Farewell Glenda Gorrie

[Donna Cameron]

Hi Michael,
Could you please post Claire’s email below re Glenda Gorrie.
Thanks,
Donna

Farewell Glenda Gorrie (Vale 15.10.2019)

I learned yesterday of Glenda’s passing though Fiona Wilson, her longtime friend and colleague who was with Glenda when she died at home with friends and family.

Glenda, Fiona and I worked together for almost 10 years at the Royal Melbourne which was then North Western Health and what an amazing 10 years that was. I frequently reflect on what Glenda has taught me which has contributed greatly to my professional career. After many years of observing her work style, her leadership, her amazing intellect and her ability in different environments within health I was privileged to benefit from her depth of understanding of the health system and the systems more notably in which we all operate and find so challenging.

Glenda was a strong, independent and oh so knowledgeable senior nurse and infection control leader. Her personal interests outside of Infection Control included observations on the political landscape, her love of literature, the arts and the natural environment. All have left an indelible imprint on me and I reflect with great fondness on the years we worked together. Many would know Glenda could be formidable yet she held people to account for their actions and was an exemplar of professional conduct in the face of adversity and I, as a fledgling novice admired and modelled many of her behaviours.

I will always be grateful to her for how she has shaped my thinking, my own leadership style and supported me in my early career to become the individual I am today. While I did not always agree with Glenda, I admired her tenacity and ability to analyse systems, to advocate for those who could not and, for her commitment to nursing and Infection Control more broadly. She was compassionate, she was fair and she was disciplined.

What I also learned from Glenda was to enjoy the small victories, celebrate success (and oh didn’t we) and, how to support each other. Unbeknown to me was that at the time Glenda was ‘mentoring us’, she was equipping us with the tools and tenacity to work with people of all disciplines, experience and backgrounds; lessons I will be forever grateful for and that have served me well more broadly in health outside of Infection Prevention and Control.

Before the College there was AICA and, before AICA there was VICPA and, before that there was the Victorian Advisory Committee on Infection Control (VACIC) and Glenda represented all Victorian ICPs on these committees, serving as VICPA President for many years and as the Victorian representative on AICA. Glenda always her her sights on the bigger picture and was instrumental and supportive of the concept of moving AICA from a federated (state based) model to a truly National organisation (Company Limited by Guarantee). While her representation on these and other groups was highly valued, Glenda also recognised that others should be given the opportunity to lead and propelled many others into these representative and leadership roles. She is remembered for her ability and insight into sharing the opportunity and knowledge.

My thoughts are with Luke, her family and close friends and, her cats (there was always a cat or three in Glenda’s life).

A glass of the finest bubbles to you Glenda!

With my greatest respect.

Claire

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[Glenys Harrington]

Dear All,

Glenda will be sadly missed.

Even during her illness she took the time to take part in audio interviews
with Cathy Balding on her blog site ”
QualityTalks by CathyBalding, QualityTalks are interviews and podcasts for
making quality make sense, and practical leadership for creating great care
– from a range of perspectives. Listen, learn and enjoy!”

Glenda Gorrie ‘Person centred Care from the inside out” – Part 1 & 2

http://www.cathybalding.podbean.com/

It was lovely to be able to hear her voice again and there are lessons for
us all.

Regards

Glenys

Glenys Harrington

Consultant

Infection Control Consultancy (ICC)

P.O. Box 6385

Melbourne

Australia, 3004

M: +61 404816434

E: infexion@ozemail.com.au

Donna Cameron

Hi Michael,

Could you please post Claire’s email below re Glenda Gorrie.

Thanks,
Donna

Farewell Glenda Gorrie (Vale 15.10.2019)

I learned yesterday of Glenda’s passing though Fiona Wilson, her longtime
friend and colleague who was with Glenda when she died at home with friends
and family.

Glenda, Fiona and I worked together for almost 10 years at the Royal
Melbourne which was then North Western Health and what an amazing 10 years
that was. I frequently reflect on what Glenda has taught me which has
contributed greatly to my professional career. After many years of observing
her work style, her leadership, her amazing intellect and her ability in
different environments within health I was privileged to benefit from her
depth of understanding of the health system and the systems more notably in
which we all operate and find so challenging.

Glenda was a strong, independent and oh so knowledgeable senior nurse and
infection control leader. Her personal interests outside of Infection
Control included observations on the political landscape, her love of
literature, the arts and the natural environment. All have left an indelible
imprint on me and I reflect with great fondness on the years we worked
together. Many would know Glenda could be formidable yet she held people to
account for their actions and was an exemplar of professional conduct in the
face of adversity and I, as a fledgling novice admired and modelled many of
her behaviours.

I will always be grateful to her for how she has shaped my thinking, my own
leadership style and supported me in my early career to become the
individual I am today. While I did not always agree with Glenda, I admired
her tenacity and ability to analyse systems, to advocate for those who could
not and, for her commitment to nursing and Infection Control more broadly.
She was compassionate, she was fair and she was disciplined.

What I also learned from Glenda was to enjoy the small victories, celebrate
success (and oh didn’t we) and, how to support each other. Unbeknown to me
was that at the time Glenda was ‘mentoring us’, she was equipping us with
the tools and tenacity to work with people of all disciplines, experience
and backgrounds; lessons I will be forever grateful for and that have served
me well more broadly in health outside of Infection Prevention and Control.

Before the College there was AICA and, before AICA there was VICPA and,
before that there was the Victorian Advisory Committee on Infection Control
(VACIC) and Glenda represented all Victorian ICPs on these committees,
serving as VICPA President for many years and as the Victorian
representative on AICA. Glenda always her her sights on the bigger picture
and was instrumental and supportive of the concept of moving AICA from a
federated (state based) model to a truly National organisation (Company
Limited by Guarantee). While her representation on these and other groups
was highly valued, Glenda also recognised that others should be given the
opportunity to lead and propelled many others into these representative and
leadership roles. She is remembered for her ability and insight into sharing
the opportunity and knowledge.

My thoughts are with Luke, her family and close friends and, her cats (there
was always a cat or three in Glenda’s life).

A glass of the finest bubbles to you Glenda!

With my greatest respect.

Claire

MESSAGES POSTED TO THIS LIST ARE SOLELY THE OPINION OF THE AUTHOR, AND DO
NOT REPRESENT THE OPINION OF ACIPC.

The use of trade/product/commercial brand names through the list is
discouraged by ACIPC. If you wish to discuss specific reference to products
or services by brand or commercial names, please do this outside the list.

Archive of all messages are available at http://aicalist.org.au/archives –
registration and login required.

Replies to this message will be directed back to the list. To create a new
message send an email to acipclist@acipc.org.au

To send a message to the list administrator send an email to
admin@acipc.org.au

You can unsubscribe manually from this list by sending ‘signoff acipclist’
(without the quotes) to listserv@aicalist.org.au

MESSAGES POSTED TO THIS LIST ARE SOLELY THE OPINION OF THE AUTHOR, AND DO NOT REPRESENT THE OPINION OF ACIPC.

The use of trade/product/commercial brand names through the list is discouraged by ACIPC. If you wish to discuss specific reference to products or services by brand or commercial names, please do this outside the list.

Archive of all messages are available at http://aicalist.org.au/archives – registration and login required.

Replies to this message will be directed back to the list. To create a new message send an email to acipclist@acipc.org.au

To send a message to the list administrator send an email to admin@acipc.org.au

You can unsubscribe manually from this list by sending ‘signoff acipclist’ (without the quotes) to listserv@aicalist.org.au

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