Manor Lakes’ Joanne Peniston-Bird was proud to take out both Student of the Year and Nursing Student of the Year categories at the Kangan Institute Industry Excellence Awards earlier this month.
However, given the circumstances, the 41 year old was feeling more than just gratitude.
“It means so much to me because I’m doing it in honour of my dad’s memory and my best friend Jay,“ Ms Peniston-Bird said.
Both her father and Jay died from cancer in early 2021, but not before their battles inspired Ms Peniston-Bird to change careers from hospitality to nursing.
“During 2020 my father and best friend were both battling late stage cancer and were terminally unwell,” she said.
“While my dad was being cared for at Werribee Mercy he was under their palliative team the nurses there, and the care that they provided to him was definitely an inspiration. It felt natural being in a hospital environment. It felt weirdly like home,” recalled Ms Peniston-Bird whose mother is a retired nurse.
After enrolling in nursing at Kangan Institute on Australia Day 2021, just weeks before her father’s death, it soon became clear she shared her mother’s ability, with Ms Peniston-Bird scoring above 90 per cent in all her assessments.
It’s a result made all the more remarkable given she was grieving at the time.
“There were certain subjects that I was learning and I’d have to leave because It would bring on grief. They were talking about providing care to the older person and my dad had been moved into an aged care facility to see out his final days.”
Ms Peniston-Bird is now a graduate nurse at St Vincent’s, caring for others in honour of her father and friend.
