Mandurah Wearne House nurses receive state recognition

Amana Living’s Wearne House nurses Julie Morfitt and Sharon Maitland received the accolade at a special ceremony in Perth on September 6. 

An eager nurse, Ms Morfitt knew she wanted to work in nursing from a very young age. 

“When I was little we used to have fancy dress costumes and I always went as a nurse when I was in primary school,” she said.

In 1971, she started her in-hospital training at Sir Charles Gradiner Hospital before starting her career at Pinjarra’s Murray District Hospital.

Ms Morfitt also worked at Silver Chain before taking up a position at Wearne House in 1979, where she has worked ever since.

Unlike Ms Morfitt, Ms Maitland studied nursing at Edith Cowan University to follow the steps of her mother, a pediatric nurse. 

She started working at Wearne House as part of her grad program, and has worked at the nursing home ever since.

“My mother was a nurse, she worked in pediatric nursing and she used to take me to work with her at the children’s hospital she worked at so I guess from a young age I had a bit of exposure to it,” she said.

Both nurses said they were stoked to receive the medal, but they would like nurses to be more recognised.

“Like the police and the paramedics and firies and that they all get their medals and the nurses are not as recognised,” Ms Morfitt said.

“It was very nice because there aren’t many opportunities like that where you get that recognition, so I just felt real unity with the other nurses there, sharing old stories about the training days and what not,” Ms Maitland said. 

Ms Matiland also said aged care nurses were a minority at the event, and she would like recognition for aged care nurses to be on a par with that of nurses in other fields.

Ms Morfitt agreed. 

“We have the same challenges as they do,” she said. 

Former nurse Paul Walling created the Medals for Nurses initiative after realising that nurses weren’t acknowledged for their service, unlike other public officers and volunteers who receive a National Service Medal.

The initiative hopes to encourage the state and federal government to recognise the efforts of Australia’s nurses.