{"id":826,"date":"2024-05-13T10:26:39","date_gmt":"2024-05-13T00:26:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/metronorth.health.qld.gov.au\/better-together-van\/uncategorized\/gladys-farewells-hospital-family"},"modified":"2025-02-18T15:24:06","modified_gmt":"2025-02-18T05:24:06","slug":"gladys-farewells-hospital-family","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/metronorth.health.qld.gov.au\/better-together-van\/news\/gladys-farewells-hospital-family","title":{"rendered":"Mother nurse Gladys farewells hospital family"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mother nurse Gladys farewells hospital family<\/h1>\n
\"Gladys

Gladys Akhurst (photo courtesy of the Courier Mail)<\/p><\/div>\n

Gladys Akhurst is a nurse who will be remembered by many.<\/h4>\n

The longstanding theatre nurse at The Prince Charles Hospital (TPCH) is hanging up her scrubs in exchange for some well-deserved rest and relaxation after 55 years of service to the community.<\/p>\n

As Queensland\u2019s longest serving Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander registered nurse, Gladys, age 73, first commenced her nursing training in 1968 at the age of 17 at Mt Isa Base Hospital,<\/p>\n

Her nursing career has spanned many locations including Mt Isa, Brisbane, Darwin, Alice Springs, Melbourne, Sydney, Perth, London and Singapore. Her longest employment at any one institution is at TPCH where she has dedicated 30 years of service.<\/p>\n

Throughout her career, Gladys has trained many incoming graduate nurses instilling her skill, knowledge and passion for the nursing profession into several generations of Queensland nurses.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor me it has been about supporting the new ones coming through and helping them learn to become better scrub nurses, and I think I\u2019ve done that,\u201d Gladys said.<\/p>\n

Fondly known as the matriarch of the operating theatres, Gladys, a mum of two herself, is considered a mother figure by many staff who have benefitted from her kind, nurturing nature.<\/p>\n

Over the years, Gladys has become famous for keeping the food cupboard in the theatre tearoom stocked, so her colleagues are well nourished during their busy shifts.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy mother was a caring soul, I think I got it from her. I love to take care of people, it\u2019s part of who I am,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

The veteran nurse admits that while she will miss the hospital, she is ready for retirement.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Prince Charles Hospital has been my home for a long time. I\u2019ve enjoyed every minute working here, the staff are like my family, they\u2019ve helped me through all the good and bad times,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m lucky to have had such a wonderful career, but now I\u2019m ready to start the next part of my life \u2013 it\u2019s time.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Queensland’s longest serving Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander registered nurse Gladys Akhurst is hanging up her theatre scrubs after 55 years of service.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":77,"featured_media":827,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-826","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-atsi-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/metronorth.health.qld.gov.au\/better-together-van\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/826","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/metronorth.health.qld.gov.au\/better-together-van\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/metronorth.health.qld.gov.au\/better-together-van\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/metronorth.health.qld.gov.au\/better-together-van\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/77"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/metronorth.health.qld.gov.au\/better-together-van\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=826"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/metronorth.health.qld.gov.au\/better-together-van\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/826\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":911,"href":"https:\/\/metronorth.health.qld.gov.au\/better-together-van\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/826\/revisions\/911"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/metronorth.health.qld.gov.au\/better-together-van\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/827"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/metronorth.health.qld.gov.au\/better-together-van\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=826"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/metronorth.health.qld.gov.au\/better-together-van\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=826"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/metronorth.health.qld.gov.au\/better-together-van\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=826"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}