my love for rur­al and remote liv­ing, as well as work, real­ly kicked off.” 

In 1994, Ann moved to Ather­ton, FNQ tak­ing on var­i­ous roles in and around the region. 

Now, as the Direc­tor of Nurs­ing, Mid­wifery and Facil­i­ty Man­ag­er at Ather­ton Hos­pi­tal for the past 18 years, Ann shares her antic­i­pa­tion for a new hos­pi­tal under devel­op­ment at time of writing.

“We’ve been able to build a new com­mu­ni­ty health build­ing and a new three-storey clin­i­cal ser­vices build­ing, which is real­ly excit­ing,” she says. 

“It’s a real­ly nice thing to be able to say that I was a part of this.

“I’ve been offline a cou­ple of years doing mod­els of care and get­ting ready for us to move. 

“It’s actu­al­ly rein­vig­o­rat­ed my love for clin­i­cal prac­tice. I’m think­ing that I’ll prob­a­bly go back into a clin­i­cal role at the end of this project.” 

Though for the last 21 years, Ann has kept up her clin­i­cal skills through week­end work in com­mu­ni­ty nurs­ing, where she is also able to con­tin­ue her pas­sion for sup­port­ing pal­lia­tive patients and their families. 

“For me, that’s the essence of pri­ma­ry health care, hav­ing that real­ly nice con­ti­nu­ity of care with our patients, and being able to sup­port them in their own homes,” says Ann.

Con­nect­ed to CRANAplus 

Ann describes ​“a light­bulb moment” hear­ing inci­vil­i­ty research pre­sent­ed by the Bush Sup­port Line team at a CRANAplus Con­fer­ence: an idea that went on to influ­ence her research for her Mas­ters Degree in Con­flict Man­age­ment and Resolution.

Long inter­wo­ven with CRANAplus, Ann became a CRANAplus Fel­low in 2017.

In 2016, Ann com­plet­ed a PhD with her the­sis explor­ing the lived expe­ri­ence of rur­al and remote nurs­es work­ing in Queens­land who cared for peo­ple with can­cer who had died. Ann also holds a Mas­ters Degree in Rur­al and Remote Health; is an accred­it­ed medi­a­tor; has com­plet­ed her rur­al and iso­lat­ed nurs­ing endorse­ment in 2001 (RIPRN) and is an Immu­ni­sa­tion Pro­gram Nurse.

When asked ​“why CRANAplus?”, Ann answered that it had to do with the qual­i­ty and rel­e­vance of our edu­ca­tion and ser­vices to remote health workers.

“The great thing about CRANA is that it knows its stuff, it knows its audi­ence, and it knows the sit­u­a­tions that our nurs­es find them­selves in.”

On being on the Board 

Thrilled to be appoint­ed, Ann believes it’s the diver­si­ty and breadth of tal­ent that gives the CRANAplus Board its real strength. 

Spend­ing her career in Queens­land, Ann is look­ing for­ward to col­lab­o­rat­ing with fel­low Board Mem­bers to gain a greater under­stand­ing of the needs and chal­lenges of the remote Aus­tralian health workforce.

“As a Board Mem­ber I will sup­port CRANA to con­tin­ue to do that good work.”

“That good work, that is so rel­e­vant in mak­ing sure that our [remote] work­force has the skills and knowl­edge, and the sup­port that it needs to be able to do its work safe­ly, and for the ben­e­fit of our patients.”