Shropshire school nurses win top national award
Shropshire Community Health NHS Trust’s school nurses have won national recognition as the School Nursing Team of the Year 2014 in the prestigious Nursing Standard awards.
The award, presented last Friday in London to local nurses Kirsten Ellmore & Gayle Fitzpatrick, especially recognized the team’s outstanding work in partnership with local schools to support children and young people with asthma.
All schools now have a member of staff with special knowledge about asthma, together with special equipment to help childrens’ breathing in an acute asthma attack. Teachers and parents now say they feel more confident about the care of children with asthma at school, knowing that there are staff on hand with special knowledge.
The Award was presented by Wendy Nicholson, Professional Lead for community and school nursing at the Department of Health and Viv Bennett, Director of Nursing at Public Health England.
Jan Ditheridge, Shropshire Community NHS Trust Chief Executive said: “We are delighted that our school nurses have been recognised in this way for their leading-edge work on one of the most common and potentially serious children’s health conditions.”
Jo France, School Nurse Manager and Professional Lead at the Community Trust said: “I am very proud of the whole team whose hard work and dedication have contributed to Kirsten & the team winning this award. The awards ceremony was an emotional evening with lots of very worthy winners across all areas of nursing and we felt very honoured to be part of the celebration. It was great to see that promoting good health and preventing illness featured strongly.”
