The Road to Nursing

Nick Arnott is a lecturer in nursing in the School of Health Sciences at the University of Tasmania. In a career spanning almost 30 years, he has held clinical, policy and executive roles in acute care, community and primary healthcare, disability support, and international health and development. Since moving into academia in 2009, Nick has maintained a research interest in nursing education, gratitude and the health of vulnerable and marginalised population groups, but his main passion is teaching and the opportunity to mentor and empower the next generation of nurses. Penny Paliadelis is a Registered Nurse who has had an academic career spanning more than 20 years, including senior leadership roles such as Acting Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Academic), Professor of Nursing and Executive Dean, Faculty of Health, Federation University Australia and Acting Head of School of Health, University of New England. She is currently the Managing Director of Paldyne Consulting Pty Ltd, a successful higher education and leadership consultancy company and she holds an Adjunct Professor position at Federation University and Deakin Co. Penny is listed on the National Register of Tertiary Education Quality Standards Agency (TEQSA) Experts for healthcare curriculum design and is a Graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors. Penny's research focus is building leadership roles in health, and she has conducted a number of funded projects to develop collaborative interprofessional health education using digital storytelling approaches, always with a focus on workforce capacity-building. Mary Cruickshank is employed as a Professor of Nursing at Federation University on a part-time basis supervising PhD students and is a Director on a Higher Education Board in Melbourne, Victoria. Mary is also an Adjunct Professor at the ASEAN Institute for Health Development at Mahidol University in Bangkok, Thailand, where she supervises postgraduate students in the health disciplines. She was previously the Head of the School of Nursing, Midwifery and Healthcare at Federation University. Mary has published widely, both internationally and nationally, and has conducted numerous research projects on rural health topics, health education, evidence-based practice, and organisational and workplace culture.