HIV and AIDS devastated communities across Australia in the 1980s and 1990s. In the midst of this profound health crisis, nurses were caregivers and activists, both on and off the wards, and played a central role in shaping an innovative public health approach to a virus that was shrouded in fear and prejudice.

Nurses worked with communities to develop public health campaigns, advocated for their patients and — through their unions — opposed the efforts of doctors and surgeons to introduce traditional public health measures based on ‘test and contain’ measures.

Bringing together stories from across the country, historian Geraldine Fela documents the extraordinary care, compassion, and solidarity witnessed and experienced. Others shared painful memories of homophobia and prejudice, and some participated in unsettling and coercive aspects of Australia’s response to the virus. Together, their stories paint a vivid and nuanced picture of HIV and AIDS nursing and shed light on an unexamined aspect of Australia’s AIDS crisis.

'This beautifully told story of the nursing profession’s response to acute suffering and great tragedy — borne predominantly by gay men — is among the most moving Australian histories I have read.' – Frank Bongiorno