The Australian College of Nursing (ACN) was proud to collaborate with the Minister for Health, to present the inaugural Health Minister’s Award for Nursing Trailblazers in April 2019. The award celebrated and acknowledged the extraordinary contribution nurses make to the Australian health care system and gave much needed recognition to the leaders of our profession. Four Finalists were selected for the award, all whom are outstanding high achievers in their specialist fields and have been influential in dramatically improving the quality of health and aged care in Australia.
ACN is currently running a four-part series on our NurseClick blog sharing video interviews with the four Finalists. The third video features Professor Sandy Middleton FACN, Professor of Nursing at the Australian Catholic University and Director of the Nursing Research Institute. Professor Middleton’s influential work on stroke management protocols has been adopted all across Australia and is currently being implemented in twelve European countries.
During the video interview, Professor Middleton identified “receiving sufficient funding” and “changing clinical practice” as the two largest challenges she encountered during the course of her research.
She believes the honour of being a Trailblazer Finalist recognises the value of 14 years of collaborative research and “is an example of how one project that was funded has turned into a whole program of research”.
Professor Middleton also highlighted her dedication to “using the evidence to get nurses to change their clinical practice” and encouraged more young nurses to pursue a rewarding career path in research.
The full video interview can be viewed below.
