RCN Honorary Fellowships

RCN Honorary Fellowships are awarded to nurses registered outside the UK of international repute and distinction, or to other individuals who have had a significant impact on nursing and health care.

This year's Honorary Fellows are Dame Carol Black, Baroness Cumberledge and Branka Rimac.

Dame Carol Black

Dame Carol Black, the National Director for Health and Work, a joint appointment at the Department of Health and Department of Work and Pensions, has had a significant impact in raising the profile of occupational health and occupational health nursing in particular. Her extensive knowledge and enabling style have brought about a change in awareness on many issues relating to the health and wellbeing of those at work.

Her review Working for a healthier tomorrow, commissioned by the government and published in 2008, was the first of its kind. Dame Carol worked closely with the RCN in the preparation of the report, which included a ground-breaking consensus statement signed by more than 30 health professional bodies. The report lays the ground for a major expansion and refocusing of occupational health services nationally and gives occupational health nurses a key opportunity to be part of a new era in the delivery of workplace health and wellbeing.

What sets Dame Carol apart from many of her peers, is her ability to gain the respect of her medical and nursing colleagues, civil servants and other professionals working to move the health and wellbeing agenda forward. A great advocate of the nursing profession, she has been a keynote speaker – and regular attendee – at RCN occupational health conferences.

Dame Carol is chair of the Nuffield Trust, President of the British Lung Foundation, Pro-Chancellor of the University of Bristol, and a Trustee of the National Portrait Gallery.  The immediate past president of the Royal College of Physicians, she has just stepped down as Chair of the Academy of Royal Colleges.     Trained as a rheumatologist, she has a special interest in connective tissue diseases and for many years ran the major clinical and basic research centre in Europe for scleroderma and related disorders at the Royal Free Hospital in Hampstead, where she was Professor of Rheumatology. She has received honorary degrees from several universities, and is a Foreign Affiliate of the Institute of Medicine, USA.

Baroness Cumberlege CBE

Baroness Cumberlege has earned a deserved reputation as a champion for nursing and midwifery over a long period of involvement in public life. Beginning early on as a local independent councillor, she moved into the health service as chairman of the Brighton Health Authority. This was followed by her appointment as chair of the South West Thames Regional Health Authority.

In 1983, the Conservative government announced a review of community nursing and invited her to lead the inquiry. Her resulting report supported RCN proposals of the development of nurse practitioners in primary care and that nurses should be allowed to prescribe certain drugs.

When the government rejected the proposals in her 1986 report, she continued to fight for them. Using her own money she ran a series of seminars and workshops around the UK to promote her ideas and encourage debate. Working with the RCN, she kept up the campaign for the next 20 years, using all her political skills and opportunities, until these proposals were implemented.

From 1988 to 1993 she was appointed to the United Kingdom Central Council for Nursing and Midwifery (UKCC) and was influential in developing Project 2000. Her 1993 report Changing Childbirth was a key review of NHS maternity care. Created a life peer in 1990, the RCN has continued to work closely with Baroness Cumberlege in older people’s services and services locally based for treating long-term conditions.

A Vice-President of the RCN, Baroness Cumberlege remains active in the House of Lords and regularly contributes to health debates and legislation.

Branka Rimac

An exceptional and inspiring figure, Branka Rimac is recognised internationally for her work in developing nursing, working for peace and pursuing equal opportunities for women in Croatia and other countries of former Yugoslavia. She is living proof of the work that nurses can do in the most difficult of circumstances.

Branka came to national prominence during the civil war in the 1990s when she took an active role in many initiatives which focused on the establishment of hospitals for isolated communities. This dangerous work was recently recognised with an award from the International Centre for Nursing Ethics.

When peace returned to the Balkans, Branka became increasingly active in the field of education and research. She pursued the nursing agenda in response to AIDS while others were deterred by religious considerations. As a woman of vision, she recognised the need to draw on the resources and expertise of the international community, despite nationalist pressures.

Her contribution to the development of nursing was recognised by her professional colleagues when she was elected President of the Croatian Nurses Association in 2004 and again in 2008. More recently, Branka was elected to the European Federation of Nurses’ Association Executive Committee.

She has always seen the development of nursing as part of the wider agenda to achieve proper recognition for women in Croatian society and has become the first non-parliamentarian to be appointed to the Parliamentary Committee for Gender Equality. Nursing still struggles to establish itself in the university sector, but as a result of her tireless devotion to this cause, the University of Zagreb and the Catholic University are working with her to establish nursing departments for the first time.