QNI Awards Ceremony 2017

The QNI Awards Ceremony was held at the Royal Garden Hotel in London on 30 October 2017. Over 300 nurses and guests attended the prestigious event.

The Awards Ceremony recognises and celebrates the achievements in community nursing and the dedication, the passion and the skills of nurses working in the community today.

The event was hosted by Dr Crystal Oldman CBE, QNI Chief Executive, and Kate Billingham CBE, Chair of Council. The guest of honour was Professor Jean White CBE, QNI Fellow and Chief Nursing Officer in Wales.

George Plumptre, Chief Executive of the National Garden Scheme, which funds the Queen’s Nurse network, spoke about the historic relationship between the two charities.

Photographs of the event can be viewed here. If you wish to publish any of the photos please credit our photographer, Kate Stanworth.

The award winners are listed below.

The Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother Award for Outstanding Service

This award was founded in 1994, when the Queen Mother was Patron of the QNI. It is presented to nurses who have given exceptional service to patients and the profession, in any aspect of community healthcare. In doing so, they have made a particularly distinguished contribution to the healthcare of people in the community. The awards were presented by Kate Billingham CBE, Chair of the QNI’s Council.

Liz Alderton

District Nurse Team Leader, North East London NHS Foundation Trust

Liz is an exceptional patient advocate and demonstrates the highest quality of care to patients in the community. She is a wonderful role model and her enthusiasm and love of community nursing is infectious. One of the most striking things about Liz is her continued passion for, and enjoyment of, the job, frequently claiming that she has the best job in the world.

She has become a regular contributor on BBC Radio 4 speaking about the contribution of the District Nursing service and in particular end of life care in the home. Liz is also a regular has host of government and senior policy advisors in her practice, where they have shadowed her at work in her patient’s homes.

In addition to her nursing career Liz has completed the London Marathon five times, raising over £12,000 for a local children’s hospice.

Gail Miles

Respiratory Nurse Consultant, Rotherham NHS Foundation Trust

‘BreathingSpace’ was set up in Rotherham by Gail Miles more than 10 years ago. It is a community-based and responsive respiratory care service for people and their carers who suffered with respiratory disease, many of whom would have been from an industrial background. BreathingSpace has developed into a high quality service with 20 in-patient beds, entirely run by nurses and led by Gail. Death rates from COPD in Rotherham are now 30% below the national average.

Gail is a highly credible, caring and exemplary nurse. She is not afraid to challenge practice and encourage innovation, and is a powerful voice for her specialty. A recent CQC Inspection reported on the work undertaken by Gail and the team: “BreathingSpace remains the only entirely nurse-led model of care for respiratory inpatients and outpatients in Europe. We found that the culture, care and philosophy of the unit was outstanding.’’

Christine Morris

Community Children’s Nurse, Sussex Community NHS Foundation Trust

Christine is a visionary community nurse and leader who has created and developed a substantial Children and Young People’s Community Nursing Team, including a 24/7 on-call facility. Her compassion for children and young people and their families is absolute. Her greatest strength is her skill and knowledge to guide families through the End of Life trajectory.

This emotionally charged and clinically demanding role is particularly challenging. Christine’s clinical and emotional skills are truly outstanding. She has impacted lives when they are at their worst and demonstrated a depth of humanity and capacity to make this difficult time ‘special’ in a way that is far beyond the norm.

In addition to her personal, professional contribution, Christine is an inspirational role model. Christine has been an exceptional leader who has understood and truly valued the role of the community nurse in supporting the wider needs of the family when managing long term conditions and end of life care.

Anne Elizabeth Pearson

Director of Programmes, The Queen’s Nursing Institute

Anne has worked in the field of community nursing for more than 25 years. Her outstanding commitment to developing and supporting excellent nursing care and nurse-led innovations is evident in all the work she undertakes at the QNI.

Anne has supported more than 250 frontline nurses to deliver innovation projects and visited every one of these project leaders in practice to support the development of their innovation. Such is the success of the projects Anne has supported, the majority have developed to become part of core NHS services and some have been adopted nationally. Many of the project leaders have been inspired by Anne to become Queen’s Nurses and ambassadors of excellent patient care.

Anne’s outstanding work and commitment in supporting best practice has had – and continues to have – an enduring impact – well beyond the life of the projects – on patients, carers, families and communities at a national level – including England, Northern Ireland, Wales, the Isle of Man, Jersey and Guernsey.

Tanya Strange MBE

Divisional Nurse, Aneurin Bevan University Health Board, Gwent

Tanya is an innovative and passionate nurse and her continuing commitment to patient care over many years has led to her develop a number of community services for patients and carers where gaps have been identified. Tanya has won many awards, both in Wales and in the UK for her work in supporting new and sustainable services.

The list of these new services is truly outstanding and includes a ‘fast track’ process for people at the end of their lives to be supported to return home from hospital with a care package within 6 hours. This has led to an increase from 38% to 99% of patients dying in their preferred location. This is a phenomenal achievement.

Tanya was awarded the All Wales ‘Outstanding Contribution for Continuous Improvement in Public Services’ award in 2016 and in June 2016, she was awarded an MBE for nursing services in the Queen’s Birthday Honours.

Fellowship of the QNI

Fellowship of the QNI was introduced 20 years ago, with the aim of creating a body of support that could provide professional advice, and intelligence from the field, on practice, research, education, policy and health service issues. The new Fellows are:

Professor Dame Elizabeth Anionwu

Elizabeth began her nursing career at a very young age after being inspired by a nun who cared for her eczema and from these beginnings she developed as a nurse pioneer and an is now an icon in the nursing world.

In 1979 she created the first UK Sickle Cell and Thalassemia counselling centre in Brent. The opening of this counselling centre pioneered the opening of over 30 centres in the UK using the Brent location as a basis. She later pioneered the delivery of education programmes at UCL for NHS staff members who worked with communities affected or at risk of sickle cell disease and cystic fibrosis.

Elizabeth’s exceptional commitment to education and research led later to her becoming Dean and Professor of Nursing at the University of West London, where she created the Mary Seacole Centre for Nursing Practice.

In recent years she has been honoured with a CBE for her services to nursing and just last year Elizabeth became a dame for her continuing services to nursing and the Mary Seacole statue appeal.

Joanne Bosanquet MBE

Joanne is Deputy Chief Nurse at Public Health England and a Queen’s Nurse.

Joanne has a particular interest in promoting the development of asset based communities and integrated communities of practice. As a senior leader, Joanne mentors and coaches a number of nurses (nationally & internationally) striving to enhance their field of practice, leadership and career options.

Joanne holds honorary academic fellowship posts and is in the process of identifying a number of nursing and midwifery academic partners to support the development of the nursing workforce & embedding England’s Public Health Framework for Nursing, Midwifery and Allied Health Professionals – ‘All Our Health’.

She is an active supporter of the Queen’s Nursing Institute and was awarded an MBE for services to nursing & healthcare in June 2013.

Professor Ursula Gallagher

Ursula is a highly respected senior leader in nursing and in particular primary care. She is the Nurse Lead at the Care Quality Commission (CQC), which she joined in 2015 as a Deputy Chief Inspector of Primary Care. She leads on the inspection of primary care services throughout London.

Ursula has led on high profile national work, including the Department of Health’s response to the Munro Review on child safeguarding, and recently with NHS England to plan and deliver clinical leadership development in the NHS.

In 2009, Ursula co-led the support unit for the Prime Minister’s Commission in the Future of Nursing and Midwifery and she was a panel member of the King’s Fund Inquiry into the Quality of General Practice in England.

Ursula is also a Visiting Professor in primary care leadership at Buckinghamshire New University, a trustee of the charity, Education for Health and still finds the time to deliver care to her patients as a Nurse Practitioner.

The Dora Roylance Memorial Prize for Student Health Visitors

This is a new academic prize offered for outstanding students who have completed the Health Visitor programme in the last academic year.

We are able to offer this prize thanks to the generosity of a Queen’s Nurse, Dora Roylance, who died in 2016 at the age of 100. Dora left a legacy to the QNI that enabled us to create this student award in her name.

Dora became a Queen’s Nurse in 1939 and became a Health Visitor six years later, receiving a bursary from the QNI to support her in her Health Visitor training. Dora went on to work as a nurse and a Health Visitor for the rest of her career and always maintained her connection with the QNI.

The QNI supports excellence and outstanding achievement in education. It is through such awards that confidence can be built and opportunities for further growth, development and influence offered. The award is just the start of a journey and an association with the QNI which we anticipate will last a lifetime, in the same way that Dora Roylance’s relationship with the QNI endured to the end of her life.

So far this year, 22 universities in England, Wales and Northern Ireland have presented this prize at their graduation ceremonies and we have one award winner here tonight who is representing that group.

Laura Scott, from London Southbank University received The Dora Roylance memorial prize for outstanding achievement on the Health Visitor programme to represent all those who have received the prize this year.

The Goodeve-Docker Memorial Prize for Student District Nurses

The Philip Goodeve-Docker memorial prize is for the most outstanding achievement as a District Nurse student during the programme of study.

Philip Goodeve-Docker chose to raise funds for The QNI while undertaking the amazing endeavour of crossing the Greenland Ice Sheet. Tragically however, Philip lost his life in a freak polar ice storm during the trip. However, with the funds that were raised by his family and friends, we have worked with Phil’s parents to create an award in his memory, now in its fourth year of operation. The fund will allow us to cherish and to celebrate the memory of a wonderful young man for many, many years to come.

Every university which offers the District Nurse programme in England, Northern Ireland and Wales now awards the Philip Goodeve-Docker memorial prize to one student for the most outstanding achievement on the specialist practice programme. So far this year, 28 universities all around the UK have presented this prize at their graduation ceremonies.

Emma Leese, from Southampton University received the award to represent all those who have received it this year. The award was presented by Nigel Goodeve-Docker, Philip’s father.

The Queen’s Nurse Title

119 Queen’s Nurses received their title today.

It is now 10 years since QN title was re-introduced, after a gap of almost forty years. Current Queen’s Nurses – who now number over 1200 – have become well-known and well-respected for their contributions to patient care, learning and leadership.

Professor Jean White CBE, QNI Fellow and Chief Nursing Officer in Wales, presented the new Queen’s Nurses with their badges and certificates.

The programme from the evening, which includes the names of all our new Queen’s Nurses and other award winners, can be downloaded below.