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It's very exciting that 2020 is the year of the nurse and midwife, declared by the World Health Organization (WHO).
The designated year coincides with the final year of the global Nursing Now campaign, which seeks to improve health globally by increasing the number, status and profile of nurses.
As we reflect and celebrate the critical work nurses and midwives achieve on both a national and global scale it was timely that at a recent fundraising dinner for Union Aid Abroad- APHEDA I was reminded of the extraordinary work of one particular nurse, Dr Helen McCue.
In 1983, Dr Helen McCue worked in a Middle Eastern refugee camp as a nurse educator for WHO and later as a volunteer nurse in a refugee camp in Beirut. Confronted by horrific massacres, war crimes and shattered communities, Helen recognised that while the international community provided some immediate humanitarian relief, no aid organisation was helping to skill or re-skill nurses and other healthcare workers.
Inspired by this experience Helen returned to Australia with a proposal to the...