Experience of the RCN Nursing Awards

The deadline for entries to the 2022 RCN Nursing Awards has been extended. Applications and nominations must be received before Wednesday 20th April 2022.

The prestigious RCN Nursing Awards are open for entries, offering Queen’s Nurses an opportunity to share their practice nationally and internationally and shine a spotlight on nursing excellence in the community.

Nurses, nursing students and nursing support workers are invited to share their innovations and expertise and celebrate their contribution to improving care and outcomes for people of all ages and walks of life.

Entries are open to individuals and teams in 14 categories covering the diversity of nursing. Nurses can enter their own work or be nominated by a colleague.

The RCN Nurse of the Year 2022 will be chosen from the category winners and announced at the awards ceremony at the Westminster Park Plaza hotel on 6 October.

Here two Queens Nurses outline the benefits of entering the RCN Nursing Awards:

Yvonne Manson, Leadership Award winner 2018

Read about Yvonne’s award-winning dementia programme

Care home nursing has been long overlooked so I entered the RCN Nursing Awards to highlight the real innovation within the sector and the career journey that you can enjoy from working in care homes.

I was incredibly proud of the dementia programme I’d led in Balhousie Care Group and the work that had gone into it, and I wanted to share that with others.

Entering the Leadership category was a really positive experience, enabling me to really explore and reflect on what had been achieved but also learn about the work going on in other sectors and other areas of the country.

The evening is something I will never forget. I did not expect to win and was overjoyed just to be a finalist so when they announced my name it took a while to register. As soon as my win went live on social media, my team members were all texting.

The awards give you a chance to meet other nurses and learn about their work and I spent the evening inspired by the many stories I heard.

People contacted me on social media to say how the win has inspired them to pursue a career in care homes and to be proud to do so. That meant a lot to me personally having fought the stigma for most of my career.

All my local newspapers ran stories of the success and I received interest in the work from all around the world as far afield as Australia.

I used the win to help secure a training suite for the dementia team to use to enhance the learning and development programme. The increased interest also led to an expansion in our team.

I would recommend everyone enter the awards regardless of their area of practice, not only can it support the development of your work but there is something special about being recognised by your peers.’

 

Lorraine Haining, Nursing Older People winner 2019  

Read about the IDEAS programme

I won the award for the IDEAS dementia programme we delivered in NHS Dumfries and Galloway.

The awards put care home nursing and dementia nursing in Scotland on the map and showed we were innovative leaders in the field.

The whole experience was absolutely fantastic. The night was amazing, being together with the team, celebrating the success of our service, and how nurses can make an impact working with other professions. It gave everyone in the team a boost.

And it was great for networking with all the other finalists and seeing all the other great work going on.

Filling out the entry form was a good opportunity to reflect on the team’s work. It was amazing to look back on what we had been doing. You don’t realise how much you have done and put into it, until you start reflecting on it.

The award definitely raised the profile of the work, which was unique in the UK. Nationally a lot of people have got in touch to find out more about our work. And we have had a lot of interest internationally, with organisations from Europe, the US and Australia getting in contact.

And with Yvonne Manson winning the Leadership category for her dementia programme it put both nursing older people and care homes in Scotland on the map.

Personally, the awards made me very, very proud to be a nurse and it reignited my whole passion for nursing. It inspired me to advocate for the profession, promoting older people and dementia care as a career. I spoke to school leavers and nursing students to encourage them into older people’s nurses.

Older people nursing used to be a Cinderella service and seen as a dead-end nursing career but that is slowly changing and these awards show that it offers a great career and pathway. And recognition gives you the confidence to challenge the system.

I would recommend to all nurses that they enter the awards. We do not celebrate our success as much as other professions. We need to stand up and shout from the rooftops about what we have done as nurses and how we can make a difference. It is really important to make sure nurses are not pushed aside and recognised for their skills and knowledge and contributions to services. And the awards are a really, really great thing to be involved in.

Enter the 2022 RCN Nursing Awards and share your work.

 

RCN Nursing Awards 2022 categories

There are 14 awards categories this year:

• Child health
• Commitment to carers – sponsored by NHS England and NHS Improvement
• Community and GP nursing – sponsored by NHS England and NHS Improvement
• Excellence in cancer research nursing – sponsored by Cancer Research UK
• Greener Nursing Practice
• Innovations in your specialty
• Leadership – sponsored by Lloyds Pharmacy Clinical Homecare
• Learning disability nursing
• Mental health nursing
• Nursing older people – sponsored by Aquarate
• Nursing support worker
• Patient’s choice – sponsored by Alexandra
• Student nurse
• Team of the year – sponsored by LV=