Alumni and Supporters

Perri Waddell

Master of Clinical Nursing (2019)

She may have been awarded Western Australia’s top nurse, but just like the older adults she is so passionate about caring for, Perri Waddell knows what it’s like to face challenges.

Widowed while aged in her 30s with two very young children, Perri confronted an impossible choice after her livelihood was also taken away.

“Living in Zimbabwe at the time the political turmoil also meant I lost my source of income, as I was a farmer's wife and our farm was compulsorily acquired by the then government,” Perri explains. “I drew on my nursing qualifications to get me out of this pickle and sought more sustainable options, immigrating to Australia being one of them.

“Being widowed, immigrating and remarrying in short succession was certainly a challenge but as a family we made it and we are all the stronger for it - and all so grateful for the opportunities Australia has given us.”

After immigrating and settling in Bunbury, Perri’s previous work in hospitals, GP private practice and community nursing led to aged care nursing with Bethanie, a field she has been deeply interested in ever since starting.

“I think what really resonated with me is we've got people coming into aged care through no choice. Literally no-one wakes up in the morning and says, ‘I'm going to go live in a nursing home today’.

“Falls, incontinence and dementia are three main physical triggers for entry into care, and there’s still a lot of stigma around all those conditions - so people come and live with us at an incredibly vulnerable time of their lives.

“And if we can make that journey just a little bit more dignified and comfortable, and hopefully enjoyable along the way. It sounds like such a cliché, but I just thought it was an area of nursing where you could make such a difference to someone.”

Wracking up years of experience in residential aged care nursing, Perri made the most of every opportunity that came her way, furthering her education in several areas to continue helping older adults, including a Master of Clinical Nursing specialising in Gerontology with ECU.

“My Masters degree opened doors I never thought would be available to me,” Perri says. “I was looking for something that would give me more of a voice and give me more credentials.

“I strongly believe that older adults with chronic conditions deserve the very best of nursing care and was determined to develop my expertise and credibility to be able to role model that aged care (gerontological) nursing is a valued and exciting pathway to take as a nurse.”

Perri balanced her online studies with working full time, but says the sacrifices made along the way were worth it, and is a big advocate for nurses taking on further study.

“It was a real challenge and I needed a very supportive family. It took a lot of discipline but I enjoyed the learning – I like to aim to do well rather than just do, so it was exciting for me.

“I say to everyone who's even halfway thinking about it, you won't believe the doors that open once you've got just that little bit extra behind you. If you want to be taken seriously, if you want to be an agent for change, it’s really important that you keep on developing.

“We’re looking after older adults that have a very unique set of conditions and challenges, and you really do have to understand them.”

“If you're after an interesting ride and if people interest you, then aged care is amazing. I sing it from the rooftops wherever I am."

The initial intention of having credibility was very soon realised when Perri was offered a position in Bethanie's clinical governance team, first as a clinical nurse specialist, then clinical nurse consultant and soon after as manager clinical governance.

“This position gave me the opportunity to influence policy and develop user-friendly procedures and guidelines for frontline nurses and carers. I have always enjoyed problem solving ways to implement simple systems for safe and quality care outcomes.

“Together with Bethanie’s Learning and Development team, we developed a Registered Nurse Leadership program, giving nurses much-needed skills to lead teams of unregulated carers. We also developed a program to upskill a surge team at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. The inaugural graduates from this program were one of the first from WA to be deployed in Melbourne at the start of the aged care COVID-19 crisis.”

Perri then went on to consult to smaller, stand-alone providers in the South West, as well as sharing her knowledge as a mentor to other aged care nurses across the country.

In 2023 she returned to Bethanie, taking up her current role of Clinical Nurse Manager at the new Dalyallup facility, building a team of dedicated nurses and carers and leading by example to ensure residents are always at the centre of every decision.

Perri’s commitment, empathy and respect for her patients was recently honoured, named as the WA Nurse of the Year at the 2024 WA Nursing and Midwifery Excellence Awards.

“I don’t see it as a personal award, I see it as a well overdue acknowledgement of the work that aged care nurses do,” she says. “We do very valuable work in a unique situation – we don’t have doctors, we don’t have huge diagnostic equipment at our fingertips - you’re often on your own.

“So when they announced me as the Nurse of the Year, I couldn’t believe it – but the overwhelming feeling was this is aged care nurses being recognised.”

With clear passion for the industry, Perri hopes more nurses will choose aged care.

“If you're after an interesting ride and if people interest you, then aged care is amazing. I sing it from the rooftops wherever I am.

“I go to the local ECU campus and speak to the students when they're coming out for their first prac. And they're always kind of dreading going to a nursing home, but they all leave in tears and they don't want to leave their residents that they've been looking after.

“You get to be a part of their story, and I just find that incredibly rewarding.”