Boost your specialty and profile by entering the RCNi Nurse Awards 2020
Posted 25 November 2019 - 08:02
Nominate yourself or a colleague for these prestigious nursing awards and you could be RCN Nurse of the Year in 2020, the International Year of the Nurse and Midwife
- Entering or nominating a colleague for the RCNi Nurse Awards 2020 can help boost your specialty and career development
- 2019’s winner in the Emergency Nursing category now has a platform to influence care
- The RCN Nurse of the Year 2020 will be chosen from the category winners
The RCNi Nurse Awards 2020 are open for entries, with past winners highlighting the ‘life-changing’ boost it has given their projects, profiles and practice.
In the International Year of the Nurse and Midwife, the profession’s most prestigious accolades offer opportunities for nurses, nursing students and support workers to share their practice innovations by entering the 11 categories.
Emergency nursing categories
The categories available for emergency nurses include: Innovations in your specialty; Team of the year; Nursing support worker; and Advanced nurse practitioner.
The RCN Nurse of the Year 2020 will be chosen from the category winners and announced at the awards ceremony in London on 8 July. Deadline for entries is 17 January.
Angela Harris led the Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust team that won the Emergency Nursing category at the RCNi Nurse Awards 2019. The judges were impressed by the outstanding work the team had delivered to improve end of life care for patients – and support them to return home quickly where possible.
Award raised the profile of what can be done in emergency departments for end of life care
and members of her Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust team
Picture: Barney Newman
‘I entered the RCNi Nurse Awards to share and celebrate the hard work of our emergency nursing team,’ says Ms Harris.
‘Through the judging process and the awards ceremony I met so many people from across the profession.
‘We were able to celebrate, on behalf of the whole trust, that we make a difference in so many ways, especially with the pressures in emergency nursing.’
Winning the award has raised the profile of what can be done in emergency departments for patients’ at end of life, and the changes have ensured patients who want to, and are able to, can get home to die.
‘I would absolutely recommend other emergency nurses enter the awards. It is an opportunity to share the positive work we are doing in emergency care’
Angela Harris, lead of 2019’s award-winning team at Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
‘It has enabled us to work more closely with our partners and community providers to improve end of life care even further,’ adds Ms Harris.
‘I would absolutely recommend other emergency nurses enter the awards. It is an opportunity to share the positive work we are doing in emergency care.’
RCN Nurse of the Year put her specialty in the spotlight
Matron Taurai Matare is the current RCN Nurse of the Year. She developed her hospital’s ophthalmology service and its nursing team, bringing together separate eye casualty, outpatients and theatres to create a single, modern eye treatment centre on one site. She was a finalist in the emergency nursing category for her rapid eye triage that saw a team of emergency nurse practitioners reduce the quarterly number of breaches of the four-hour standard from 118 to five.
Ms Matare, who works for Barts Health NHS Trust, says: ‘I didn’t realise what a huge thing it was nationally and internationally to be the RCN Nurse of the Year, but I’ve been networking with nurses around the UK and the world, and from all specialties,’ she says.
‘I met the prime minister when he came to my workplace, Whipps Cross Hospital in London, and I’ve been invited to present my work in Australia and in Singapore.
‘Winning the award has put the specialty I am so passionate about – ophthalmology – in the spotlight.
‘So many hospitals and ophthalmology teams want to visit our unit and see what we do, and so many nurses and nursing support workers are interested in working here that we now have a waiting list.’
Flying the flag for ophthalmology
‘Many colleagues have emailed and phoned to congratulate me on flying the flag for ophthalmology,’ she says.
‘I didn’t realise what a huge thing it was nationally and internationally to be the RCN Nurse of the Year, but I’ve been networking with nurses around the UK and the world, and from all specialties’
Taurai Matare, matron and RCN Nurse of the year 2019
‘I have loved being able to raise its profile as a nursing career and we have definitely put it right up there in our trust.
‘I absolutely recommend that nurses enter the RCNi Nurse Awards. Submit your nominations – you get to have so many experiences you would never have dreamed of.’