Pamela Joy Spry AM (10 December 1924 – 8 January 2021) was an Australian nurse and Army Officer. She was director of nursing at the

Royal Adelaide Hospital The Royal Adelaide Hospital (RAH), colloquially known by its initials or pronounced as "the Rah", is South Australia's largest hospital, owned by the state government as part of Australia's public health care system. The RAH provides tertiary hea ...

from 1973 to 1984.

Early life

Spry was born in

Adelaide Adelaide ( ) is the capital city of South Australia, the state's largest city and the fifth-most populous city in Australia. "Adelaide" may refer to either Greater Adelaide (including the Adelaide Hills) or the Adelaide city centre. The dem ...

, and trained as a nurse at the Royal Adelaide Hospital from 1945 to 1947. She also had

midwifery Midwifery is the health science and health profession that deals with pregnancy, childbirth, and the postpartum period (including care of the newborn), in addition to the sexual and reproductive health of women throughout their lives. In many cou ...

training in Sydney.

Career

Spry worked at the

Royal Melbourne Hospital The Royal Melbourne Hospital (RMH), located in Parkville, Victoria, an inner suburb of Melbourne, is one of Australia's leading public hospitals. It is a major teaching hospital for tertiary health care with a reputation in clinical research. Th ...

and the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Adelaide as a young woman. She was Director of Nursing at the Royal Adelaide Hospital from 1973 to 1984. Among the policies advanced during her tenure as director, nurses were no longer required to wear the traditional

nurse's cap A nurse's cap or nursing cap is part of the female nurse's uniform, introduced early in the history of the profession. The cap's original purpose was to keep the nurse's hair neatly in place and present a modest appearance. Male nurses do not w ...

or white stockings while on duty; nurses in residence were no longer required to register their absences; and nurses were encouraged and supported to earn college degrees in their field. "I wanted nurses to no longer be seen by anyone as 'handmaidens' to the doctors but to begin to become their equal," she later recalled. Spry served on the South Australia Health Commission, the education committee of the Nurses' Board, and the South Australian branch of the

Australian Nursing Federation The Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation (ANMF) is the largest union in Australia, with 274,956 members in 2018. The union is run by nurses, midwives and assistants in nursing to advance the industrial, political and professional intere ...

. Spry achieved the rank of Lieutenant in the

Royal Australian Army Nursing Corps The Royal Australian Army Nursing Corps (RAANC) is a Corps of the Australian Army. It was formed in February 1951 from the Royal Australian Army Nursing Service. A Corps Badge was introduced in 1951 with the motto ''Pro Humanitate'' (for Humanity) ...

in 1955. In 1988, she became a member of the

Order of Australia The Order of Australia is an honour that recognises Australian citizens and other persons for outstanding achievement and service. It was established on 14 February 1975 by Elizabeth II, Queen of Australia, on the advice of the Australian Gove ...

(AM), in the general division. She gave an oral history interview to the J. D. Somerville Oral History Collection at the

State Library of South Australia The State Library of South Australia, or SLSA, formerly known as the Public Library of South Australia, located on North Terrace, Adelaide, is the official library of the Australian state of South Australia. It is the largest public research l ...

in 1989.

Personal life

Spry used a wheelchair in her later years. She died in 2021, aged 96 years, in Adelaide.

References

External links

Pamela Spry's graduation medal from the Royal Adelaide Hospital, 1947
in the collection of the Health Museum of South Australia
A photograph of Brenda Mangelsday, Pamela Spry and Lew Barrett
taken about 2000; in the collection of the Health Museum of South Australia {{DEFAULTSORT:Spry, Pamela Joy 1924 births 2021 deaths Australian military nurses Australian women nurses People from Adelaide Women in the Australian military