A 40-YEAR JOURNEY: INSIGHTS FROM TASMANIA’S CHIEF NURSE & MIDWIFE, #InternationalNursesDay2025 #InternationalNursesDay
With
Adjunct Associate Professor Francine Douce
Chief Nurse and Midwifery Officer
Department of Health Tasmania
PEOPLE IN HEALTH CARE SEGMENT
Filmed in Hobart, Tasmania | May 2025
Reflecting on her nursing journey on the Tasmanian Health website on International Nurses Day 2025, Chief Nurse and Midwife, Francine Douce, has seen plenty of change since the start of her nursing and midwifery career, 42 years ago.
“At the executive level, it would be unusual to see a woman at the board table at the start of my career – now when I look at the executive of our organisation, I am amongst peers and that is just an amazing shift.
“It’s inherent in us to give back as well, so I feel a real sense of responsibility around not only taking the opportunities for me but creating them for those who come behind,” Ms Douce said.
In May 2025, Francine was inducted into the Tasmanian Nurses and Midwives Honour Roll as a proud Tasmanian who has passionately served the Tasmanian community with over 40 years of experience working as a Registered Nurse and Midwife in Tasmania.
In the formative years of her career, Francine served remote Tasmanian communities living and working in Tullah. Francine later moved to North West of Tasmania where she worked as a nurse and midwife. It was here that Francine’s clinical leadership capability was recognised.
Francine’s leadership journey led her to Hobart where in January 2009 she was appointed as the Director of Nursing in the Office of the Chief Nurse and Midwifery Officer, in the Department of Health. In 2014, Francine was promoted to the Acting Chief Nurse and Midwifery Officer role. She was employed in this position for two years before being appointed in 2016.
In 2015, Francine completed the Global Nursing Leadership Institute (GNLI) with the International Council of Nurses, the first Tasmanian alumni for the GNLI. In October of the following year, Francine was appointed as Tasmania’s Chief Nurse and Midwife, which she continues to proudly fulfil today. Francine’s tenure in both professions has uniquely placed Tasmania in the national policy context.
Francine is a contemporary and visionary leader who implemented the Tasmanian Nursing and Midwifery Symposium, the Tasmanian Public Sector Nursing and Midwifery Excellence Awards, a suite of nursing and midwifery leadership offerings including Leading for Tomorrow Today, and more recently implementation of a Tasmanian Nurses and Midwives Honour Roll. Francine is enthusiastic about elevating the status of nursing and midwifery as well as giving back to the professions. She is an active member of the Australian College of Nursing (ACN) and a Fellow of the Australian College of Midwives (ACM).
Francine served as member and Chair of the Nursing Board of Tasmania/NMBA 2005-2010, the Tasmanian member to National Council ACM 2015, Chair Australian and New Zealand Council of Chief Nursing and Midwifery Officers 2017-2019, current Chair of the Florence Nightingale Grants and Awards Committee, and the International Commissioner for Pathways to Excellence with the American Nurses Credentialing Centre. In 2025, Francine was elected as the Deputy Chair of the Australian Council of Chief Nursing and Midwifery Officers.
During the COVID 19 pandemic, Francine led the Public Health Emergency Operations Centre, established the Nursing Deployment Program to the Victorian Aged Care Outbreak and established the Aged Care Emergency Operations Centre while maintaining the CNMO role.
More recently Francine’s leadership was engaged to lead the development of the Service Delivery Model for the North West Maternity Services (2021-2023), and as the Acting Deputy Secretary (Clinical Accreditation, Regulation and Accreditation) in the Department of Health (2023).
Francine has been nominated and received for many awards including the Soroptimist International Prize for Midwifery Theory, the ANMF Tas Branch Representative of the Year, Service Award – Mersey Community Hospital Support Group, a Peer Award from the Australian College of Midwives, and was nominated for the J&J Midwife of the Year Award.
Francine was appointed as an Adjunct Associate Professor with the University of Tasmania in 2016 and is a strong advocate for nursing and midwifery education, research and professional leadership.
Source: Tasmanian Health Website
-
Landmark brain shape study
For over a century, researchers have thought that the patterns of brain activity that define our experiences, hopes and dreams are determined by how different brain regions communicate with each other through a complex web of trillions of cellular connections.
Now, a Monash University Turner Institute for Brain and Mental Health-led study has examined more than 10,000 different maps of human brain activity and found that the overall shape of a person’s brain exerts a far greater influence on how we think, feel and behave than its intricate neuronal connectivity.
-
Health Minister’s Awards for Nursing Trailblazers
An ACT nurse dedicated to giving people more dignity and choice in their final days was earlier this week night named the inaugural Health Minister’s Nursing Trailblazer at an awards ceremony in Sydney.
Lord Nigel Crisp, Co-Chair Nursing Now and Australian College of Nursing President, Professor Christine Duffield FACN presented the inaugural Health Minister’s Nursing Trailblazer Award to Nikki Johnston MACN, a Palliative Care Nurse Practitioner based in Canberra at Calvary Health Care’s Clare Holland House.
-
Investments to address health inequities in Prostate Cancer Care
Income, education, geographical location, and discrimination based on ethnicity, race, gender and sexual orientation, are only a fraction of factors that can negatively affect a person’s quality of cancer care. This is defined as the “equity gap” and it’s costing people their lives.
Timed to coincide with World Cancer Day 4th February 2025, Movember announced prostate cancer investment of $5.5 million. Eighteen grants (16 proposals and 2 community development grants) are slated to directly tackle inequities in prostate cancer care. The funding will be over three years with the grants spread across five countries – six in Canada, five in the United Kingdom, three in Australia, three in the United States and one in Ireland – each having a specific focus population and care area.
