This award recognises a Registered Nurse or Midwife or an Enrolled Nurse who is a professional inspiration in raising the profile of nursing and/or midwifery leadership. The winner will be a transformational leader in their area of practice, promoting shared governance and a strong vision of the future for nursing and/or midwifery practice and must address Positive Practice Environment Standards (PPES) 4 and 6.

Click here to read the full Positive Practice Environment Standards

Who is a professional leader? 
The Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia (NMBA) Codes, Standards for Practice and Guidelines for the professions require nurses and midwives at all levels to take a leadership role. A professional leader for this award is defined as anyone you see as a mentor, facilitator, educator or leader in their field.  Note they do not have to be in management. 

Entrants or nominees must respond to the following questions:

• Transformational Leadership: evidence of how the PPES – Standard 6 Transformational Leadership is demonstrated and embedded by you in your workplace to foster a positive practice environment. (max. 250 words) 
• Shared Governance: evidence of how the PPES – Standard 4 Shared Governance and Decision-making is embedded by you in your workplace to demonstrate a positive practice environment through shared decision-making. (max. 250 words) 
• A description of any other activities you have undertaken to promote and imbed the PPES’s in your workplace. (max. 250 words) 

Entry requisites for this award:

• Must be a registrant of Ahpra (Enrolled Nurse, Registered Nurse, Nurse Practitioner or Midwife)
• Must not have previously won this award
• Must be a current financial QNMU member and membership must have been held for minimum 12 months prior to application
• Cannot be an employed QNMU staff member or Councillor in the previous 12 months prior to date applications open 
• Cannot be a first-degree relative of a QNMU staff member or Councillor 
• Finalists must commit to attending the QNMU Nursing and Midwifery Excellence Awards ceremony in Brisbane on Thursday 25th July 2024 (funded by QNMU)
• Finalists must commit to participating in QNMU marketing or communications for the awards eg photo shoots, testimonials etc
• Winners must commit to providing written feedback to the QNMU council within three months of receiving their prize on how it was spent towards professional or personal development.

Example:  2022 Winner, Kelly Trudgeon

Kelly is Nursing Director, First Nations COVID-19 Response with the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Division, Queensland Health.

She is an experienced nurse leader with a key focus on First Nations health and First Nations health workforce development. In her role as Nursing Director, Kelly led discussions around developing the First Nations workforce and a strategic plan to address health equity. This began with identifying a need to develop a dedicated First Nations vaccination clinic for the COVID-19 vaccination program, and escalating concerns around the system not accommodating a vulnerable sector of the community. She advocated and led the implementation of such a clinic at Redcliffe Hospital.

Kelly’s role also allowed her to act as a voice for all nurses and midwives by connecting with key stakeholders, including Clinical Excellence Queensland, Queensland Aboriginal and Islander Health Council, state and federal government departments, tertiary educational institutions, and the QNMU.  

Kelly often speaks at national and state forums for nurses and midwives, including the Rural and Remote Clinical Network and Cancer Nurses Society of Australia, on the work she has done to advocate for the First Nations workforce during COVID-19. She also speaks about the importance of consulting on cultural capability and developing culturally accepted care.