New Queen's Nurse For Dundee

                                                                                                                         Friday November 26 2021

A DUNDEE Parish Nurse has become an elite Queen's Nurse after an awards ceremony earlier this week.

Kirsty Nelson, a full-time Parish Nurse with the team at the Steeple Church in Dundee, was awarded her Queen's Nursing Institute Scotland certificate at a ceremony held at the Sheraton Grand Hotel in Edinburgh on Wednesday evening.

The selected nurses received the honour of being made Queen’s Nurse – a title which lapsed for several years before the awards were reintroduced to Scotland in 2017.

Nurses are selected as a result of employer nomination, and subsequent panel interviews.

Each nurse then goes on to take part in a nine-month development programme run by the Queen’s Nursing Institute Scotland (QNIS) for their clinical expertise and compassionate care. 

This year’s cohort participated in a week-long residential workshop, two further workshops, coaching sessions, and had the opportunity to select a specific issue for development which they believe will have significant impact on the very people they care for in the community.

At Wednesday’s formal ceremony, each nurse received a Queen’s Nurse badge, designed by Silversmiths Ortak, a certificate signed by QNIS Patron HM The Queen, and a specially commissioned Harris Tweed sash or tie.

Barbara MacFarlane was at the ceremony to watch the newest of the Steeple Church’s parish nurses collect her award.

She explained: “It was really joyful to be together with lots of other 'Queen’s Nurses, known affectionately as ’Queenies’, celebrating their individual and collective achievements.

“There are now 120 new Queen's Nurses from all around Scotland. All are truly outstanding in their specialities as community Nurses, specially throughout the Covid pandemic.”

Kirsty has made a major contribution to the work of the parish nursing team at the Steeple since becoming a 'full-timer" in June this year. She’s been helping the development of the Dundee Recovery Road Map app, and developing care for our community.

The award citation tells of her "empowering those who are marginalised and stigmatised so that they can take control of their own recovery".

This now means that Kirsty, Rachel McReady and Barbara MacFarlane, the three Dundee parish nurses, are all Queen's Nurses.

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Post Tags: Parish Nurses, Dundee Steeple Church

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