The Health Minister’s Award for Nursing Trailblazers acknowledges nurse-led innovations and models of care which significantly improve health outcomes for the Australian community through evidence-based processes. To mark the opening of nominations for the 2021 award, we spoke to two of our previous finalists to discover how they came to be nominated for the award.
Shannon Wallis MACN ¬– MeCare Nurse Unit Manager at West Moreton Hospital and Health Service — received the 2020 Health Minister’s Award for Nursing Trailblazers for her work in reshaping the delivery of care to improve the health outcomes for patients in Regional Queensland. Shannon was acknowledged for her leadership of the MeCare program, which uses innovative technology to allow patients to be virtually monitored in their homes without the need to present to hospital.
However, this success couldn’t have been achieved if Shannon’s colleagues hadn’t nominated her for the award!
“Nurses are innovators in health care but often they do not recognise their innovation,” she says.
“I was very fortunate to have Executive level support for the work that I have been undertaking in virtual health care and I was nominated for the award by my Executive Director. Together, we believe this is an area in which nurses can lead heath care now and into the future.”
“This has been a wonderful experience to be awarded the Trailblazer of 2020 and I would encourage others to put their hand up to share the challenges and successes of delivering care in new and exciting ways.”
Learn more about Shannon’s work by listening to her appearance on the ACN Podcast below.
Lorna Cook MACN was a Finalist in the 2020 Health Minister’s Award for Nursing Trailblazers for her role as co-founder of Chemo@home, a company which provides chemotherapy to cancer patients in their home. Lorna’s leadership placed nurse-led models front and centre of transforming and improving the quality of care for cancer patients.
Like Shannon, Lorna was nominated for the award by her colleagues.
“I was encouraged to enter this award by my colleagues at chemo@home,” she says.
“The team knows the step by step obstacles that my business partner and I have had to overcome during the past few years to try and bring an innovative service to the wider community, making chemotherapy administration ‘at home’ the norm.”
“I agreed to participate not for personal glory at all, but because I could see that bringing my work and life’s passion to the minds of nurses around Australia would encourage others to participate and show what innovative and hard-won nursing gains look like. I hope that by sharing my story I may have inspired our young nurses to strive that bit more to improve patient care and promote our profession.”
Learn more about Lorna’s work by listening to her discussion with Ben Jenkins MACN on the ACN Podcast below.
Do you want to profile nurse leadership by nominating yourself or or a colleague for the award? If so, head to our website to submit an application today!
