Meet a member - Associate Professor Carol Douglas PSM

Trained as a GP in Australia, Carol Douglas was living in Borneo in the 1990s when she was first drawn to the field of palliative care.

“I found myself in the government hospital in Kota Kinabalu, in what was the first palliative care unit in Malaysia,” she said.

“I spent over two years in that unit and obviously had some very significant personal experiences, particularly with people who were considered to be incurable and presented with very advanced disease.”

Associate Professor Douglas found what the centre may have lacked in medical technology and treatments, it countered with art and music therapy, and an approach to create a true quality of life as patients prepared for death.

“I think what happened in that process was I could bring my own humanity to the care of people, and the particular skills and qualities that I had as an individual and as a doctor to support those people,” she said.

“The realisation that human connection and that ability to reach out compassionately to someone is a part of medicine that’s been sidelined for a long time within medical practice. 

“I found my calling and knew that I would find fulfilment as a medical professional practicing palliative care.” 

On her return to Brisbane, Associate Professor Douglas gained her fellowship in palliative medicine with the Royal Australian College of Physicians and spent seven years as a staff specialist and director at the Prince Charles Hospital. 

In 2005, she was appointed the first Clinical Director of the Palliative and Supportive Care Service at Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital (RBWH), a position she held until 2022. 

Early in her tenure, she set about trying to change the way palliative care training was carried out in Queensland. 

“It was apparent to me there was a very ad hoc process of trying to apply to train, with very few training positions,” she said. 

As Medical Director Queensland Palliative Medicine Training Program, she led development of the integrated program from 2009, incorporated into the Queensland Health RMO Campaign in 2013.

Associate Professor Douglas remains the medical director of the training program, and looks after the recruitment, placement and education of trainees across Queensland. 

There are now 50 credited training positions across Queensland every year, and it’s estimated 70% of specialists working in palliative care were trained through the pathway she established.

It’s for this extraordinary achievement that Associate Professor Douglas was recognised with a Public Service Medal in the 2025 King’s Birthday Honours. 

She takes pride in the fact her program is now an enormously popular specialty in Queensland and is oversubscribed every year. 

“I think we have some very good role models, including myself, who were able to show that it’s such a rewarding part of healthcare,” she said.

“There’s nothing more intimate than caring for a patient and their family at the end of life. They know there is sadness, but there is also great satisfaction supporting patients and families and making that journey with them.

“The essential elements of fastidious pain and symptom control, and emotional and social support are delivered within a multidisciplinary team to meet needs as best as possible.”

Associate Professor Douglas is also proud that applicants come from diverse backgrounds and different stages of their medical career. 

“We've had people who come from intensive care, from anaesthetics, from emergency medicine who have decided to change careers—very mature clinicians in their late 40s, early 50s and they want to train in palliative medicine,” she said.

“A lot of them come for very personal reasons because they realise they want something that will provide satisfaction in their medical work—and it’s not easy to switch from being a consultant to a registrar to undertake three years of training.”

Associate Professor Douglas didn’t lose touch with Kota Kinabalu, returning many times over the years to help improve the treatment and training options available in the tourist haven that first inspired her.

She has ceased clinical practice at the RBWH but continues to teach and research at the University of Queensland along with her training director duties.

She is also passionate about advocating for more funding for palliative care, as Australia grapples with an ageing population and the range of diseases and chronic conditions that come with it.

“We’ve been building towards the Australian benchmark set in 2018 of two staff specialists in palliative medicine per 100,000 population, which I think is a bare minimum now with an ageing population,” she said.

“At this point it’s 65% for Queensland… we’re trying to lobby for recognition that we need to continue to build the specialty.”

As someone who has seen many people at the end of their lives, Associate Professor Douglas is pragmatic about what makes a “good death”. 

“People who are accepting of their dying and moving towards that often have very strong relationships in life that have been preserved, so they feel a sense of great love and a great satisfaction about their life,” she said.

“Where we see enormous distress is when people are alone and have probably had unsatisfactory things happen in their life that they haven’t resolved. We do as much as is possible to alleviate the suffering.

“We also know if people can have some sense of what their legacy is—either by helping them record something or write something down, or put together photos in an album—for everyone it’s really about trying to make sense of what your life has been about.”