A total of twelve community nurses from across the Northern Care Alliance NHS Foundation Trust (NCA) have been honoured with the title of Queen’s Nurse (QN) by the Queen’s Institute of Community Nursing.
The accolade is awarded to registered nurses, health visitors and midwives with at least five consecutive years’ experience working in the community, primary care or social care setting who have demonstrated a high-level commitment to improving patient care and nursing practice through clinical practice and delivering learning and leadership.
The full list of Queen’s Nurses includes:
|
Celine Haviland |
Louise Stott |
|
Helen Janjua |
Sonia Keane |
|
Natalie Cohen |
Rachel Hill |
| Nicola Matthew |
Natalie Griffin |
| Helen Campbell | Tracey Ogden |
| Jacqueline Eyers | Melissa Collinge |
Our community nurses will be recognised and formally receive the honour in November during a special ceremony in London.
We spoke to a couple of our colleagues after they found out the news.
Sonia Keane
Sonia is a paediatric nurse practitioner involved in providing clinics for children and young people with acute illness. One of the main aims is to accept referrals from GPs and 111 so care and treatment is provided in the community, in a timely manner and closer to home.
She works in the Bury children’s community nursing team and supports colleagues daily in all clinical aspects. Sonia also represents Bury at a Greater Manchester level with asthma care and has developed initiatives to improve education around asthma.
Sonia said: “I enjoy my role as it is different every day and gives me the opportunity to develop services for children and young people to ensure safe, high quality, evidence-based care is provided.
“I am delighted to have been given this award. It will provide me with the support of a network of likeminded nurses and enable me to continue to improve and enhance services for children and young people in Bury.”
Melissa Collinge
Melissa is the respiratory nurse service lead and started her nursing career on the acute medical ward in 1996.
But she always knew she wanted to work in a community setting and worked as a community respiratory nurse for 17 years before becoming the lead nurse.
Melissa said: “Working with patients with long term respiratory conditions I am often able to help them learn more about their underlying conditions, treatment plans and support them to take back control and improve their quality of life.
“It is such a privilege to receive the title of Queen’s Nurse but this would not have possible without my colleagues who share the same drive to deliver high standards of care. It will provide opportunities for me to share knowledge and experience with other community colleagues to ensure that care is seamless and equitable regardless of where someone lives.”
Welcome and congratulations
The NCA Queen's Nurse Network would like to welcome this year's successful Queen's Nurses. There are now 43 Queen's Nurses across the NCA.
The network would also like to congratulate Dr Kirsty Marshall, senior lecturer, lead for integrated care and specialist community practice at the University of Salford who has supported the NCA Queen's Nurse Network and is well known to many community colleagues. Kirsty has been a QN for a long time but has been awarded her long service award this year also.