Judith Elaine Davey:
Born 29-5-1950 – Died 6-5-2011
By Prof. Glenn Bowes

Judy Davey, a pioneer in the development of the discipline of adolescent health in Australia, has died at the age of 60 from cancer.

When the then Judy Bond came to the Alfred Hospital as a young Staff Nurse in 1973, fresh from her basic nursing and midwifery training at Box Hill Hospital, no one could have imagined that over the next 25 years she would complete a Monash University Masters, hold an academic appointment at Melbourne University and take a leadership role in the emerging discipline of adolescent health as the co-developer of Australia’s first, and still dominant, postgraduate qualification in adolescent health.

Judy was a ‘nurses nurse’- skilled, compassionate, committed, hard working and always calm in a crisis, benefitting both patients and co-workers alike. At the young age of 25 she was appointed to the senior leadership position of Charge Nurse (now known as Nursing Unit Manager), first in the General Intensive Care Unit and then the legendary Ward 3, which at 40 beds was the Alfred’s largest and most complex surgical ward.  She was a natural. New innovations in cardiothoracic surgery were rapidly emerging and she took these in her stride. Patients and families felt the warmth of her healing care. Young nurses grew in skill and confidence from her clarity of teaching and firm leadership. Medical staff, both junior and senior, accorded her deep respect.

The late 1970’s and 1980s saw Judy continuing to work at the Alfred during which time she embraced motherhood and rejoiced in the birth and development of her wonderful sons Christopher and Richard. Always generous in her commitment to the community, she served on parent committees at Camberwell Baptist Kindergarten and Carey Grammar School. Her career as a nursing innovator continued and as a senior specialist respiratory nurse she helped create Australia’s first Adult Cystic Fibrosis Unit. Cystic fibrosis is a common genetic condition, which had generally lead to death in childhood.  Treatment advances by the 1980’s meant that children affected by cystic fibrosis were surviving to require adult medical care and so were transferred from the Royal Children’s Hospital to the Alfred as adolescents.  Here, Judy honed her skills and expertise, intuitively grasping that survival to adulthood for people with cystic fibrosis was of itself not sufficient, but that treatment was needed to enable these often severely affected young people to thrive as adults.  This was extremely challenging work, as new models of care were developed and, in this pre-lung transplant era, it was also hugely taxing emotionally with the deaths of many young people. Younger nurses leaned heavily on Judy’s maturity and balance as they cared for patients their own age. It was here Judy began a wonderful professional partnership with the late Mary Anne Hope, also an outstanding new generation nursing professional and nurse educator.

In 1991 when the Centre for Adolescent Health was established at the Royal Children’s Hospital, Judy and Mary Anne were recruited as Lecturers and nurse educators. They were part of the leadership group that established Australia’s first clinical academic program in adolescent health and laid the foundations for what is now an internationally renowned program. This was groundbreaking interdisciplinary work as curriculum was developed for a National Adolescent Health Physician Training and Education Program and then Graduate Diploma in Adolescent Health and Welfare. Judy taught and inspired scores of teachers, youth workers, nurses, doctors, police officers and others from around Australia and internationally, many of whom have since taken on leadership roles in adolescent health and welfare.

Not content with leading educational innovations, Judy also took leadership roles at the Centre, creating new systems of health care for young people, most notably for young people in the Juvenile Justice System through the establishment of the Adolescent Forensic Health Service. Her expert practical nursing background, deep knowledge of adolescent health, combined with a strength and maturity of leadership helped establish this innovative health service for highly vulnerable young people.

In recent years, she continued to work and volunteer in the area of asthma education, having been among the founding members of the Victorian Asthma Health Educators Association where she also served as Vice President.

Judy Davey was a consummate and pioneering health professional, committed citizen and devoted wife and mother. She is survived by her husband Robert, sons Christopher and Richard and a wider loving family. She was a constant in so many lives as will be her memory.

Professor Glenn Bowes is Associate Dean External Relations, Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry & Health Sciences, University of Melbourne

A similar obituary can be found in The Age.  May 31 2011