WA Nursing and Midwifery Excellence Awards
The 2025 WA Nursing and Midwifery Excellence Awards (WANMEA) was held on Saturday 10 May 2025. Western Australia's nurses and midwives throughout public, private and non-government health services were recognised across 14 excellence categories for their outstanding service and commitment. WA’s 2025 Nurse of the Year, who also won the Excellence in Primary, Public and Community Nursing award, was Rhiannon Villiers from Homeless Healthcare, Perth. Congratulations Rhiannon!
The 2025 WANMEA Lifetime Achievement Honour was awarded to Dr Jennifer Prentice from Hall and Prior Health and Aged Care Group. Throughout her career, Jennifer has had an amazing impact on both the nursing profession and improving consumer outcomes through her dedication and research into wound and pressure care. She is described as having an “exhausting energy” and is uncompromising in doing the right thing. Congratulations Jennifer!
Nominations for 2026 WA Nursing and Midwifery Excellence Awards will open in August. Now is a good time to consider which worthy nurse or midwife you will nominate.
Find more information about the event and nominations on the WANMEA website (external site).
Important changes to the 2025 Ahpra registration renewal process for nurses and midwives
Nurses and midwives must renew their registration by 31 May every year.
This year, Ahpra has a new online portal with multifactor for extra security.
You will need to set up an Ahpra portal before you can renew your registration.
To be ready to renew your registration, set up your Ahpra portal now. You can renew and pay later.
How to set up your Ahpra portal:
1. download Google Authenticator app to your mobile phone
2. set up your Ahpra portal and link Google Authenticator to your portal
3. follow the prompts in the alert on your portal dashboard to renew
Hot tips for this year’s renewal
- Have your Ahpra username and password ready (check last year’s renewal reminder)
- Use two devices:
- Laptop or desktop computer to complete your renewal the renewal form is designed for
- a larger screen
- Mobile phone for multifactor authentication –you will need it every time you log into your Ahpra portal
Scan the QR code for how-to guides to setting up your portal and multifactor authentication
GradConnect
Applications for 2025|GradConnect are now closed.
If you applied to 2025|GradConnect, all the information you need can be found in the 2025|GradConnect handbook (PDF 4MB)
Applications are only open once per year. The next opportunity for graduate nursing and midwifery positions will be available through 2026|GradConnect.
This process will open in early 2026 for positions commencing between July 2026 and June 2027. Please monitor this website regularly for updates.
In the meantime, please browse jobs on the WA Health job search (external site) for nursing and midwifery opportunities.
Midwifery events
IMproving Perinatal Mortality Review & Outcomes Via Education (IMPROVE) workshops
IMPROVE workshops are designed to address the educational needs of health professionals involved in maternity and newborn care in managing perinatal death based on the Perinatal Society of Australia and New Zealand’s Perinatal Mortality Guideline. This involves small groups of learners rotating around six interactive learning stations that are each facilitated by an experienced educator. If you are an obstetrician, midwife, neonatal nurse, neonatologist, social worker, or are interested from a policy or public health perspective, we would love to see you! Priority will be given to clinicians working in maternity and newborn care.
For more information, please contact the Chief Nursing and Midwifery Office Team.
Safer Baby Bundle (SBB)
The National Stillbirth Action and Implementation Plan (NSAIP) aims to reduce preventable stillbirth rates by 20% or more by the year 2025 and ensure respectful and supportive bereavement care is available when stillbirth occurs. The Western Australia Stillbirth Action and Implementation Network (WASAIN) has been established to implement the recommendations of the NSAIP, provide expertise and oversight as a Western Australia (WA) Statewide network to work towards reducing preventable stillbirth by 2025 and beyond, including all activities and learning associated with the Safer Baby Bundle. For more information, please contact the Chief Nursing and Midwifery Office Team.