Volume 39 Number 2

The legacies, memories and accolades of Pat Blackley will remain with many of us for years to come. 

Pat’s commitment to stomal therapy nursing internationally and in Australia and to improving the lives of patients with stomas was unquestionable. During 1985 and 1986 Pat was simultaneously the WCET^® Journal Editor, Publications Committee Chairperson and ID for Australia. Pat assumed the role of journal editor from Norma Gill in 1986 when the WCET^® Journal became independent of any external sponsorship. She continued in that role for the next seven years. In addition, Pat had a further term as journal editor between 1997 and 1998. 

For those who knew Pat, even for a short period of time, she impressed as someone who loved and lived life to the fullest. There have been many wonderful tributes to Pat from around the world some of which have been captured within the WCET^® BullETin and Journal of Stomal Therapy Australia. It is a pleasure to be able to share more reflections of Pat with you from those who knew her well. 

Dr Julia Thompson (Sydney, Australia) reminisced of her long and great respect for Pat, stating Pat was clever, insightful, practical and a hard worker. Julia described Pat as a “very competent editor and was amazed that she did such a good job using longhand editing, a typewriter with white out and snail mail. It must have been enormously time consuming ... it was bad enough when I was editor and I edited using word processing, digital technology and email.” To Julia’s knowledge, “Pat always had issues ready on time and when some other editors failed or dropped out, she stepped in and sorted things out. She had commitment.”

Heather Hill (Sydney, Australia) reminds us that “those of us who were fortunate to have known her personally, Pat (or Trish) Blackley was a wonderful nursing role model, mentor, colleague, and, most importantly, our beloved friend.” Heather recalls that as one of Pats students, and subsequently her work colleague, she had the privilege of observing and participating in nursing care guided by Pat which was both “holistic and multidisciplinary long before these principles were generally adopted as the norm.” Pat was not only a pioneer nurse advocate for specialty nursing but, more specifically, a leader in enterostomal therapy nursing education and excellence in clinical practice. Her actions facilitated research and quality improvement in care delivery, nursing development and professionalism. In 1998 Pat wrote Practical Stoma Wound and Continence Management, the first Australian text about stomal therapy nursing practice (published by Research Publications Pty Ltd; Vermont, Victoria). Pat contributed significantly to the development of tertiary education for stomal therapy nursing in Australia. Heather states that “regardless of Pat’s impressive list of achievements the indelible impression Pat Blackley leaves is the memory of her indomitable character, unquestionable sincerity, humility, courage and unforgettable sense of humour.”

In a guest editorial in Volume 28 Number 2 of the WCET^® Journal (2008) entitled ‘Back to the future. Celebrating 30 years of WCET^®: Memories of life members’, Pat recalls how she and Mary Jo Kroeber, then president of WCET^®, established the philosophy and objectives for the proposed journal. These encapsulated the journal being an educational tool that described the multi-faceted aspects of the role of enterostomal therapy nurses (ETs), the human interaction between ETs and patients, the nurturing of novice writers to achieve publication and that the journal be translated into languages other than English to demonstrate that the needs of the members in other countries had been considered.

The objectives set by Pat and Mary Jo remain true today and are a testament to their collective ethos and foresight.

As a tribute to Pat her last editorial is reprinted below.

Author(s)

Jenny Prentice
PhD, BN, RN, FAWMA