News

As part of our celebrations to mark International Nurses Day this year, we held a celebration event at St Ann’s Hospital on Friday 15 May to recognise the amazing 1,500 nurses that work across NLFT.

Nearly 70 nursing colleagues as well as colleagues from other departments and senior leaders joined the event which started with an exhibition that showcase key leaders across nursing as well as the NHS including Florence Nightingale, Mary Seacole, Edith Cavell, Kofoworola Abeni Pratt and Duncan Burton.

At the event, we welcomed a variety of keynote speakers including our Interim Chief Nursing and AHP Officer, Andy Brogan, our Director of Nursing for Quality Governance, Moriam Adekunle and our Associate Director of Nursing, Ade-Omomoh Rashed.

On his opening remarks, Andy, who has been a nurse for over 50 years, said:

“Thank you all for what you do, and for showing compassion in everything you do.

Despite all the pressures, you always show care, compassion and kindness. You all go the extra mile and we should be celebrating what we do more often.  

You deal with a lot of competing demands and challenges and despite all of that, I see commitment, resilience, compassion and I see that every day.”

We also heard from Nurse Leader and Consultant, Joan Myers OBE, who talked about  empowering our nursing workforce.

Toyyib Adelodun, a former service user, shared his own experience on how the support he received from us changed his life. He highlighted:

“Your work is changing society and make it a better place and I wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for you. Your work matters, it’s important and it’s changing lives.”

We heard about how nurses can look after their own wellbeing and what support is available from them at the Trust and we heard from inspiring colleagues about what is like to work in mental health.

This year, the Royal College of Nursing's theme for International Nurses Day was “nursing as a global profession”, which recognises nursing as a highly skilled and safety critical profession worldwide. The theme highlights shared challenges, including workforce pressures and rising demand for services, and the importance of global solidarity within the nursing community.

Going the extra mile

As part of our celebration event, we recognised the amazing work some our nurses do across the Trust and we celebrated specific nursing colleagues on the following categories:

• Patient Experience & Involvement Champion  
• Quality & Safety Champion
• Nurse Innovator
• Nurse Educator & Mentor
• Rising Star / Early Career Nurse Award
• Emerging Nurse Leader

Congratulations to all the winners as well as the runner ups!