Awards To Honour Queensland's Top Nurses

Awards to Honour Queensland's Top Nurses


Those living in Queensland are being urged to nominate the state's most accomplished and dedicated nurses, midwives, personal care attendants and assistants in nursing for the 2010 HESTA Australian Nursing Awards.

"If you know a remarkable Queensland nurse, I urge you to take the time to enter them for these awards before nominations close at the end of February," HESTA CEO Anne-Marie Corboy said.

"This is a great way for the community to thank the dedicated Queensland nurses who are the heart of our health system."

"These awards recognise the skill, inventiveness and courage to be found in the nursing profession. They also acknowledge the extraordinary work nurses do every day, to support people through the highs and lows in their lives."

With a prize pool of $25,000 across the categories of Nurse of the Year, Innovation in Nursing and Graduate Nurse of the Year, the HESTA Australian Nursing Awards are one of Australia's most prestigious nursing awards.

Ms Corboy said 1,400 nurses had been nominated since the awards were founded four years ago, and the calibre of the nominations continued to impress.

"The standard of nominations for the Awards has traditionally been fantastic and we are looking forward to another great year of inspiring entries," Ms Corboy said.

Two Queensland nurses made the finals in last year's awards:

* Graduate nurse Katharine Orr from Cunnamulla Hospital, 900 kilometres west of
Brisbane, whose achievements include establishing a healthy ageing program
for elderly and long-stay patients and working to bridge the cultural divide
between indigenous patients and non-indigenous staff.

* Nurse researcher Raymond Chan from Royal Brisbane & Women's Hospital Cancer
Care Services, who along with his colleagues, developed an orientation
program to help new patients become familiar with the hospital and understand
what to expect from their treatment.

Nominations for the Nurse of the Year category can be made by nurses, colleagues, patients and patients' families, while teams and individuals usually self-nominate for the Innovation in Nursing category. Graduate Nurse Coordinators may nominate their most promising graduates for the Graduate Nurse of the Year category.

The Nurse of the Year wins $10,000 in education and travel grants, the Innovation in Nursing winner receives a $10,000 grant for their service or program and the Graduate Nurse of the Year receives $5000 in education and travel grants. The prize money is provided by ME Bank, who is supporting the awards for the third consecutive year.

"Our judging panel of trained nurses, academics and industry representatives looks forward to learning about another group of amazing nurses in 2010," Ms Corboy said.

"Whether they work in midwifery, palliative care, aged care, community nursing, emergency care or another area we want to hear about them."

Every person making a nomination will receive a certificate to present to the nurse they nominate, ensuring that even nurses who don't make it through to the finals of the awards know their work is appreciated.

Nominations close on 28 February 2010 and finalists will be announced in April. Those from interstate will be flown to Melbourne for a gala awards ceremony, at the Crown Entertainment Complex, on Thursday 13 May 2010.

The Awards program and event is coordinated by HESTA, one of Australia's largest superannuation funds. HESTA has more than 650,000 members and is the industry super fund for those working in the health and community services sector.

Visit www.hestanursingawards.com to make a nomination and to purchase tickets for the awards ceremony.


Media inquiries:
Ingrid Svendsen
(03) 9993 6400 / 0409 007 530

SOURCE: HESTA