Lumen Spring 2021 - Flipbook - Page 8
O
n the wall of Professor Nicola
Spurrier’s office above Hindmarsh
Square is an instructional poster
that once belonged to her father
Dr Evan Ross Smith (Clinical Microbiologist,
University of Adelaide and RAH).
“WASH YOUR HANDS / BEFORE
HANDLING FOOD / AFTER VISITING
THE TOILET / AFTER A CLEANING
SESSION”
The modern relevance, of course, is not
lost on Professor Spurrier, an alumna and a
Professor of Public Health at the University
of Adelaide.
“One of the things I like about public health is
that it can be a really simple intervention that
impacts the lives of a huge number of people,’’
she said.
“The very nature of public health is that it can
be invisible. The reason that people can turn
on water in South Australia and it comes out
clean is because of public health. The reason
that we don’t have sewage running down our
main roads is because of public health. These
are the things that people really take
for granted.
“Public health is such a rewarding area of
medicine. It’s a small specialty, there’s not
many people and we could do with some
more, and the pandemic has really shown
us that.
“But when I think about the patient it’s
actually the whole population. What’s
driving me is to improve the health of that
whole community.”
Now Chief Public Health Officer for South
Australia – and lauded on social media as
‘Saint Nicola’ for her role in keeping South
Australians safe during the COVID-19
pandemic – Professor Spurrier had originally
trained in paediatrics after graduating from
the University of Adelaide.
“Like many people in medicine, I do come
from a family of doctors and, probably what
was more influential, there were female
doctors in my family as well,’’ she said.
“My mother is a pathologist and I had an
aunt who was a paediatrician… I really felt an
affinity for children. I remember writing in a
grade seven English essay that I was intending
to be a paediatrician.
6
THE UNIVERSITY OF ADELAIDE
