Pamela Joy Spry
{{Short description|Australian nurse (1924–2021)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Pamela Joy Spry
| honorific_suffix = AM
| image = PamelaJoySpry1947.png
| alt = A smiling young white woman, with dark hair, wearing a white uniform
| caption = Pamela Joy Spry, from a 1947 class photo
| other_names =
| birth_name =
| birth_date = {{birth date|1924|12|10|df=y}}
| birth_place = Adelaide
| death_date = {{death date and age|2021|01|08|1924|12|10|df=y}}
| death_place = Adelaide
| occupation = Nurse
| years_active =
| known_for =
| notable_works =
| spouse(s) =
| relatives =
}}
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 from 1973 to 1984.
Early life
Spry was born in Adelaide, and trained as a nurse at the Royal Adelaide Hospital from 1945 to 1947.{{Cite web|last1=Secomb|first1=Robin|last2=National Foundation for Australian Women|title=Spry, Pamela Joy|url=https://www.womenaustralia.info/biogs/AWE0855b.htm|access-date=2021-12-05|website=The Australian Women's Register|language=en-gb}}{{Cite news|date=1947-11-28|title=Nurses' Examination Results|work=Advertiser|url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article43745111|access-date=2021-12-05|via=Trove}} She also had midwifery training in Sydney.{{Cite web|last=Durdin|first=Joan|date=1989|title=Interview with Pamela Joy Spry [sound recording]|url=http://www.womenaustralia.info/archives/AWH001428.htm|access-date=2021-12-05|website=The Australian Women's Register|language=en-gb}}
Career
Spry worked at the Royal Melbourne Hospital and the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Adelaide as a young woman.{{Cite journal|last=Harding|first=Philip|date=February 2021|title=Editor's Letter|url=https://sa.ama.com.au/sites/sa/files/2021-02/medicSA_Feb2021.pdf|journal=MedicSA|volume=34|pages=6}} 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 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.{{Cite web|title=Pamela J Spry AM|url=https://www.anmfsa.org.au/Web/News/2021/Pamela_J_Spry_AM.aspx|access-date=2021-12-05|website=Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation SA Branch}} "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.{{Cite web|date=28 November 2019|title=Let the champions of our past inspire our future|url=https://www.anmfsa.org.au/Web/News/2019/Let_the_champions_of_our_past_inspire_our_future.aspx|access-date=2021-12-05|website=Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation SA Branch}} 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.
Spry achieved the rank of Lieutenant in the Royal Australian Army Nursing Corps in 1955.{{Cite news|date=1955-11-10|title=Australian Military Forces; Central Command|work=Commonwealth of Australia Gazette|url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article232902239|access-date=2021-12-05|via=Trove}} In 1988, she became a member of the Order of Australia (AM), in the general division.{{Cite news|date=26 January 1988|title=Australia Day Honours List|page=11|work=The Canberra Times|url=https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/101972178?searchTerm=%22Pamela%20Spry%22|access-date=December 4, 2021|via=Trove}} She gave an oral history interview to the J. D. Somerville Oral History Collection at the State Library of South Australia in 1989.
Personal life
References
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External links
- [https://ehive.com/collections/5254/objects/506199/medal-graduation-medal-royal-adelaide-hospital Pamela Spry's graduation medal from the Royal Adelaide Hospital, 1947]; in the collection of the Health Museum of South Australia
- [https://ehive.com/collections/5254/objects/1022567/interior-brenda-mangelsday-pamela-spry-and-lew-barrett A photograph of Brenda Mangelsday, Pamela Spry and Lew Barrett], taken about 2000; in the collection of the Health Museum of South Australia
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Spry, Pamela Joy}}
Category:Australian military nurses