The Australian Nurse of the Year Award was created to honour and showcase excellence in the nursing profession throughout Australia. It has become recognised as the highest civilian accolade for a nurse in Australia. There were 437,516 nurses registered to practice in Australia in 2021. [1]
The award was established in 2003 to 2004 to recognise the exceptional contributions the recipient has made to improving care and outcomes for patients, providing excellent care in the face of adversity or other challenges, or for an outstanding act of kindness, understanding, compassion or courage, above and beyond the normal role as a nurse anywhere in Australia.
A judging panel of nationally recognised nursing experts assesses the top individual nominees and selects a nurse from each of Australia's states and territories. Each state or territory finalist is flown to a state capital (the place of ceremony is changed each year), where the winner is announced at a formal ceremony. In recent years, other categories of awards have been added. These are for an Outstanding Graduate and another is for Team Innovation.
Although the award is not associated with the Australian government-run Australian of the Year awards, it has been sponsored by various organisations and companies each year, including the Australian Department of Health and Ageing, The College of Nursing (Australia), Elsevier Medical Publications, the Australian Nursing Federation, Nursing Review, Laerdal, ME Bank, and other businesses. From their inception in 2004 the awards were hosted by Healthstaff Recruitment, and since 2007 by HESTA Superannuation Fund.
The awards attract wide coverage from media, culminating in a national presentation held each year, usually on or close to, 12 May, International Nurses' Day.
The Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) is the regulator for nursing and midwifery professions in the UK. The NMC maintains a register of all nurses, midwives and specialist community public health nurses and nursing associates eligible to practise within the UK. It sets and reviews standards for their education, training, conduct and performance. The NMC also investigates allegations of impaired fitness to practise.
The Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation (ANMF) is the largest union in Australia, with 274,956 members in 2018. The union is run by nurses, midwives and assistants in nursing to advance the industrial, political and professional interests of its members.
Nursing in the United Kingdom is the largest health care profession in the country. It has evolved from assisting doctors to encompass a variety of professional roles. Over 700,000 nurses practice, working in settings such as hospitals, health centres, nursing homes, hospices, communities, military, prisons, and academia. Most are employed by the National Health Service (NHS).
The Frontier Nursing Service (FNS) provides healthcare services to rural, underserved populations since 1925, and educates nurse-midwives since 1939.
Nursing in Australia is a health care profession. Nurses and midwives form the majority (54%) of Australian health care professionals. Nurses are either registered or enrolled. Registered nurses have broader and deeper education than enrolled nurses. Nurse practitioners complete a yet higher qualification. Nurses are not limited to working in hospitals, instead working in a variety of settings. Australian nurses are in demand as traveling nurses, particularly those with advanced qualifications.
The Queen's Nursing Institute (QNI) is a charity that works to improve the nursing care of people in their own homes in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland. It does not operate in Scotland, where the Queen's Nursing Institute Scotland performs a similar function. The QNI is also affiliated to the Queen's Institute of District Nursing in Ireland. The QNI is a member of the International Council of Nurses.
The Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation is the largest Irish professional union for nurses and midwives with 40,000 members. It was founded in 1919 after World War I, when a group of Irish nurses and midwives had a meeting in Dublin to discuss the issues in promoting an improvement in wages and advocating for a standard to be set for the conduction of their duties in the medical profession. This new organisation focused on increasing awareness towards tackling problems of pay and pension. They encouraged participation in recognising these changes by recruiting new members and establishing a standard for nursing and midwifery practice through educational initiatives. They were originally known as the ‘Irish Nurses Union’. In the 1930s, they began to promote their campaigns internationally by becoming affiliated with the International Council of Nurses. To this day they are still active and are based at the Whitworth Building in North Brunswick, Dublin.
Indian Nursing Council is a national regulatory body for nurses and nurse education in India. It is an autonomous body under the Government of India, Ministry of Health & Family Welfare, constituted by the Central Government under section 3(1) of the Indian Nursing Council Act, 1947 of Indian parliament. According to the original act the function of the council is to provide "uniformity in nursing education".
Dr Rhodanthe Grace Lipsett OAM was an Australian midwife and author. Throughout her professional life she specialised in infant and maternal health.
The Nurses and Midwives Tribunal is a former tribunal that was established in the Australian state of New South Wales which dealt with appeals and complaints of professional misconduct by nurses and midwives. The tribunal generally heard matters after the Nurses and Midwives Board has made a decision or a professional association had referred an issue to the tribunal. The tribunal heard matters in an informal manner in an attempt to do justice in the matter. The tribunal also conducted inquiries into complaints referred by the New South Wales Health Care Complaints Commission.
Nursing is a major component of Pakistan's health-care system. The topic has been the subject of extensive historical studies, is as of 2009 a major issue in the country, and has been the subject of much scholarly discussion amongst academics and practitioners. In 2009, Pakistan’s government stated its intent to improve the country's nursing care.
Ruth Watson Lubic, CNM, EdD, FAAN, FACNM, is an American nurse-midwife and applied anthropologist who pioneered the role of nurse-midwives as primary care providers for women, particularly in maternity care. Lubic is considered to be one of the leaders of the nurse-midwifery movement in the United States.
Comfort Iyabo Amah Momoh, is a British midwife who specializes in the treatment of female genital mutilation (FGM). Born in Nigeria, Momoh is a member of the British FGM national clinical group, established in 2007 to train health professionals in how to deal with the practice. Until 2017 she served as a public-health specialist at Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust in London. She is the editor of Female Genital Mutilation (2005).
Call the Midwife is a British period drama television series about a group of nurse midwives working in the East End of London in the late 1950s and 1960s. The principal cast of the show has included Jessica Raine, Miranda Hart, Helen George, Bryony Hannah, Laura Main, Jenny Agutter, Pam Ferris, Judy Parfitt, Cliff Parisi, Stephen McGann, Ben Caplan, Daniel Laurie, Emerald Fennell, Victoria Yeates, Jack Ashton, Linda Bassett, Charlotte Ritchie, Kate Lamb, Jennifer Kirby, Annabelle Apsion and Leonie Elliott.
The timeline of nursing history in Australia and New Zealand stretches from the 19th century to the present.
A midwife is a health professional who cares for mothers and newborns around childbirth, a specialization known as midwifery.
A nurse midwife is both a nurse and a midwife, having completed nursing and midwifery education leading to practice as a nurse midwife and sometimes credentialed in the specialty. Nurse midwives provide care of women across the lifespan, including during pregnancy and the postpartum period, and well woman care and birth control.
Eunice Katherine Macdonald "Kitty" Ernst was an American nurse midwife and leader in the nurse-midwife movement in the United States.
The Congress of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Nurses and Midwives (CATSINaM) is the peak national body that represents, advocates for, and supports Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander nurses and midwives in Australia.
Elizabeth Mary Chiarella AM is an Australian academic who specialises in issues relating to nursing, midwifery and the law. She is Professor Emerita at the University of Sydney, Australia and has been at the forefront of many regulatory changes to nursing practice and the nursing workforce and midwifery. These include the introduction of nurse practitioners into Australia, the move from a state based to a national regulatory system and, for midwifery, the introduction of the world's first Doctor of Midwifery and the establishment of the framework for state funded home birth midwifery in New South Wales (NSW), Australia. She is a nurse and midwife, who specialised initially in anaesthetic nursing and later in palliative care.