College of Health and Medicine

Wicking Centre Co-Director and Professor of Aged Care Nursing (School of Health Science) Professor Andrew Robinson was farewelled at a special celebration held recently. 

Retiring after an extensive 23 year career with the University of Tasmania, Andrew was appointed as a Lecturer in the School of Nursing and Midwifery in 1994 and into a personal chair (Chair of Aged Care Nursing) in 2007.

From 2007-2013 he was also Associate Dean (Research), Faculty of Health Science

In 2008 Andrew became Co-Director of the Wicking Dementia and Research Education Centre, a role which has seen him make a lasting mark in the field of dementia.

Over his academic career Andrew has authored more than 100 publications and successfully secured more than $50 million in external funding.

One of his greatest strengths however, is the way he inspires and leads others.

The establishment of the Wicking Centre has seen Andrew inspire people to a new conceptualisation of dementia as a terminal condition, requiring a model of care that fits different stages of the condition – a concept that is now commonplace, but when Andrew first began on this path – was not widely accepted which had a negative influence on appropriate care.

“Andrew has shown national and international leadership in a number of areas of discourse on dementia – he was pivotal in determining how knowledge gaps on dementia were prevalent amongst family carers, aged care workers and health professionals and how this should be addressed if we are to provide quality care,” Wicking Co-director Professor James Vickers said.

“He also promoted the idea of residential aged care organisations needing to become ‘learning organisations’, with the capacity to provide high-quality placement experiences for a range of health professional students.

“The commitment to an inter-professional approach was a core philosophical dimension to the set-up of the Wicking Centre, as well as its major educational programs, such as the dementia degree and the MOOCs,” James said.

His list of accolades go on as does the Wicking Centre, an achievement that will continue to have a lasting impact on dementia research, education and healthcare for many years to come.

While happy to be retiring from his formal roles as Professor of Aged Care Nursing and Co-Director of the Wicking Centre, Andrew will continue to have a pivotal role in the Centre, particularly with major projects such as the MOOCs and in collaboration with Dementia Training Australia, as well as a critical member of the centre’s new Advisory Board.

We wish Andrew the best of luck in his future endeavours.