HIV/AIDS nursing honoured
15 June 2021
Bolton Clarke HIV Clinical Nurse Practitioner Dr Liz Crock has been made a Member of the Order of Australia in the 2021 Queen’s Birthday Honours List.
Dr Crock has been honoured for significant service to nursing, particularly for people living with HIV/AIDS.
With a background in immunology, her introduction to HIV came while working in a laboratory in Italy when the AIDS epidemic started.
She returned to Australia in 1987 and studied nursing at The Alfred in Melbourne, then undertook postgraduate studies at Fairfield Hospital.
“I ended up on the HIV ward and that was where I got to know the people coming into the ward from the Victorian AIDS Council, the volunteers and client support officers,” she said.
As part of Bolton Clarke’s dedicated HIV team, Dr Crock has been called on more than ever over the past year to support people with HIV with primary health care, co-ordinating access to appointments and supporting COVID-19 testing.
“Our HIV team has about 200 clients and we support them with an even broader range of complex issues,” Dr Crock said.
“Many are isolated, living long-term with HIV, some are refugees and asylum seekers, some are newly diagnosed or late diagnoses with advanced disease and many are dealing with mental illness, substance use and homelessness.
“Many of our clients are so knowledgeable and were kind of prepared – especially the long-term survivors.
“Some have been living in such challenging isolation for so long that they really conveyed a sense of ‘welcome to my world’.”
Dr Crock is President of the Australian and New Zealand Association of Nurses in AIDS Care (Vic Branch) and past Board Member and Vice-President of the Australasian Society for HIV, viral hepatitis and sexual health medicine, of which she has been a member since 1994.
She has previously won the International Nursing Human Rights Award (2013), the President’s Award, Victorian AIDS Council (2009) and the Clinical Excellence Award from People Living with HIV/AIDS (Victoria) (2008).
Watch a panel interview with Dr Liz Crock here.
