Nurse of the Week Richard Moore: Even His Stethoscope Has Frequent Flyer Miles

This week, the DailyNurse Nurse of the Week is one of the heroes of The Rebel Nurse Handbook (a 2020 AJN Book of the Year, awarded third place in Professional Issues). Nurse of the Week Richard Moore (PhD, MBA, BSc, RN, RNT, DMS, for entire panoply see his astonishing LinkedIn) is one of the passionately committed “rebel” nurses in the book whose journey shows that your nursing career can be just as unique, adventurous, and varied as you want it to be.

Setbacks such as ulcerative colitis, ADHD, and autism spectrum disorder failed to impede the nursing education or career of Richard Moore. The globe-trekking RN and MBA has treated everyone from cardiac patients in Leeds to a beloved dog in a desert village. A dedicated nurse, educator, and entrepreneur, Moore seems to be at home anywhere in the world, whether he is resolving toilet emergencies in the Australian Outback or teaching nursing students in England, North Korea, and New Zealand.

Starting at the age of seven, Richard Moore accompanied his mother on her nursing house calls in Ghana. She brought him along on visits both to the “very poor and the very rich,” and the boy’s keen eyes did not miss the Dickensian health disparities between the one and the other. His mother and sister were both nurses, and after they moved to the UK, 16-year-old Richard decided to follow in their path. He had struggled throughout high school: “my grades were so poor, I became the only student to finish in last place every year that I attended,” and was plagued by uncertainty as to whether nursing was the career for him, but it was all he knew.

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Richard just managed to gain acceptance at the renowned St James University Hospital in Leeds, England. Before long, his uncertainty about nursing vanished, and he became passionate about working as a nurse. Even as he was stricken with ulcerative colitis from the start of his second year in school and underwent treatment, the erstwhile poor student threw himself into his work, and excelled.

After graduating, Richard became a Cardiac Care Unit nurse—which he loved—but also felt driven to further pursue his education and career. Richard went on to attain an MBA and before long, he started to pursue his “other passion” and became a nurse educator.

After teaching in major nursing schools in England, his felt a calling to move on. Richard ventured far from home and emigrated to New Zealand, where at first he directed nursing degree and post-graduate programs. Before long, though, Richard relocated to the Tanami Desert in Australia. There, he embarked on another dramatic life change as an Indigenous Learning Nurse Administrator. Working as a remote area nurse among the Warlpiri people, he provided “every conceivable healthcare from acute trauma to primary health for children to adults,” and when necessary, treated sick dogs as well, as the area had no veterinary care. Before long he was asked to direct outback hospitals. In love with the land, the desert, and the people, he happily accepted.

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Eventually departing from the desert, Richard’s life changed again. His six-year-old son was diagnosed with Asperger’s Syndrome, and not long afterward, so was Richard himself. In addition to Asperger’s, Richard was also found to be suffering from ADHD and sensory processing disorder and endured two years of clinical depression. With treatment, he started to recover and continued his global travels. His latest stop has been a North Korean university, where he has been simultaneously been teaching students at both the school of medicine and the school of international finance and management.