(Please note the above photo was taken in 2019 pre COVID mask wearing requirements)
Nurses play a vital role in our community. This has only been made more clear in the last 18 months, as we respond to COVID-19. Today, on International Nurses Day, we would like to acknowledge, thank and celebrate the contribution of nurses worldwide, including our 7,500 plus nurses at Monash Health.
Over the past year, in challenging circumstances, nurses across Monash Health have continued to provide outstanding care, compassion, agility, and resilience. Our nurses have assisted on the frontline with COVID-19 tests and in administering both flu and COVID-19 vaccinations to employees and our community.
Our 2020 NAMAS highlighted many significant achievements in nursing and midwifery practice across Monash Health. Our nurses have been recognised on a national and global scale, not just for their work in responding to COVID-19, but for their ongoing commitment to nursing. Monash Health Newborn Neonatal Nurse, Anna Kidman won an award at the European Academy of Paediatrics Societies Congress, Kate Sandry was awarded Emergency Nurse of the Year at the College of Emergency Nursing’s Annual General Meeting for her work as an advocate for the mental and social wellbeing of Emergency Nurse and Monash Heart nurses led a world-first trial.
All this has been achieved while continuing to deliver high-quality care and great patient experience, ensuring we are accreditation-ready come June.
Last week at the Nursing and Midwifery Forum we heard from Chief Nursing and Midwifery Officer, Clinical Associate Professor Katrina Nankervis, who expressed her heartfelt thanks to our nurses:
“I’d like to thank all Monash Health nurses for your unwavering hard work, dedication, resilience and responsiveness to the key needs of our community.
I am incredibly proud to be a Monash Health nurse and to lead an incredible team.”
At the forum, she also made the exciting announcement that the Nursing and Midwifery Awards and Scholarships (NAMAS) will return on a new date in 2021. We look forward to this event that recognises and celebrates nursing and midwifery excellence at Monash Health.
This year’s International Nurses Day theme is Nurses: A Voice to Lead – A vision for future healthcare. In 2021, we seek to showcase our nursing practice as well how the profession will innovate and transform and healthcare into the future.
