Pamela's life is a work in progress

Mature aged graduate, Pamela Robinson, believes learning and personal development should be never-ending.

"Wearing my mortarboard and gown was the highlight of my nursing career – I felt complete," says Pamela Robinson, who, at the age of 53, was among the first cohort to complete the Graduate Diploma of Midwifery at Western Sydney University.

That's no small statement for the Mt Druitt resident, now 76, whose nursing career spans more than three decades and has taken her from hospital wards to homeless shelters, a methadone clinic and isolated outback communities.

DETERMINATION WINS

Aside from enabling her to work in one of the few areas of nursing she hadn't yet experienced, graduating from university in 1995 was a significant personal accomplishment for Pamela.

A troubled childhood meant she hardly went to school and was limited in her basic communication skills. "I spent most of my time hiding in drains because I wasn't happy at home or at school, I became uncontrollable at the age of 10, and when my mother had me
brought before the courts, I ended up in the Salvation Army Girls' Home," she says.

After a brief marriage at the age of 16, Pamela started her career doing odd jobs, working as a waitress, a nanny and a short stint in the Army, before starting as an assistant nurse at Balmain Hospital.

"The Sister in charge told me I was wasting my time and should do my nursing training," Pamela says. "That same afternoon I was told they had a vacancy for me in the course." Without any school qualifications, she had to sit an entrance exam and took six attempts to pass.

A CAREER OF CARING

Pamela went on to work in a children's hospital emergency department and burns unit, held positions at Bowral and Westmead hospitals, worked as a community nurse in Wilcannia, 900km west of Sydney, and in the Aboriginal community of Toomelah, on the northern NSW border.

"When I came back to Sydney, I looked in Mt Druitt's local rag and saw an ad for student midwives in the very first course in Midwifery at Hawkesbury," Pamela says. "I decided to give it a go. I passed with a distinction and it had a profound impact on me. It made me very proud of who I had become. I'd had a wonderful, satisfying professional life as a nurse, but studying midwifery took me to another level and rounded off my career."

After graduating, Pamela started as a midwife at Blacktown Hospital and then applied her learning in a methadone clinic, working with mothers and their drug dependent newborns. She spent the last five years of her career working with homeless men at the Salvation Army's Foster House Men's Accommodation in Surry Hills.

CONTINUING TO SERVE

Since retiring four years ago, Pamela has become an active volunteer, helping teach refugees English through Anglicare and local churches. "Working with these people and building relationships with them is just wonderful," she says. More recently, she has started giving pastoral care to patients at Blacktown Hospital, where many of her mentors from her university days still work. "I went to see them in the maternity ward and it was hugs all around – even after all these years, the colleagueship is still there," she says.

Pamela has no intention of slowing down and plans to continue her volunteer work as long as her health allows. "I still have a lot to give," she says. "I'm a major work in progress and that will continue until the day I die."

Pamela was also presented with a Western Sydney University Award at a recent graduation ceremony, formally recognising her outstanding contributions to the Greater Western Sydney region and beyond for her leadership and voluntary contribution to the community.The latest GradLife, Autumn 2016 Magazine is now available PDF, 2162.49 KB (opens in a new window)

Ends

May 2016