• Entry type: Person
  • Entry ID: AWE0668

Durdin, Dorothy (Joan)

  • AM, FRCNA, Duniv
(1922 – )
  • Born 16 May, 1922, Adelaide South Australia Australia
  • Occupation Educator, Historian, Nurse

Summary

Joan Durdin, author of They Became Nurses: A History of Nursing in South Australia, 1836-1980 (1991) and Eleven Thousand Nurses: A History of Nursing Education at the Royal Adelaide Hospital 1889-1993 (1999) is a nursing historian and as a nurse educator has contributed much to the advancement of nursing through the development of advanced education in the higher education sector. In addition to her ten year’s teaching at Royal Adelaide Hospital she spent six years as a nurse educator in Papua New Guinea. She conducted extensive oral history interviews for the Royal Adelaide Hospital Heritage and History Committee, 1991-1998. Durdin is commemorated by the Joan Durdin Oration, an annual event initiated and sponsored by the Department of Clinical Nursing at the University of Adelaide.

Archival resources

  • State Library of South Australia
    • Interview with Marlienne Thomson [sound recording] Interviewer: Joan Durdin

Published resources

  • Resource
  • Book
    • Eleven thousand nurses : a history of nursing education at Royal Adelaide Hospital 1889-1993, Durdin, Joan, 1999
    • Eleven thousand nurses : a history of nursing education at the Royal Adelaide Hospital 1889-1993, Durdin, Joan, 1999
    • They Became Nurses : A History of Nursing in South Australia, 1836-1980, Durdin, Joan, 1991
  • Thesis
    • Learning to be a Nurse 1879-1920 : Early Steps in the Professionalisation of Nursing in South Australia, Durdin, J.D.

Related entries


  • Related Concepts
    • History and Historians