Australia’s neonatal nurses are among the best in the world and the Australian College of Neonatal Nurses (ACNN), is proud to announce the winners of the inaugural 2011 Neonatal Nurse Excellence Awards.
The aim of this prestigious award, which was open to all neonatal nurses who are members of ACNN and working in the area of neonatal nursing Australia-wide, was to recognise an individual neonatal nurse’s achievements and to encourage excellence in the provision of neonatal care.
2011 was the inaugural year of this award and the winners were announced at the ACNN national conference on 8 April 2011 in Hobart, Tasmania.
Overall Winner – Emerging Leader Category: Dr Denise Harrison
It is with great pleasure that we confer the overall winner’s award to Denise Harrison in the category of ‘Emerging Leader’. Until recently Denise was a clinical research nurse in the NICU at the Royal Children’s Hospital for Sick Children in Melbourne. She has a long history of leadership positions in the ACNN and in the Victorian Association of Neonatal Nurses over the last 15 years. She is a Past-President of ACNN and lead the transition of ACNN from an Association to a College. She established the International Scholarship to sponsor neonatal nurses from developing countries to attend national and international conferences. As a member of a team to advance Neonatal Nurse Practitioners (NNPs) in Victoria, she co-lead a project to develop clinical practice guidelines for NNPs. She has been an Associate Editor of the Neonatal, Paediatric and Child Health Nurses journal, and is widely published in the area of her research, neonatal pain. She has been a mentor to many novice neonatal nursing researchers. Denise has recently completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the Sick Children’s Hospital in Toronto, Canada, and has now taken up a position as a Chair in Nursing Care of Children, Youth and Families Children’s Hospital and the Faculty of Health Sciences of the University of Ottawa. We are very pleased to present the inaugural Neonatal Nurse Excellence Award to Denise, in the category of “Emerging Leader”.
Winner – Research and Innovative Practice Category: Chelsea Webster
It is a delight to announce the winner of the ACNN National Neonatal Nurse Excellence Awards in the category of ‘Research and Innovative Practice’ to Chelsea Webster. Chelsea works in the NICU in the Mercy Hospital for Women in Melbourne as a clinical nurse specialist and research nurse. She has collaborated with medical staff and neonatal nurses in research examining the use of human breast milk fortifier in preterm infants, developed a new feeding policy and implemented an education program for staff to change practice around feeding regimes in that Unit. As a role model and mentor to other neonatal nurses, Chelsea has implemented significant practice changes regarding care of infants experiencing feeing intolerance. As a young, dynamic and dedicated neonatal nurse with a passion for learning and research, it is our pleasure to present the ACNN National Neonatal Nurse Excellence Awards in the category of ‘Research and Innovative Practice’ to Chelsea.