WISENET Journal 35, July 1994, pp. 15-16.
Professor Taylor is Foundation Professor of Nursing at Southern Cross University. She is a registered nurse and midwife. Her Master of Education and PhD were both obtained at Deakin University where she was also a foundation member of the School of Nursing until this year. Bev shared the following thoughts with us.
'I was born in 1951 in Burnie, Tasmania, as one of five children. I was a product of a working class family, who thought that girls grew up, left school and got married. I remember my father predicting that it was a waste of time going nursing, because I would only get married and never use it.
'My aspirations as a child were to either be a famous singer, a teacher, or "an air hostess" When I finished school, I went to work for a year in a paper factory at Burnie. which levelled out some "smart alec" ideas I had amassed about myself, by virtue of being a swimming champion, and a school prefect. I went nursing because I had visions of being a missionary in India, but my altruistic aspirations went off track somewhat during my nurse training and I went on to do midwifery training instead.
'Twenty-five years later I am still involved in nursing and I could never have imagined how much so. I have a ten year old son, Michael, as well as a lot of happy connections with, and memories about, people and places I have met along the course of my life. I have continued to study, research and practise nursing and education and to realise the satisfaction of being of service to people as a nurse, teacher and researcher.
'I think that nursing is about what happens between nurses and patients in contexts of care and that it is mediated through knowledge, skills and the exchange of humanity between both parties. Nurses are skilled practitioners. who are to be valued for the depth and breadth of their practice knowledge.
'In this day of threats against its very viability, the profession of nursing should remember and declare with pride the irreplaceability of their nursing practice skills and knowledge, which have been transmitted for hundreds of years, from the time of the wise women to the present day. through the oral tradition of nurses' stories about their experiences and now through their professional publications.
'My professional interests are in: