By Gary Norman / Mineral Wells Area News / Images Provided By Palo Pinto General Hospital
A Life Defined by the Ability to Shift
To shift is defined as making a change in position, direction, or tendency. Shifting is not easy; it requires adaptability, flexibility, and foresight to pull it off successfully. Over the course of her 50-year career in nursing at Palo Pinto General Hospital, Carla Hay-Perdue has elevated shifting, both professionally and personally, into an art form, allowing her to provide ever-higher levels of service to her patients and coworkers. Now, she is teaching its benefits to others.
Carla was born in Fort Worth, Texas. When she was five years old, her family moved to Mineral Wells. Her mother, a schoolteacher originally from Mineral Wells, wanted her daughter in a smaller school system where she had a trusted network of colleagues who could help keep an eye on her.
Early Signs of Adaptability
Early on, Carla showed signs of her ability to adapt. She grew up involved in a wide range of interests, including tap and ballet dancing, piano lessons, and participation in Girl Scouts from second grade through high school. Girl Scouts gave her a lifelong love of camping, which she still enjoys today.
Like many who grow up in small towns, one of her fondest memories was cruising around town with friends.
“Kids would cruise up and down Mineral Wells, go around the Sonic, come back, turn around, go around the Sonic, and come back,” she recalled. Other than a change in the Sonic Drive-In’s location, the tradition continues today.
Finding Her Path
After graduating from high school, Carla began attending Texas Woman’s University as an art major. After her first semester, she experienced an epiphany that led to her next shift.
“I decided I would starve to death as an artist,” she said. “So I changed to occupational therapy because it’s a balance between art and science. Then all my friends were nursing majors and were going to leave and go to Dallas to the nursing campus, so I changed to nursing.”
She changed her major three times during her freshman year.
“My mom finally said, ‘Hon, you’ve got to decide and stick with something,’” she said. Carla stuck with nursing—“to support my art habit.”
The Beginning of a Fifty-Year Relationship
During the summer of her junior year in the nursing program, Carla began what would become a 50-year relationship with Palo Pinto General Hospital. After being checked off on Licensed Vocational Nurse skills, she took a job at the hospital to gain experience.
“The LVNs took me under their wing and pretty much taught me everything I needed,” she said.
Carla returned to Texas Woman’s University to complete her senior year, performing clinical work at Parkland Hospital and St. Paul’s Hospital in Dallas. During school breaks, she returned to Palo Pinto General Hospital to work and gain additional experience.
After earning her Bachelor of Science in Nursing, Carla had no intention of returning to Mineral Wells.
“I was going to join the Navy,” she said. “I liked Washington State. There was a Navy base in Bremerton, which was a really pretty town. It had nothing to do with the Navy—it had to do with location.”
She also considered Alpine and Colorado. But another shift intervened.
“One day I was out here delivering flowers to one of my mother’s friends, and the director of nurses came out and said, ‘We really need you to come back to work. We’re in a nursing shortage. We don’t have enough registered nurses. Could you please come and stay until we get enough nurses?’”
“That was fifty years ago,” she said. “They never got enough nurses.”
A First Day That Defined a Career
Carla began her post-graduation career in the Medical/Surgical Unit, assisting the evening supervisor. Her very first shift became unforgettable.
She remembers May 27, 1976, with striking clarity.
“I worked the 3:00 to 11:00 shift. About 1:30, the sky got dark, and the clouds started forming. Then we had the hailstorm from hell,” she said. “When I showed up, the parking lot had shards of glass everywhere and hailstones as big as grapefruits. The whole west side windows had been blown out.”
At the time, Palo Pinto General Hospital was a 99-bed facility. Patients had to be moved from the west wing into hallways, separated by accordion curtains. Bells were placed at bedsides so patients could summon nurses.
Half the scheduled nursing staff couldn’t reach the hospital.
“We were working shorthand on my first day. You shifted, and you dealt.”
Carla Hay-Perdue
Day-shift nurses stayed late, night-shift nurses arrived early, and patients spent several nights in the hallway while repairs were made. The hospital ran on emergency generator power.
“That was my first day,” she said.
Leadership, Teaching, and Emergency Response
From Medical/Surgical, Carla moved on to become Charge Nurse in the Intensive Care Unit. Later, she became the hospital’s Education Director, where she discovered her passion for teaching.
In that role, she managed continuing professional education for nursing staff and helped lead community training in diabetic education, healthy eating, and CPR.
While serving as ICU Charge Nurse, Carla completed additional training to become an EMT and eventually a paramedic. For 35 years, she volunteered with a group that filled response gaps when city and county ambulances were unavailable.
Love, Service, and Loss
That volunteer service also led to one of the most meaningful relationships of her life.
“Well, the little old ladies at the Methodist Church said, ‘You’re single, and we’ve got this guy you need to meet,’” she recalled.
His name was Steve Perdue, a volunteer firefighter and science teacher at Mineral Wells High School.
“He was tall, skinny, nerdy—horn-rim glasses and everything,” she said.
Carla joined the EMT reserve, and the two worked together—Steve on the fire side and Carla on the ambulance side. Steve later earned his EMT and paramedic certifications as well.
“We rode the ambulance together. We taught CPR and first aid together,” she said. “We had a 29-year courtship. We did everything together. We were best friends.”
Steve later developed pancreatic cancer. From his hospital bed in the ICU at Palo Pinto General Hospital, he proposed marriage. With help from the county clerk and county judge, the paperwork was expedited, and the two were married there in the ICU. Steve passed away just days later.
Shifting Into Advanced Practice
While serving as Education Director, Carla earned a master’s degree in Nursing Education from Texas Woman’s University. She later became Director of Nursing, a role she found unfulfilling, prompting another shift.
Encouraged by colleagues from the University of Texas at Arlington, Carla returned to school to become a Geriatric Adult Nurse Practitioner. She began practicing by treating inmates at the Palo Pinto County Jail.
Her ambitions continued to grow. A chance encounter at a nurse practitioner workshop led to the creation of a rural health clinic in Gordon, Texas, a medically underserved area. With hospital support, grant funding, and donated equipment, the clinic opened and served the community for 25 years.
During that time, Carla earned an additional certification as a Family Nurse Practitioner.
A Doctorate and a New Philosophy
After Steve’s passing, another shift followed. Encouraged by a friend, Carla returned to graduate school at Texas Tech University and earned her Doctor of Nursing Practice degree at age 60.
“I saw patients during the week,” she said. “Once a month, I’d leave Thursday afternoon, drive to Lubbock, attend classes all weekend, and then come back to work.”
Her studies reshaped her approach to healthcare.
“Texas Tech ruined me for traditional practice,” she said, describing coursework on epigenetics and chronic disease that emphasized the role of lifestyle and environment in long-term health.
That shift led her to holistic nurse coaching, where her research showed lifestyle changes could significantly lower blood pressure without adding medication.
Still Shifting Forward
After graduation, Carla returned to Palo Pinto General Hospital as Quality Director before transitioning back into Nursing Education, while continuing limited nurse practitioner work.
Today, she serves as a Health and Wellness Educator and Nurse Practitioner. She plans to continue shifting away from medical management toward education and coaching.
“I’m shifting out of the medical management role,” she said. “That’s hard, because that’s what I’ve done for 50 years. But if people work on their lifestyle, they’re going to be healthier in the long run.”
As part of that mission, Carla teaches a coaching class at Texas Wesleyan University that is now required for graduating doctors, nurses, and nurse practitioners.
A Constant Commitment to Community
As Carla embraces new opportunities, some things remain constant. Community involvement and service continue to define her life. She remains active in her church, Healthy Mineral Wells, the Chamber of Commerce Tourism Board, and the Roadrunners RV group.
She is also deeply involved with Knitted Knockers, a nationwide organization that provides hand-knitted breast prosthetics for women who have undergone mastectomies.
After five decades of service—and countless shifts along the way—Carla Hay-Perdue continues to adapt, teach, and serve, proving that growth does not stop with time.
It simply changes direction.