Celebrating Queen’s Nurses Achievements and Impact
Read more about the achievements of Queen’s Nurses and the impact they have had on community nursing.
November 2025
- Queen’s Nurse Pamela Shaw, Workforce Development and Resilience Lead Nurse, Public Health Nursing Children’s service at Bradford District Care NHS Foundation Trust’s 6-month Reciprocal Mentoring Programme has been featured nationally by NHS Employers as a best-practice case study in inclusive leadership and highlighted in the King’s Fund Sharing Learning bulletin. This recognition reflects the programme’s positive impact—enhancing confidence, visibility, and progression for staff from underrepresented groups, while strengthening inclusive leadership across the Trust.
October 2025
- Queen’s Nurse Dr Crystal Oldman CBE, who led the QICN for 13 years, was awarded the Chief Nursing Officers’ Award for Lifetime Achievement at the Nursing Times Awards 2025.
For almost a third of my career until just 4 months ago, I led the Queen’s Institute of Community Nursing and I can confidently say that nurses who work in the community and primary care in all roles, in health and in social care, are now more visible and recognised than ever before and their impact is now truly known at the policy table.
Never stop learning. Remain curious. Support all your colleagues to be the best nurses they can be. Lift up your nursing colleagues as you climb. Address racist systems and racist behaviours. Treat everyone you work with, and every person you serve as a nurse, with unconditional positive regard. Be kind. Have fun.
Dr Crystal Oldman CBE, QN (excerpts from acceptance speech)- Queen’s Nurse Teresa O’Nwere-Tan, an advanced nurse practitioner from Nexus Health Group and NHS South East London Integrated Care Board, won the coveted Nurse of the Year award at the Nursing Times Awards 2025. The judges described her as a vibrant, dedicated nurse who’s innovative, community-based work has reduced hospital admissions and improved cardiovascular health. Her heritage-informed and lived experience approach engages hard-to-reach, diverse groups, focusing on preventative care. Judges said she was a passionate, humble leader and an inspirational, excellent role model for nursing.
- North Cumbria Integrated Care NHS Foundation Trust, a QICN Organisational Member, won the award for ‘Outstanding Care Across Non-Acute Settings’ for their work on ‘Empowering Community Nursing through eCommunity’ at the RLDatix Awards. Queen’s Nurses Salli Pilcher, Gemma Kerr-Moonie and Rebecca Simpson collected the award.
It was such a proud moment to win the RLDatix award for Empowering Community Nursing through eCommunity on behalf of all of our community teams and organisation. We can now demonstrate and articulate what community nurses, AHPs and health care support workers do on a daily basis in people’s homes and our local communities in North Cumbria, often work that is invisible, but not now - we can celebrate and add value to their work.
We can also measure work not done, deferred care (corridor care in the community) and start to address this with effective, data rich, workforce planning and conversations with commissioners. As a Queen’s Nurse it’s so important that we continue to strive for excellence and raise the profile and value of what we do for patients in their homes.
Salli Pilcher QN
Clockwise from Top Left: Dr Crystal Oldman CBE; Salli Pilcher and QN colleagues; NCIC's Award; Teresa O’Nwere-Tan- Queen’s Nurse Sharon Prendergast recently featured in a video for Parkinson’s UK which focused on her work as a Parkinson’s specialist nurse and the charity’s Nurse Appeal. It featured Sharon alongside one of her patients in their garden, which he and his wife open for the National Garden Scheme. You can watch the video here.
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Rachael Skates QN and colleagues at South East Coast Ambulance NHS Foundation Trust recently won an IPS Impact Award for their A-Z app – a tool bringing up to date IPC information to staff’s fingertips.
- Queen’s Nurse Charlene Johal, a Lead Matron and Clinical Lead, was invited to be involved in an exhibition at Nottingham Castle called “Lives in Motion” about Migration in the UK since the 11th century to the present day, and how migration has contributed to the UK. Charlene was asked to be involved as nurse with parents from Indian and Jamaican backgrounds, as a QN and a Nottingham CityCare nurse. The exhibition is touring the UK. It is in conjunction with the National Portrait Gallery in London.
Taking part in Lives in Motion allowed me to represent nurses from diverse, multicultural, and migrant backgrounds who play such an important role in healthcare across the UK.
Charlene Johal QN- Queen’s Nurse and Community Children’s Matron Becks Daniels completed the Royal Parks Half Marathon in October as part of her ’12 in 12′ challenge. Becks, who leads the QICN’s Community Children’s Nurse Network, has undertaken a physical challenge in every month on 2025 to raise money for the QICN’s Support for Nurses programme. This has included running the London marathon and 3 half marathons, 1 half marathon walking challenge, 2 open water swims, and daily squat, plank and exercise challenges!
Clockwise from Top Left: Rachael Skates; Charlene Johal; Sharon Prendergast; Becks DanielsSearch our online resources
We have many kinds of resources available online for nurses working in the community.
