Dedicated to life of caring: Fran Donaldson retires after 64 year career

She was the first female nurse to study medicine in Tasmania, and after an incredible career, spanning decades, Fran Donaldson has decided to hang up her stethoscope. Her story.

SUN TAS. Fran in her final role at COVID@HOMEPLUS in Hobart. Doctor Fran Donaldson 81 who is retiring after many years as a nurse and GP. Picture: Nikki Davis-Jones

When Fran Donaldson was “a funny little country girl” 64 years ago, working as a nurse and holding a patient’s hand, she had no inkling that one day she’d be a doctor consulting a patient using their mobile phone to diagnose and treat them.

The 81-year-old energetic and vibrant former Senior Tasmanian Australian of the Year has been hailed as a groundbreaker and “amazing” for her care of thousands of Tasmanians and as the first female nurse in Tasmania to become a GP.

There was a long history of medical folk in her family but she said her mother couldn’t afford to send her to Melbourne to study medicine.

“I went to Ogilvie High and that was one of the key things for me. When I did this tour around Tasmania talking to young kids I told them the most important thing is education,” she said.

She had a meteoric rise through the nursing ranks in public and private hospitals in Tasmania and interstate.

“I suppose I devoted myself to my work and things were much easier then. (But) I thought the further I get up the nursing hierarchy, the more I get away from the patient, so I applied to do medicine at the University of Tasmania.

SUN TAS. Fran when she graduated as a nurse in 1961. Doctor Fran Donaldson 81 who is retiring after many years as a nurse and GP. Picture: supplied

“I didn’t think for one minute that they’d accept a nurse, aged 36, but they did.

“That was a pretty tough time for me because I had to work as a junior nurse to fund myself through university.

“I’d always thought I was smart as a doctor but I wasn’t. I can always remember one former senior doctor he often used to say to me, ‘Fran stop thinking like a nurse and start thinking like a doctor,’ which I did.

“I graduated from university and won the prize in general practice in my final year and was the first female nurse in Tasmania to do medicine.”

Dr Donaldson did her internship in Victoria before returning to Tasmania where she worked as a GP from 1984 to 2008.

“The hardest thing was the university studies because half the elements hadn’t been discovered when I did chemistry in 1958,” she laughs.

“It was wonderful for me because I got right back and even closer to the patients, you know they can confide in you – it was just the ultimate for me to be a general practitioner.”

As a GP she was still making home visits in 2007 and while welcoming the changes in medicine over the years she rues the changes imposed by Covid and the switch to telehealth.

She cites organ transplants, advances in radiology and “enormous changes” in pharmaceuticals as the biggest changes.

It was her work at the prison as a GP for 10 years that she loved the most.

“It was wonderful, that’s the best job because you could really help people. The inmates were sick, they needed a lot of medical input.

SUN TAS. Doctor Fran Donaldson 81 who is retiring after many years as a nurse and GP. Picture: Nikki Davis-Jones

“We need to have better rehabilitation and better health care for these people when they come out of prison.

“I see the boys and girls I once cared for living in parks now. It’s all very well to put someone in prison for six years and then chuck them out. They really need follow-up support.”

Dr Donaldson, who played a pivotal role in Covid at home, has apprehensions about the use of telehealth.

“I think it’s to the detriment of the patients that, especially I think we’ve got to be very careful about telehealth and misdiagnosing. Covid swept in and changed the whole face of our care of patients.”

Dr Donaldson believes people have become complacent about Covid with some people still flying when they have the virus.

She said retirement was “scary” and has crept up on her but she plans to get fitter, continue to mix with young friends and to keep herself IT savvy. AMA Tasmanian president John Saul described Dr Donaldson as “amazing and a groundbreaker”.

“She was a leader and mentor for women in medicine and quietly broke the stereotype in what was really a male-dominated area.

“She was a really competent GP and liked by everyone. Fran could fit into any environment and do a great job.

Originally published as Dedicated to life of caring: Fran Donaldson retires after 64 year career