An intensive care unit nurse at the Launceston General Hospital, Mrs Brown was one of 30 professionals from the state’s North recently recognised for 25 years of continuous service to Tasmanian health. 

Her journey started nearly three decades ago when she enrolled to study at the then-Tasmanian State Institute of Technology.

Graduating in 1991, Mrs Brown was part of one of the earliest groups of university-trained nurses to enter the health system in Tasmania.

She described nursing back then as a “different world”, including the lack of student debt.

“I have a receipt from my second year of studies for $90,” she said. 

“That is all it cost me and most of that was union fees.

“They brought HECS debt in the year I graduated, so we were lucky to be immune.”​

Straight out of university, Mrs Brown started working at the LGH in surgical ward 5A, before jetting off overseas to Oxford in England. 

Looking back on her career, she recalled her year abroad as some of her fondest memories and said it was a fantastic opportunity to expand her horizons.

“I went with two nursing friends and we just had a really great time,” she said. 

“We just wanted to travel and we could work during the week then explore on the weekend.”

Mrs Brown said it was a different experience to what she was used to at the LGH, including the nurse dress code. 

“I remember we got in trouble for not wearing stockings,” she said.

“When I started we wore the white dress, white stockings and white shoes. They took it very seriously and we weren’t really used to that.” 

After returning to Launceston, Mrs Brown got straight back into her work as a surgical nurse.

Deciding to explore other avenues, she enrolled to study midwifery in Cairns before finding her calling in the ICU. 

“I wanted to try something new but midwifery wasn’t for me,” she said.

“I started in the ICU in 1999 and I have been here ever since.” 

Mrs Brown said her job had always provided a great sense of security and gave her the flexibility to also be a mother of two. 

These days, she said, sometimes even the smallest acts of kindness made the biggest impressions on patients. 

“More often than not, the gratitude is unexpected. It’s the little things that matter, it’s not always about intensive care.

“The other week I made a woman a cup of coffee and she said it made her day.

“Whatever you do to give a patient comfort, that’s what’s important.”