MCCRAE resident Emeritus Professor Debra Griffiths has been recognised with the prestigious Member of the Order of Australia (AM) for her significant contributions to nursing, midwifery, and medico-legal education.
Her career, spanning nearly five decades, reflects a lifelong commitment to improving healthcare standards, supporting frontline staff, and advancing professional education across Australia.
“I feel a bit overwhelmed and definitely honoured,” Prof. Griffiths told The News of her award.
“Awards are something that you don’t really think about when you’re deep into your everyday work. It makes me stop and reflect on how worthwhile the different paths I’ve taken have really been.”
Her unique combination of clinical practice and legal expertise allowed her to pioneer medico-legal education for healthcare professionals.
Prof. Griffiths helped doctors, nurses, midwives, and allied health professionals navigate complex ethical and legal challenges, from patient privacy to informed consent, improving the quality of care across multiple settings.
“Our familiarity with legal principles is really important to good healthcare – it underpins quality practice,” she said.
Born and raised on the Mornington Peninsula, Prof. Griffiths began her professional journey as a registered nurse.
“In the ’60s and ’70s the Mornington Peninsula was fairly rural so many of us went off and pursued nursing or teaching careers. University was completely off my radar,” she recalled.
Prof. Griffiths completed midwifery training in the traditional hospital system of the era, then spent a few years working in the UK before returning to Australia.
Encouraged by a friend, she pursued higher education, completing an arts degree and law degrees at Monash University, before briefly practicing as a lawyer. She went on to complete her PhD to examine principles that support and guide professional practice of doctors and nurses where patients with serious illness decide to refuse medical treatment.
In the 1990s, she joined Monash University’s Faculty of Medicine and Nursing, where she began teaching nursing and midwifery. She later decided to blend law and healthcare, noting “Whenever we had difficult scenarios requiring decisions nobody really knew where to turn. It became very evident that without some understanding of medico-legal principles, it was the blind leading the blind”.
Prof. Griffiths held numerous leadership roles at Monash University, including Professor and Head of Nursing and Midwifery from 2016 to 2022, before being appointed Emeritus Professor in 2023.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, “Nurses and midwives were on the frontline of patient care … initially we had no idea of the characteristics of the virus, for example, how was it transmitted,” she said.
“Mortality rates in Victoria’s aged care facilities were terrible.”
At the request of the Victorian Department of Health, Prof. Griffiths led the infection control and personal protective equipment training program for more than 3500 staff in 240 residential aged care facilities.
“Many aged care staff had no prior training in infection control, and people were really scared. Once we entered the sector we made a difference, educating and providing support.”
Reflecting on her career achievements, Prof. Griffiths highlighted her efforts to empower healthcare professionals. She also hopes the AM award will inspire others and that you can “move through different phases of your life, take differing pathways and actually end up making quite a contribution”.
First published in the Mornington News – 27 January 2026