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The RCNi Nurse Awards 2020 can help put you and your specialty in the spotlight

Nominate yourself or a colleague for these prestigious nursing awards and a chance to be named 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 Child health category now has a platform to influence care
  • The RCN Nurse of the Year 2020 will be chosen from among category winners

Picture shows a logo promoting the RCNi Nurse Awards.

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, students and nursing support workers to share their practice innovations by entering the 11 categories.

Children's nursing categories

Categories available for children’s nurses include Child health, 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.

Enter the awards today

Picture shows RCNi Awards 2019 Child health category winner Joanna Broderick (left) with a mother holding a baby and following the oxygen weaning guideline she developed.
Joanna Broderick with parent Gemma Oram and son Jasper Phillips. Picture: Apex.
Picture with consent.

Joanna Broderick won the Child health category in 2019 for developing and implementing an oxygen weaning guideline that saved money and helped families enjoy a more normal life after their neonatal journey.

She says she loved the awards experience and wishes she could do it all over again. ‘I would definitely recommend it,’ says the Children & Family Health Devon children’s community nurse. ‘It was such a celebration of the amazing work we nurses do.’

Oxygen weaning guideline made a different to families

She entered the awards because she felt so passionately about the guideline. ‘Every time I talked about the pathway it would put fire in my belly. I felt excited by the results we were getting. I knew it had made a difference to families and wanted to share this with others.’

Entering the awards was a new experience that she ‘definitely thrived on’.

‘I loved having the opportunity to write about my work in detail, reflecting on the stages I went through, the length of time it took and the hoops I had to go through. And the awards evening was magical – the energy in the room was amazing.

‘To see so many inspirational nurses in one room made me feel proud to be a nurse and I loved having an opportunity to meet them and celebrate alongside them.’

The award has helped raise the profile of her guideline. ‘Since winning I have been contacted weekly by community children’s nurses, consultants and neonatologists about my work. I am presenting the guideline at a three-day home oxygen seminar across the region.

‘Winning the category has confirmed to me that an idea can become reality’

‘Things are evolving in this area and I am proud to be a part of it. We are starting to talk about having other pathways like it, to be able to structure the work we do with other patient groups.

‘The oxygen company and the Paediatric Pan London Oxygen Group, who I am working closely with, are heavily promoting my achievement also. Winning the category has just confirmed to me that an idea can become reality, and it has increased my confidence to pursue improvements through my practice as a whole.

‘When I think about the award experience and winning the category, it brings a big smile to my face and reminds me why we, as nurses, are doing what we’re doing. I love my job and I hope to inspire others to be innovative. And I hope I am a role model for others to enter the RCNi Nurse Awards. Nurses are fabulous, committed, driven individuals who deserve recognition.’

 RCN Nurse of the Year put her specialty in the spotlight

RCN Nurse of the Year 2019 Taurai Matare also won the Leadership category. Picture shows her with her awards.
RCN Nurse of the Year 2019 Taurai Matare Picture: Barney Newman

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, outpatient and theatre sections to create a single, modern treatment centre on one site.

‘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 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 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.’

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