Pamela Spencer

I attribute my success to the incredible teams of healthcare worker leadership I've had, especially the women who were directors in hospitals and helped shape policies. Healthcare has had this glass ceiling effect for many years, and having females in leadership positions as directors of hospitals really helped shape me and helped shape my voice. I worked on a national pain initiative because we felt that females were under-cared for when it came to pain management. This became my focus - achieving equality between male and female in the healthcare arena. It started back in the early 90s when women weren't being treated appropriately in the ERs for cardiac symptoms. The whole protocol has changed, and we keep awakening to these disparities. Looking back to 1990, they'd send a lady home with abdominal pain that was really referred chest pain with Tums, while the male patient gets the whole cardiac workup. The healthcare industry leaders who are female continue to help change and really upgrade healthcare, and I'm so excited about that. One mentor in particular, Ann Herm, was a director who was very influential in my leadership role. I was the only nurse practitioner in the surgical setting for 26 years, and it was challenging when I had all male bosses, but when she came into the role, she became a great influence to me.

Stay true to who you are and never diminish your value to fit into someone else’s expectations. Pamela emphasizes that confidence and authenticity are essential, especially in environments where women have historically been expected to conform or stay silent.

I would say you are such a gift to the industry, and coming in with your own truth and value and knowing who you are will set the precedent. Years ago, we were the quiet nurses who were supposed to get up and give our chair to the physician when he came in. I'll never forget - they told me I had to get up because Dr. So and so needs your seat, and I said, I am busy. I didn't get up because I didn't know that was the protocol of the 90s and 86. I had a patient that barely survived the night and I had a lot of charting to do, and I just didn't even think about it. Years later, I realized I was kind of a rebel and didn't even know it back then. So I would say be true to your own value and all the gifts that you have, and they are not subserving or less than because of your origin of being a female. I see the younger women coming out stronger and more true to themselves, and that's what matters.

The biggest challenge is still the continued glass ceiling effect. It's still being challenged, though they are placing more females in leadership. But it's still about our voice. I feel women are becoming stronger in the strength of their voice, in their poise, and in their alignment of who they really are, so this feminine strength is still working upward. That's the change I continue to see, and that's a good thing. I see it in other industries too - even in the flight industry, the younger women are sticking together when it comes to union causes and fighting for their rights, which is really gaining ground. As for opportunities, I feel it's so open for podcasting and communication in so many arenas - the social media platform, LinkedIn, YouTube. If you can communicate in a quick, sensitive minute with a podcast or a little clip of something that really gets to people, that's huge. One big thing that's crazy to me is that a lot of women in perimenopause and the healthcare industry I work with are not cared for in optimal ways. Way back in the 1990s, I remember Oprah had on a healthcare wellness physician talking about bioidentical hormones, where they draw your blood, match it, and it's created topically to match your body. Still to this day, when I ask younger women what they know about menopause, they've never heard of that. Now younger girls are asking me to do a little podcast on that because they don't even know what to tell their moms, and they're going to be at that age someday. They're already trying to think of preventative ways to help with their hormonal levels. There's just so much need for more useful healthcare information.

I would say integrity, honesty, trust, and really living in your alignment is what I live by.