ABC conversations: twenty years on the air

The late morning ABC Radio Program ‘Conversations’ hosted by Richard Fidler and Sarah Kanowski is this year celebrating 20 years on the air. A recent guest on the program was Sr Clare Nolan, a former Director of Nursing at Sydney’s St. Vincent’s Hospital.

Clare Nolan was 21 years old when she entered the convent, against her mother’s wishes, joining the Sisters of Charity novitiate to prepare for life as a nun. She had already completed her training as a nurse, and so she didn’t want to join a contemplative order, closed off to the rest of the world.

Clare wanted to take care of the sick and marginalised as a nurse, and as a nun, and so she became a ‘walking sister’. Sister Clare quickly rose up the ranks, becoming the director of nursing at St Vincent’s Hospital in Sydney, right as the HIV/AIDS epidemic reached Australia.

Clare found herself in meetings with politicians, immunologists, brothel workers, gay activists and Catholics, working together to figure out how to save the hundreds of patients who came under her care in Ward 17 South – the first and only dedicated HIV/AIDS ward in the country.

Clare appeared on the program on Tuesday July 29. A recording of the conversation is able to be accessed via the ABC Conversations website.