10th Janet Sipple Lecture

2016 Janet A. Sipple Lectureship | 10th Anniversary
Nursing on the Frontline in Australia
Kym Volp holds certificates and degrees in nursing, midwifery and education along with a Master of
Business Administration and was awarded fellowships by the College of Nursing Australia and the
Australian College of Health Service Executives. Kym’s PhD work focuses in Foucauldian Ethics applied
to a critical history of the nurse manager in Queensland public hospitals.
Kym’s professional story-line is inscribed across a field of practice settings in acute and community nursing
and midwifery, research, teaching, management and hospital executive roles in public and private sectors.
Kym works in acute public hospital service management (Toowoomba, Queensland) and in clinical
governance consultancy (Australia-wide) with the country’s premier health service accreditation agency.
These roles sustain Kym’s currency in professional practice, health system safety applications, health
politics and leadership development.
Kym’s election to representative roles in the Queensland Nurses and Midwives Union and the Queensland
Branch of the Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation serving as Governing Council Executive
member demonstrates Kym’s commitment to leadership. This contribution has been acknowledged
with awards over the years and the adoption of Kym’s research on professional values in tertiary nursing
curricula and in professional policy documents and submissions. Service on multiple professional and industrial committees continues at all levels
of advocacy including state and national government policy,safety and quality boards, and community health service advisory boards.
Kym has been a life-long campaigner for nurses and for nursing. She brings a vibrant and diverse service background most certainly impelled
and enriched by her 25 year association with Professor Janet A. Sipple. Kym partnered with Dr. Sipple’s unstoppable ‘nursepower’ in driving the
Australian-American Nurses’ Exchange Program for the advancement of nursing practice and scholarship (est. 1992). The rewards for hundreds of
nurses and their communities have been substantial with wide-reaching effects across Australia.