My nursing career started in South Africa where my interest in medical and oncology nursing began.  After immigrating to Australia I continued to work in general nursing in all sorts of speciality areas including oncology, urology, orthopaedics and trauma but my interest in oncology and palliative care persisted. I moved into community nursing, community palliative care and then aged care. Moving to country Victoria opened my eyes to the many issues of rural community health and palliative care nursing and my interest in this area continues both in practice and in research. My first academic position in regional Victoria brought together my joy of teaching and allowed me to integrate my nursing experience with teaching beginning nurses, many of whom were the first in their family to attend university. Moving to Monash University some years later introduced me to a much bigger teaching and research environment with students from all sorts of backgrounds and languages. My experiences of living and working in both regional and metropolitan Melbourne has provided me with a unique insight into the experiences of nurses and the people they care from both an urban and rural perspective. My interest in both the urban and rural perspective of nursing practice is encompassed in all facets of my teaching.

I am very active in my local community being involved with the Country Fire Authority as a volunteer for over 10 years. My passion for volunteering, and my nursing experience in regional Victoria shaped my research direction and I am currently completing a PhD, researching volunteering in palliative care in rural Australia. My research aims to examine the discourses of rural palliative care service provision and the volunteer workforce who compliment the role of nurses who work in this area.