International Nurses Day, a time to celebrate at Mercy Place Mandurah

International Nurses Day will cut through the generations at Mercy Place Mandurah, as retired nurses who are now residents of the not-for-profit aged care home celebrate their careers of caring alongside current nursing staff.

And amongst those who will be reminiscing with a celebratory morning tea is retired nurse and current Mercy Health resident Anne Ward, who began her nursing career when she volunteered to become a Red Cross Nurse at the Lady Mitchell Convalescent Home in Cottesloe.  Serendipitously, this was the setting where she met her future husband, Christopher William (Bill) Ward, who was convalescing between Hollywood Hospital and The Lady Mitchell after sustaining war injuries in New Guinea, for which he later received a Military Medal for Bravery.

International Nurses’ Day is an annual celebration of nursing held across the globe on 12 May - Florence Nightingale’s birthday - and which pays tribute to the nursing profession and the magnificent contribution of nurses worldwide.

The day of celebrations will see Mercy Place Mandurah nurses and residents treated to a celebratory morning tea and, for the retired nurses at the home, a trip down memory lane as both current and retired nurses swap stories from their careers.

Mercy Place Mandurah Service Manager, Christina Venables, says International Nurses’ Day provides an important opportunity to celebrate nursing as a profession, and that residents were particularly keen to acknowledge the professionalism and care they receive from nursing staff on the day itself.

“Mercy Place Mandurah is very fortunate to have a wonderful team of dedicated and professional nurses and we think Florence Nightingale’s birthday is the perfect time to acknowledge them for their dedication and levels of care, which are second to none,” she says.

“It’s also a time for us to acknowledge trained nurses like Anne, who not only worked as a nurse for many years, but even volunteered her services at Waroona as a 17-year-old with the Volunteers Air Observers Corps (VAOC)  to monitor potential  enemy planes during WW2.”

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