University of Wollongong (UOW) academic Professor Elizabeth (Liz) Halcomb FACN has become the first nurse to be awarded the prestigious Bridges-Webb Medal.
The annual award recognises members of the Australasian Association for Academic Primary Care who have made internationally significant teaching and/or research contributions to academic primary care.
Of the eleven previous medal winners, ten have been General Practitioners and the other a Research Psychologist, illustrating how Liz’s achievement is a historic moment for the nursing profession.
Liz believes the honour is recognition for fifteen years of research in the field and a sign of the changing perceptions and status of primary care nurses within both clinical practice and research settings.
“Nurses were once seen as only data collectors. Now they are leading research teams and projects, as well as working alongside multidisciplinary researchers” she said.
She also highlighted her success would not have been possible without the contribution of her nursing colleagues and research students at the UOW.
Liz is a Fellow of the Australian College of Nursing and we are incredibly proud to have such an amazing nursing pioneer as part of our tribe.
