One of our long-serving nurses, Aine Crowe, has been shortlisted as practice supervisor of the year in the Student Nursing Times Awards.

The annual awards celebrate the achievements of the next generation of nurses, while also giving them the opportunity to nominate the individuals and organisations that have helped them, which is exactly what one of Aine’s protégés did!

Aine said:

I was nominated by Zaneta Khokhar, she was a student nurse last summer and qualified in September. She’s now a staff nurse with us on Japonica ward. She nominated me and the ward for student placement of the year because she said she felt very supported while training and grew in confidence during her time with us.

It feels very rewarding to be nominated and I’m looking forward to going along to the awards with colleagues. We have quite a few students on the ward and involve them in as much as we can, so they often come back once they’ve qualified. There’s a lot of variety we offer as we have patients having hip and knee surgery, as well as breast patients. Student nurses can gain a lot of experience with pain control, suture and drain removal, they can go to theatre and see the procedure being carried out, and even spend a day with our COPE team, which supports orthopaedic patients’ recovery in the community. Lots of good learning opportunities.

Aine is pictured above with Zaneta.

We were also shortlisted in three other categories: Japonica ward at King George Hospital as student placement of the year; nursing apprenticeship provider of the year; and partnership of the year.

The partnership category recognises our work with Anglia Ruskin University to create a personalised cancer care pilot placement.

Kulwinder Kaur, pre-registration lead (above), said:

Lizzie Rowland, our Lead Cancer Nurse, and the university wanted to create placements for the destination pathway students to learn more about cancer care and promote community nursing.

We worked together to offer a five-week placement for two students, rotating around areas of cancer care, including spending some time at Saint Francis Hospice. It’s a distinctive experience to gain more understanding of cancer care and learn about end-of-life care. Students on this placement focus on non-clinical skills, such as communicating with patients and supporting them and their families with a view to becoming community cancer nurses.

We support approximately 700 student nurses each year across 64 wards and departments, covering all specialities. This includes adult, children and learning disability nurses and we are one of the few London trusts offering nursing apprenticeships, helping us grow our own healthcare assistants into nurses of the future.

The awards ceremony will be held on Friday 24 April. You can find the full shortlist on the Nursing Times website.