On Thursday 21 March we did one of the things we do best: we celebrated excellence in nursing and patient care! We were proud to host the RCN Foundation Impact Awards, which proved to be an emotive and inspiring evening.
The RCN Foundation Impact Awards is an event aimed at recognising and celebrating excellence in nursing. This is the first year that these awards have been held as a standalone event, having previously been part of the opening ceremony at Congress. As a result, we were delighted that for the first time we were able to showcase a greater number of the very best and brightest that nursing has to offer through this black tie event.
The aim of the awards is to shine a light on individuals who, by developing and enhancing their practice, have made an outstanding contribution to the health, wellbeing and care of patients throughout the UK.
The compère on the night was the wonderful Angela Barnes, a comedian and former nurse, who proved to be both passionate and engaging.
As we so often find when we put the spotlight on exceptional nurses, midwifes and health care assistants our award winners were touchingly humble and often quick to downplay their own achievements and to praise the contributions of their peers.
We gave out seven awards on the night. Our incredible winners are:
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Vicki Moss, who was awarded the Margaret Parkinson Award for outstanding student nurse by Ruth May
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Claire Elphinstone, who was awarded the Lady Cowdray Award for an outstanding achievement in continuing professional development by Christine Perry
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Professor Daniel Kelly, who was awarded the Monica Baly Award for an outstanding achievement in the history of nursing by Anne Marie Rafferty, RCN President
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Cara Taylor, who was awarded the Leukaemia Care Award for outstanding blood cancer nurse by Sue Warner, Chair of Council
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Phyllis Murphie, who was awarded the Muriel Stott Award for an outstanding achievement in continuing professional development by Donna Kinnair
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Edward Baker, who was awarded the Needlemakers Award for an outstanding nurse who uses needles in their daily work by Christie Watson, patron of the RCN Foundation
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Stephanie Farren Brown, who was awarded the Kershaw Award for outstanding health care support worker by Professor Dame Betty Kershaw
Other guests included RCN Foundation trustees and advisers, nurses and health care assistants, supporters of the RCN Foundation, representatives from other nursing charities, and of course both RCN Foundation and RCN staff.
Thank you to everyone who worked so hard to bring this event to fruition.