Australia - Nursing and Medical Pioneers Team

Date: Feb 2023 [unknown]
Location: Australia
Surnames/tags: Australian_Pioneers Nursing_Pioneers Medical_Pioneers

This page is a free-space profile for the Australian Nursing and Medical Pioneers project team to assist development of the project. To see the project page go here - Australian Nursing and Medical Pioneers

Contents 1 About the Australian Nursing and Medical Pioneers project 1.1 Mission 1.2 Stage 1 - Early Medical and Nursing Pioneers 1.2.1 Suggested names 1.3 Stage 2 - Nursing and Medical Pioneers from 1901 onwards 1.3.1 Suggested names 2 How to Join the project team 3 Members 4 Planning and Tasks 4.1 Resources and Links 4.2 Where to join in discussions, ask questions and seek help

About the Australian Nursing and Medical Pioneers project

Mission

The mission is to create (or link already existing) WikiTree profiles of people who were nurses or doctors in Australia and who made a contribution to health care, above and beyond their normal role or who were historic figures in changes to health care. The aim is to make each profile full with the biography telling the story of that person's contribution - what motivated them? what inspired them? what obstacles and challenges did they face? what did they achieve? what did others say about their contribution to Nursing or Medicine?

Some profiles may already exist and be listed as Notables, but the person does not have to be Notable to be a pioneer in the field of health care. Their contribution may only have been acknowledged in the local community but acknowledged in the local paper. Or it may have had a global impact and their name is well recognised. It is not the size of their contribution that is important but the impact it had on people's health at whatever level. It is the acknowledgement of that contribution that we are striving for here, along with the story that illustrates their achievements.

The project is divided into two stages to make it manageable. The plan is to start with Stage 1. However, if a lot of people are interested and want to contribute to the project, and they are more interested in the more recent Nursing and Medical Pioneers, the two stages can proceeed concurrently.

Stage 1 - Early Medical and Nursing Pioneers

This would include Ships surgeons who stayed in the colony - not the ones that came out with a ship but went back again, and convict carers (if they are known). It would start with the known people from the tent hospital and then the Rum Hospital (1816) and then move on to the Sydney Infirmary and Dispensary (1845), then Sydney Hospital in 1894. I'm hoping to find early hospitals in other states as well as NSW. Also local doctors and nurses who may have served in the community.

Suggested names

John White
Lucy Osburn

Stage 2 - Nursing and Medical Pioneers from 1901 onwards

There are the more modern day pioneers, who came after Federation. The date to consider is the date of their contribution, not their birth date. These pioneers may be linked to a service, such as the Royal Flying Doctor Service e.g. John Flynn, or have participated in an event such as WW1 or WW11 e.g. Vivian Bullwinkel, or they may have contributed as an individual to their field or to the people they care for. Some of these profiles may be already included in other categories or projects such as the ANZACs or Notables. That does not preclude them from being added to this project. If their profile is already complete they can still have a sticker/category added to their profile and their profile name added to the project page.

Suggested names

John Flynn
Vivian Bullwinkel
William McBride
Robyn Miller
Pat Slater
Victor Chang
Lowita O’Donoghue
Fiona Wood
Valda Wiles

How to Join the project team

While this project may appeal more to nurses and doctors, or families of nurses and doctors, anyone is welcome to join our team. You don't need any experience other than having signed the Wikitree honour code and a willingness to join the Australia Project. All help is appeciated no matter how big or small. Whether you are a retiree with a lot of time on your hands, or a young person with an interest in history, genealogy or the contributions that the professions of Medicine and Nursing have had to the development of health care in Australia, or a health professional with only a very small amount of time to devote on an irregular basis - you are all welcome. Please send a message to the team leader or one of the Australia Project leaders and we'll get you joined up and started.

Members

Team leader Melanie (Fisher) White

Planning and Tasks

Definition of pioneer for this project
List of guidelines for what to include in a profile
List of existing profiles that just need a sticker added to their profile
List of profiles to create

Resources and Links

First public hospital NMA
Australian Dictionary of Biography Occupation lists;
Nurses 121 names
Midwives 111 names with some overlap
Nurse educator
Army nurse
Hospital matron
General practitioner 230 names
Surgeon 226 names
Pathologist 49 names
Physician 97 names
Army medical officer 237 names
The Australian Medical Pioneers Index
Timeline of nursing history in Australia and New Zealand
History of Nurse Practitioners
Medicine in colonial Australia, 1788-1900

Where to join in discussions, ask questions and seek help

There are two avenues of discussion - the Australia Project Google Group for discussions through email, and Discord for real time chat. If you don't already belong to these, please ask.