| Margaret O'Connor |
 Born in Melbourne, Australia. From an early age, Margaret wanted to be a nurse and, at the age of 17, applied to Mercy Hospital
and trained with nuns who had taught her at school. After completing this training, she moved into community nursing, looking
after children who had been made wards of the state. During her nursing probationer years, Margaret considered the idea of
joining a religious order, but decided against it at that time. A few years later she made the decision to join a convent,
however, eighteen months into her convent training, in 1978, her father suddenly became ill and she returned home to look
after him. Her father later recovered and Margaret returned to the convent, where she spent ten years as a nun until deciding
that it was not something she wanted to spend the rest of her life doing. She left the convent and spent the following year
completing her degree in theology and it was during this time, while deciding which field of nursing to pursue, that she came
across the first home-based hospice service in Melbourne: the Melbourne City Mission Hospice Service. The Hospice was advertising
for staff and Margaret applied, and she spent the next couple of years working in home-based care. She then moved to the in-patient
unit which comprised ten palliative care beds in a 40-bedded nursing home. After a couple of years there, an opportunity arose
to apply for a position in a newly developing home-based palliative care service, for which Margaret was eventually appointed
Nursing Co-ordinator. She remained with this service for three years until an opportunity come about to start a home-based
service at Caritas Christi Hospice in Melbourne. Margaret talks in length about her different roles, particularly the challenges
involved in setting up a home-based service alongside the Caritas Christi Hospice. The interview topics include the development
of hospice care in Melbourne; the tendering of home care services by the Government in the late 1990s and subsequent changes
to in-patient care, particularly the implementation of the ‘triangle of care’ (the attachment of home-based services to in-patient
units and acute services). Margaret also talks about research for her doctoral thesis, which involves exploring the relationship
of age care to the ‘triangle of care’ and the development of a new model to incorporate nursing home patients requiring palliative
care. The interview ends with Margaret talking about her hopes for her future in palliative care.
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| Interview conducted by Jane Seymour, 15 November 1999 |
| Interview Duration: 57 minutes |
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