Irmgard Bauer

I am a Registered Nurse from Germany where I worked as a Clinical Nurse Consultant in ICU, a Medical ward, ENT, Ophthalmology and Dermatology. My first appointment abroad was in Austria as a Clinical Nurse Consultant on a large medical ward where I also established a school for Enrolled Nurses. My teaching career started as a third-year-student and, after graduation, as a teaching assistant, a prerequisite for the Diploma in Nurse Education course. I then worked as a nurse educator and deputy director of a nursing school in the north of Germany with a short interlude in Syria, where I volunteered with the Palestinian Red Crescent during the Beirut-Siege in 1982.

After intensive studies of the Arabic language and courses in Tropical Medicine at the Bernhard Nocht Tropeninstitut in Hamburg and the University of Heidelberg, I moved to the then North-Yemen where, for over five years, I taught nursing students at the Health Manpower Institute of the Ministry of Health in the capital Sana'a. In Yemen I was fortunate to work and live with people from a very different cultural background who allowed me to participate in all aspects of their lives. To return to Europe, I travelled three months across Africa from Kenya to Senegal.

The next years saw me at the University of Wales College of Medicine in Cardiff, UK, where I completed a Master and a PhD in Nursing. I came to Australia in March 1994 and, until my retirement in April 2016, worked as a Senior Lecturer in the School of Nursing Sciences at James Cook University. Following my interest in Public Health, Tropical Medicine and their application in developing countries, I completed a Master of Public Health and Tropical Medicine at JCU, a Diploma in Tropical Medicine and Hygiene at the Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia, Lima/Peru and the University of Alabama, Birmingham/USA, and a Postgraduate Diploma in Infectious Diseases at the London School of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, University of London. I also completed a Master of Tourism and Postgraduate Certificate of Travel Medicine at JCU. I earned a Doctorate in International Health from Curtin University of Technology in Perth, Western Australia, following my interest in the impact of tourism in developing countries on the health of the local host communities. I attended - and taught in - a course on Travel and Tropical Medicine at the Instituto de Medicina Tropical 'Pedro Kouri' at the University of Havana, Cuba. In 2019, I completed a Diploma in Modern Languages (Spanish) from the University of New England, Armidale, Australia. Over the years I have dedicated my research, under the umbrella of Travel Health Nursing, to travellers' health and to tourism's health impacts, predominantly in Peru/South America.

I am a Fellow of the Faculty of Travel Medicine at the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons (Glasgow), of the Royal Geographical Society, and of the International Society of Travel Medicine. I serve on the editorial board of Travel Medicine and Infectious Disease and review for several journals. I am also a member of the Australian Institute of Tropical Health & Medicine and am affiliated with the International Institute for Animal Ethics in Canada.

I am a student ambassador for the University of London international program, and an honorary life member of the South American Explorers, New York. I am a member of the National Geographic Society and of the Australian Geographic Society.

In my current adjunct position with the College of Healthcare Sciences at JCU, I continue to teach, research, publish and present internationally.