Celebrating the pioneering legacy of Mrs Valma Noel Pink OAM

Mrs Valma Noel Pink has been awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) in the General Division for her outstanding service to nursing.

Throughout her career, Sister Pink held numerous leadership positions, including Sister-in-Charge of the Accident and Emergency Department from 1972, Nurse Unit Manager and member of the Association of Casualty Supervisors from 1974 to 1988.

Over her extensive career, Sister Pink made groundbreaking contributions to emergency care in Australia.

A former Assistant Director of Nursing at Eastern Health Box Hill (formerly Box Hill Hospital), Sister Pink is widely acknowledged as a trailblazer in emergency nursing. In 1975, working alongside Emergency Department Director Dr Edward Brentnall, she co-developed Australia’s first formal triage system, revolutionising the way patients are assessed and prioritised in emergency departments nationwide.

Before this innovation, patients were typically seen in the order of arrival, often with clerical staff determining who was seen first. Sister Pink’s new model introduced a colour-coded triage system that grouped patients into urgent, non-urgent and routine categories.

This simple yet effective strategy allowed clinicians to identify patient urgency quickly, improving care and saving lives.

In an archival piece reflecting on the late Dr Brentnall’s career, he described how Sister Pink’s model of care evolved and laid the groundwork for what is now a cornerstone of emergency medical practice both nationally and internationally.

“In 1976, the Sister-in-Charge, Mrs Noel Pink, devised a way to manage things more effectively…Using corresponding coloured sticker dots on patient records supported faster reading. The introduction of the triage system was a success and was copied throughout Australia, with the College Triage Scale – based on the Box Hill system – now copied internationally.”

This foundational system later evolved into the Ipswich Triage Scale, which became the National Triage Scale in 1993, and is now the Australasian Triage Scale used across Australia and New Zealand today.

Sister Pink was also an advocate for triage as a senior nursing responsibility. In a 1977 paper, she emphasised that experienced and knowledgeable nurses should be rostered to triage.

“The ability to ask simple questions but make astute observations, assess the patient, and initiate care comes only with knowledge and experience,” Sister Pink said.

By defining triage as a role reserved for senior nursing staff, she elevated nursing leadership in emergency care and helped professionalise the role of triage nurse.