Luminary

Impact Awards

The annual RCN Foundation Impact Awards recognise excellence in nursing and midwifery throughout the UK. They are a celebration of the exceptional work undertaken by nurses, midwives and healthcare support workers that takes place every day throughout the UK. 

Impact Award Winners 2024

Our eight inspirational award winners for 2024 were selected from nurses, midwives, and healthcare support workers whose RCN Foundation education grants have supported them in enhancing their practice and creating an outstanding contribution to patient care throughout the UK. 

For each award winner, there are many thousands of nursing and midwifery staff who continue to provide exceptional care, day in and day out, in different settings. These awards are also a reflection on the extraordinary contribution that nursing, and midwifery makes to our nation’s health and wellbeing. 

Bethan Almeida

Meet Beth, the winner of the RCN Foundation Needlemakers Impact Award for outstanding contribution to evidence-based use of needles in clinical practice. 

Beth is a Paediatric Asthma and Allergy Clinical Nurse Specialist working in the largest allergy department in the country. Beth was awarded a grant towards an allergy MSc course, which allowed her to implement a more evidence-based practice into her own clinic, improving the quality and standards of allergy practice for patients.

Lucy King

Meet Lucy, the winner of the RCN Foundation Lady Cowdray Impact Award for outstanding achievement in post-graduate nursing studies.

Lucy was awarded a grant towards a Psychology and Neuroscience of Mental Health Postgraduate diploma, exploring how these link to mental health. Lucy became involved in setting up a fully remote adult ADHD service to support significant demand in a location where service delivery had been challenging, reducing waiting time for an assessment from 3 years to 1 year.

Allan Rousis Tadeo

Meet Allan, the winner of the Deliveroo RCN Foundation NHS Education Impact Award for outstanding achievement in anaesthetic nursing practice.

Allan was awarded a grant towards an anaesthetics course and is now a fully qualified anaesthetic nurse. He now feels more confident when looking after patients and feels the course has made him a more competent nurse.

May Chen

Meet May, the winner of the RCN Foundation Amin Abdullah Impact Award for outstanding contribution to supporting nurses’ mental health and wellbeing. 

May is a senior lecturer at Canterbury Christ Church University and believes that the wellbeing of nurses has never been as important as it is today. May was awarded a grant towards a study investigating the effect of a multi-dimensional intervention programme on nursing students, self-efficacy, engagement, and wellbeing.

Ffion George

Meet Ffion, the winner of the RCN Foundation LV= Impact Award for outstanding contribution to health and social care by a healthcare support worker. 

Ffion is a Maternity Assistant Practitioner and was awarded a grant towards an aqua natal course, to learn how to teach safe and effective classes. Through an interest in fitness and a desire to improve the lives of women in Wales, Ffion identified aqua natal as a way to implement healthier lives using a holistic approach.

Miriam Gloria G. Sikapite

Meet Gloria, the winner of the RCN Foundation Leathersellers’ Impact Award for outstanding achievement in pre-registration nursing studies. 

After working as a care assistant for over 10 years, Gloria was awarded a grant towards an Adult Nursing BSc at the University of Hertfordshire. Gloria has drawn on her life experience in the face of obstacles on her journey towards becoming a nurse and in 2023, she completed a secondment as a Chief Nurse Junior Fellow.

Thomas McCullough

Meet Thomas, the winner of the Deliveroo RCN Foundation NHS Education Impact Award for outstanding achievement supporting victims of trauma.

Thomas is a mental health nurse in Belfast and was awarded a grant towards a post graduate study in investigating the complexity of trauma. Thomas undertook a PG Diploma in Trauma Studies, enabling him to provide better quality care in an area he is passionate about, so that he can help others in their time of need and crisis.