Whenever registered nurse Rosemary Power gets the chance to share her wisdom with young nurses and midwives, her message is clear: join the union.
“I’ve been a union person from day one,” she says proudly.
“Whatever you do, join the union. Because when the chips are down, the union has got your back.”
Born in Brisbane in 1941, amidst the turmoil of World War II, Rosemary was inspired to become a nurse after witnessing the impact of war on her father, who lost a leg during the Battle of Flanders. Nursing ran in her family, too.
She began a four-year nursing training program at the Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital when she was 17 years old, one of only four out of 32 students to complete the journey.
“I absolutely loved it. I had never known anything like it,” Rosemary recalls.
“You started off as the lowest of the low, cleaning pans, making jellies and custards, and washing up. At six o’clock at night, you’d have to round up anybody who was in the ward that could grab a tea towel and help get all the cleaning done.”
While the workload proved challenging, Rosemary relished learning on the job and caring for patients.
Throughout a career spanning over six decades, Rosemary has worked in various nursing settings – theatre, general wards, aged care, and her biggest passion, mental health. These days, she works remotely, part-time, for the St John’s Crisis Centre on the Gold Coast, writing policy as part of pilot funding received from the Australian Government Department of Social Services to employ nurses at the centre.
Reflecting on her nursing journey, Rosemary, a Queensland Nurses and Midwives’ Union (QNMU) member for more than 50 years, says she “didn’t really know a nurse who wasn’t part of the union”.
She still vividly remembers going on strike in 1983 to stand up against unsafe staffing levels when she was in charge of wards at the Prince Charles Hospital in Brisbane.
“I not only had to nurse half the ward, and it was an acute ward, but I also had to run it,” explains Rosemary.
“I was the charge nurse, the manager, and it was just unbelievable, it was so unsafe. I left two nurses who didn’t believe in striking, which was their prerogative, in the ward. They looked after the patients while the rest of us walked out.”
Beyond joining the collective to fight for worker’s rights and quality healthcare, Rosemary also received much-needed individual support from the then QNU when she contracted a virus in 1988 and became severely ill. She was the first nurse in Queensland superannuated out due to chronic fatigue that left her in a motorised wheelchair for 18 months and prompted her pathway into university to study counselling.
“It was the union that went into bat for me,” she says gratefully.
“Even today, chronic fatigue or long COVID, whatever you want to call it, it’s all a virus-based phenomena to start the ball rolling. Not everybody gets it, obviously, but I certainly was down and out for a long time. And it was the union who stood by me, had my back.”
In 2024, the Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation (ANMF) celebrates 100 years of fighting for its members to be properly recognised and rewarded for their work. Membership has grown from 748 in 1924 to over 326,000 today. A long list of seminal achievements includes better wages and conditions, including penalty rates, nurse-to-patient ratios, the transition to university education, national registration, and the emergence of nurse practitioners and nurse-led healthcare.
For Rosemary, the transition from hospital training to university education stands out.
“It’s a very exciting time for nurses,” she suggests.
“They can start their own businesses now; they can start their own agencies. There is so many things we can do.”
However, many challenges remain, she says.
“Not only for nursing, but society in general, there’s mental health issues, drug and alcohol issues. As for nursing, I think it’s important for nurses to know as much as they can about mental health issues and how to keep themselves mentally healthy. Because unless you look after yourself, you’re useless to other people.”
When her husband passed away nearly two decades ago, Rosemary decided to re-enter nursing to continue her lifelong love of learning and giving back. She undertook an online refresher program through Central Queensland University.
“I’m very interested in lifelong learning. It might sound a bit cliché, but I really do believe that one must just keep on learning and never give up. The older I get, the more I realise just how much I don’t know,” says Rosemary.
A staunch union member, Rosemary, whose daughter is also a nurse, says she remains confident that the ANMF can continue representing the professions for another hundred years and more.
“I pinch myself to realise that I’m nursing, and I still love it,” she says.
One Response
Congratulations to Rosemary Power. She proves age is just a number. Her attitude to lifelong learning and her continued contribution to sharing her nursing skills, experiences and knowledge is admirable. Wonderfully inspiring article.