30 June 2020
Article from April 2020 INPractice
A pioneer of the profession, an outstanding nurse, and a great conversationalist with a dry sense of humour is how Dr Rosemary Bryant AO remembers the late Aileen Monck AO.
Dr Bryant first met Aileen when she began working at the Royal Adelaide Hospital in the early 1970s, noticing from the outset how Aileen distinguished herself from other senior nurses at the time.
“She was clearly a very intelligent, devoted nurse with highly developed leadership skills and her commitment to patient care and the clinical development of individual nurses was phenomenal,” Dr Bryant says.
“When I first had the pleasure of working with Aileen, she had recently returned from an overseas deployment to war-torn Vietnam.
“I’m sure the high regard in which the doctors and other clinical staff held her in, along with her own high standards were major factors in her selection for that, medical deployment.”
Aileen was part of a surgical team selected for a six-month deployment to treat civilian casualties in a hospital located in Bien Hoa, South Vietnam, in 1967.
Operating under difficult wartime conditions with minimal amenities and supplies, Aileen and the team worked in cramped and challenging conditions, accommodating up to 20 patients in the space routinely allocated to four in Australia.
Aileen’s ease with stepping outside convention and pushing into the unknown didn’t cease upon her return to Adelaide.
Driven by her belief in the advancement of nurses and the nursing profession, she became an active contributor to the Australian movement and advocacy group Goals in Nursing Education.
Largely credited with the career structure developments of the 1980s and the ultimate transition of nursing education into the tertiary sector, the group’s members persistently lobbied political candidates leading up to several elections during the late 1970s and early 1980s.
“She provided exceptional leadership in turbulent times, reminding us the purpose of advancement and shifting nursing education into the tertiary sector was to benefit our patients and the community,” Dr Bryant says.
“Thanks to that group of trailblazers, of which I was one of the youngest at the time, we saw the first undergraduate nursing diplomas begin at Sturt College in 1975 and the South Australian College of Advanced Education in 1983.
“As both a staunch advocate for nursing’s advancement and an exceptional clinician herself, Aileen was the obvious choice to lead the development of the clinical placement component for the diploma course.”
Stepping outside convention and demonstrating herself as a forward-thinker once again, Aileen was instrumental in a campaign to abolish nurses caps in the 1970s.
“The campaign was backed by a group of senior nurses and spearheaded by the Royal Adelaide Hospital Director of Nursing at the time, Pam Spry,” Dr Bryant says.
“The caps served no clinical purpose, in fact they hindered patient care if anything – often falling off or getting in the way when assisting a patient into bed.
“They were a symbol of servitude, so we were happy to see the end of them and what they represented.
“Today’s nurses have many visionaries to thank – their foresight, determination and commitment to improving patient care and the conditions of their fellow nurses, needs to be remembered.
“Aileen was one such visionary – a leader, an exceptional and devoted nurse, and a trailblazer who will never be forgotten.”
Aileen was appointed as the first Director of Nursing at the Flinders Medical Centre in 1975, establishing a handpicked team of quality nursing staff to deliver her exacting standards in patient care excellence. She remained in the role until her 1991 retirement, continuing to improve patient care and nurse education for the remainder of her outstanding career.
She was also a Life Member of ANMF (SA Branch) in recognition of her service, particularly in the career structure developments of the 1980s. Aileen died aged 90 in December 2019.
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