A chance to recognise caring for the carers

Time is running out to enter this year’s Nurse Awards and gain recognition for the excellent and innovative work that you or your team has undertaken. The deadline is January 29, so don’t pass up the opportunity spread best practice, share ideas and celebrate innovation.

Previous winners have been invited to Downing Street or parliamentary receptions, discussed their work with policymakers and other influential people, and helped promote the profession across the UK in the media and elsewhere. The 2015 nurse of the year, Amanda Burston, is now well known as an authority on how to tackle domestic violence and abuse.

There are 12 categories for which RCNi is seeking nominations, covering areas such as community nursing, cancer, leadership and nursing older people. There is an ‘innovation in your specialty’ category that is open to all, and others for students, healthcare assistants and bank nurses. For the first time we are running a category for nurses who have developed initiatives to support carers’ physical and mental health, as well as improving health outcomes for the person being cared for.

The overall winner, who will be named RCN Nurse of the Year 2016, will be announced at an awards ceremony on Friday May 6. The accolade will be all the greater given that this is the college’s centenary, so all the more reason to ensure that you or a colleague enters the race. For full details visit rcni.com and follow the link from the home page.

As nurses, midwives, healthcare support workers and nursing students you rarely receive the recognition you deserve, so perhaps it is not surprising that you are reluctant to put yourselves forward for such awards. But ask anyone who has made it through to the final, won their category or even been named nurse of the year and they will tell you it has been an enriching experience from which they and their patients have benefited.