The happy coincidence of International Nurses Day and Mother’s Day falling on the same day yesterday was cause for double celebrations – and the opportunity for our own mother-daughter nursing duo to appear on national television.

Like mother, like daughter, or so the saying goes.

Although in the case of St Vincent’s AIN Lucia Hundloe and ICU nurse Dianna Anderson, it’s a case of also ‘like great grandmother and grandmother’!!

Lucia, 20, is continuing a long and incredible family tradition of working in health care as a fourth-generation member dedicated to serving their community. Lucia’s great grandmother was a nurse, her grandmother was a dentist, and her mother Dianna has been a nurse for over 35 years working in different hospitals around Queensland and the Northern Territory, including over a decade at St Vincent's Private Hospital Northside.

Add in a few other relatives who have also worked in the health and hospital systems and it seems Lucia was destined to follow in their footsteps.

Lucia is in her third year of a nursing and midwifery degree at University of Queensland, but also works casually at St Vincent’s as an AIN usually doing two shifts a week on the general wards at St Vincent’s Private Hospital Northside.

While they haven’t worked a shift together, the mother-daughter nursing duo were the perfect pair to shine a light on the rare alignment of Mother’s Day and International Nurses Day falling on the same day yesterday.

And that light shone especially bright for them with Lucia and Dianna being invited to appear together on national television for Channel Seven’s Sunrise program yesterday.

While it was their first TV appearance, they displayed the same instinctive calmness and poise they do during their work day, while doing a ‘live cross’ from the Chermside hospital into the Sydney studio as they were interviewed by Sunrise weekend hosts Matt Doran and Monique ‘Mon’ Wright.

The pair described the special nature of their relationship with Dianna saying “it was very special having Lucia join St Vincent’s and that it enhanced their mother-daughter relationship.”

“I was a bit surprised when she said she was going to study nursing, although I always knew she was suited to working in health care,” said Dianna.

Lucia reflected on being a fourth-generation health care worker.

“It’s been very inspiring and being around Mum and being able to see what she does every day and the impact she has on patients and the compassion she shows, it definitely inspired me to pursue nursing. It’s been very rewarding and I’m very lucky to have such strong female leaders over the generations,” she told Sunrise.

As part of her midwifery course, Lucia has already delivered her first baby earlier in the year on her placement at the Mater Mother’s Hospital, with Dianna describing the occurrence as a “very proud moment” for her, as someone who has dedicated her working life to nursing.

Lucia has nothing but praise for her mother’s inspirational influence and regular insights and wisdoms of the life of a hospital nurse. She says that when she works her casual shifts at St Vincent’s, her colleagues and all staff are “incredibly kind, patient, supportive and helpful and share all of their knowledge and skills from their own clinical journeys.”

“Mum drives me to and from a lot of my work shifts so that provides us with a great opportunity, especially at the end of a shift, for me to tell her about my day and to pick her brains about things that happen and questions and issues that have arisen for me throughout the shift,” says Lucia.

“I’m learning so much on the job at St Vincent’s and it’s helping to accelerate my learning along with the work I get to do on my placements at other hospitals around Brisbane.”

St Vincent’s Hospitals around the country recognised and acknowledged all of its incredible and dedicated nurses for International Nurses Day. At St Vincent’s Northside, an E-Card was sent to all of the nursing staff from CEO Oli Steele and the Executive team thanking each nurse for all that they did to deliver compassionate care to patients and loved ones every single day.

Members of the Executive Team also walked through the wards today handing out thank you cookies to on duty nurses.