Gaddy Joins Montgomery Memorial as Chief Nursing Officer
| Date Posted: 2/12/2015
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Pamela Gaddy, R.N., (at left) confers with Montgomery Memorial Hospital President Beth Walker (at right) on a nursing floor while licensed practical nurse Vickie McDowell works in the background. Gaddy joined Montgomery Memorial in December as the hospital’s new chief nursing officer/chief operating officer. |
TROY – Pamela Gaddy left nursing for teaching – but only briefly. It didn’t take long for her to realize how much she missed the profession she had chosen as a little girl.
Fortunately, a job that allowed her to return to nursing came along at just the right time.
“This is where I belong,” says Gaddy, the new chief nursing officer/chief operating officer at FirstHealth Montgomery Memorial Hospital.
Although she’s been in her new role just since the end of December, Gaddy has already become an important part of Montgomery Memorial’s leadership team.
“We are very happy to have Pam with us,” says Montgomery Memorial President Beth Walker. “Her experience as a bedside nurse as well as a nurse leader brings a wonderful perspective to her role with us. She has lots of energy and lots of ideas that we hope will allow us to improve on the excellent care we already provide to the residents of this community.”
A native of Wadesboro, Gaddy decided she wanted to be a nurse about the time she started joining her father in his regular visits to a local nursing home. He led a Sunday school class for the residents, and she played the piano.
Gaddy was only 12 or 13 years old, but she liked the environment and enjoyed the company of the people who lived there.
“I think that’s what drove me to want to be a nurse,” she says.
A BSN (Bachelor of Science in Nursing) graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Gaddy later earned an MSN/MHA (Master of Science in Nursing/Master of Healthcare Administration) from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte.
She worked in various positions with Stanly Regional Medical Center in Albemarle before deciding, last summer, that she needed a change. She taught Health Occupations for a semester with Stanly County Schools before deciding that her professional heart belonged elsewhere. The CNO/COO position at Montgomery Memorial opened up about that time and, although she had never even been inside the hospital, she applied for the job.
“It really fit what I had done previously at Stanly,” she says.
In the role of CNO/COO, Gaddy is responsible for all of Montgomery Memorial’s nursing units including the Emergency Department, Operating Room and Medical/Surgical. She also supervises Case Management, Cardiopulmonary and Food & Nutrition, and the employee in charge of Infection Control/Patient Safety reports to her.
She and husband Joey, formerly a teacher at West Montgomery High School, have four sons: Justin, 13; Drew, 9; Ethan, 7; and Landon, 4.
Although still relatively new to the job, Gaddy feels very much at home at Montgomery Memorial.
“I’ve been very impressed with the facility,” she says. “It’s a nice place to work with a good staff. People have been here for years and years, and I think that says a lot.”
