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Highlights and recognition for our staff

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Emeritus Professors

In 2023 we were delighted to welcome two new Emeritus Professors, Professor Debra Griffiths and Professor Leanne Boyd.

For us, the rank of Emeritus Professor is considered a mark of special distinction and the title is fitting recognition of Debra and Lee's distinguished service to Monash, to the nursing and midwifery professions, and their leadership over many years.

Debra, our immediate past Head of School for seven years, and a member of staff for over 30 years, brought her unique perspective being trained not only as a nurse but as a lawyer as well. Her expertise and leadership saw Monash be recognised for our education and research rising significantly up the subject rankings for both Shanghai Rankings and QS Rankings. Debra also led the school through the difficult and demanding years of COVID, playing a big part in ensuring our students were able to continue their education and clinical practice during this time in a well-supported environment and ensuring that the healthcare industry did not see a drop in qualified nurses entering the workforce.

Lee has an outstanding track record, including significant engagements at Monash University, as well as senior leadership roles within health services. She has extensive expertise in health service management and nursing and midwifery workforce matters, and has been engaged by government, agencies and boards. She is an experienced and thoughtful PhD supervisor and this appointment will enable Lee to continue to supervise students in Nursing and Midwifery, Monash University as well as contribute more broadly to our school.

Debra and Lee have a long history of connection and contribution with us. We are excited to have both continue to be a part of our school in this new capacity and we look forward to continuing to benefit from their significant expertise and leadership.

David de Krester Medal awarded to Professor Debra Griffiths

This year, Professor Debra Griffiths was awarded the David de Kretser Medal in recognition of her outstanding contributions to Monash Nursing and Midwifery over three decades. She is a registered nurse, midwife and lawyer with many years of clinical experience in Australia and the United Kingdom. She is a leader and innovator with a passion for educating health professionals in the law and clinical practice.

The David de Kretser Medal celebrates the exceptional contribution of a staff member to any area of the faculty’s operation over a significant period of their working life. The Lifetime Achievement Medal recognises a person who has made an outstanding contribution, nationally and internationally, to human health and wellbeing. The faculty established the awards in 2006 and bestows them annually.

Debra was Head of Monash Nursing and Midwifery from 2015-2022, and during her tenure, the discipline of nursing at Monash rose to first in Victoria and fifth globally in the prestigious ShanghaiRankings Global Ranking of Academic Subjects (GRAS).

During the height of the COVID-19 pandemic and Victorian lockdowns, her leadership ensured that over 1700 Monash nursing and midwifery students progressed safely through their undergraduate and postgraduate courses, shoring up the pipeline of Registered and Advanced Practice Nurses needed in Victoria's healthcare system.

Debra also led the Victorian Department of Health-funded, infection control and PPE training program for residential aged-care workers during the pandemic, at a time when residential aged care residents were extremely vulnerable to COVID-19 infection. Over a nine-month period, the team delivered 324 training sessions to 3588 participants from 241 individual residential aged care facilities in metropolitan Melbourne and regional Victoria, improving safety, building confidence, and supporting all levels of staff to work safely under the most extraordinary circumstances.

As a sought-after specialist in medical-legal education, she has delivered lectures and seminars to a wide range of healthcare practitioners and students, at state, national and international levels. Her extensive clinical background enables an educational focus on understanding key legal principles and how they may influence professional practice to the benefit of both the patient and health practitioner.

Professor Griffiths’ research has been published in numerous peer-reviewed journals and she jointly authored Essentials of Law for Health Professionals, a publication widely utilised in Australia across two decades and several editions, and favourably reviewed by The Honourable Michael Kirby AC CMG regarding its quality and contribution to medico-legal education, and attracted over $7 million in research funding across her career, with projects focused on clinical practice, such as the Objective Structured Clinical Examinations (OSCE) for international registered and enrolled nurses for the Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia,  identifying factors influencing occupational violence in healthcare, examining end of life decision-making; highlighting gaps in the documentation and subsequent communication of elderly residents transferred to hospital; the establishment and evaluation of an interprofessional simulation laboratory and associated educational strategies; and national nursing standards.

Continually committed to the quality of professional practice, Debra was also appointed an inaugural Director of the Nursing and Midwifery Health Program Victoria in 2006. The service provides free, independent, and confidential assistance to Victorian nurses, midwives and students experiencing substance misuse, mental health concerns, family violence and other issues affecting health and wellbeing. Professor Griffiths also contributes to healthcare practice as an expert witness in court, when requested.