Ruth King is the Nursing Director for Midwifery, Women’s and Children’s Services North West for the Tasmanian Health Services and the professional lead for the North West Maternity Services Transition Project. Prior to this, Ruth was engaged as a senior project officer for the Nursing and Midwifery Office in ACT Health Directorate, leading the development of a manager's toolkit to support staff following incidents of occupational violence and the development of the Work Level Standards for ACT nurses and midwives.
For over eight years, Ruth held the role of midwifery advisor and sometimes acting CEO for the Australian College of Midwives (ACM), the peak professional body for midwives in Australia, giving her the capacity to work across jurisdictions, government and health services. Ruth has worked in a variety of public and private clinical settings including midwifery continuity of care caseload at the Women’s and Children’s Hospital, Adelaide, during which time she completed her Midwifery Honours looking at practices and perspectives of healthcare providers when women wish to eat during labour.
Ruth has travelled widely around Australia, the United Kingdom and Europe and has previously led successful Jon Baines Tours midwifery study tours to destinations including Sri Lanka and the Northern Territory.