Our Trio of Queen’s Nurses
At St Catherine’s we are committed to providing the highest standard of care, and developing our staff to be the best they can be is a key part of this. Among our brilliant nurses, we have three who are prestigious Queen’s Nurses. Here they explain what being a Queen’s Nurse is all about.
What are Queen’s Nurses?
A Queen’s Nurse is a highly regarded award from the Queen’s Nursing Institute (QNI), a charity funded body, which recognises and rewards the highest standards of nursing care in the community.
Who are our Queen’s Nurses?
St Catherine’s proud trio of Queen’s Nurses are Natalie Clow (Practice Educator), Sam Farr (Interim Care Services Director), and Linda Henson (Senior Specialist Nurse).
Sam has been a Queen’s Nurse since 2010 and was one of the first 57 nurses in the UK to be awarded the respected title.
Why is being a Queen’s Nurse important?
When people outside of this profession think of nursing, they predominantly think of nursing in a hospital setting, but the QNI estimate approximately 60% of nurses are currently working in the community. The QNI helps to challenge how nursing is seen and gives a voice to community nurses through its Queen’s Nurses programme.
The QNI advocates for what we do, which is important for St Catherine’s because we are part of the community – even our in-patient beds are considered community beds from a system perspective.
Becoming a Queen’s Nurse is a highly regarded award that means that you are able to promote the highest standards of care in the community and develop your professional skills. Our long-term aim is that all nurses at St Catherine’s will eventually be Queen’s Nurses to help us showcase their expertise.
Natalie said:
“The more Queen’s Nurses there are, the higher the profile and the more innovative the work can be for community nursing.”
How does becoming a Queen’s Nurse help career development?
Encouraging our nurses to become a Queen’s Nurse is being included in the skills matrix we are developing and will be embedded into our St Catherine’s Hospice Palliative Care Award training programme. We want our nurses to be the best because they are specialists in what they do. The award stands for high quality, promotion of education, competency and leadership. We believe every nurse at St Catherine’s deserves to be recognised as a Queen’s Nurse.
Linda said:
“Being a Queen’s Nurse gives you kudos. When I wear my badge, every single patient will ask me what it is for. It gives them faith and trust in you because that badge stands for all the qualities that a patient would want to see in a nurse. It gives you credibility and the principles and values of being a Queen’s Nurse are exactly the same as those we experience as palliative care nurses. It’s all about quality nursing.”
If you are interested in joining our team experts to provide outstanding care to local people and their families, we would love to hear from you. You can see a list of our current vacancies here.
