Northern Ireland Nurse of the Year announced

Published: 15 June 2012

Claire Galloway has won the RCN Northern Ireland Nurse of the Year Award 2012.

Claire, a clinical lead nurse for sexual health with the Northern Health and Social Care Trust, fought off competition from five other finalists to receive the award for transforming and modernising the trust’s sexual health service, improving its performance, and increasing patients’ access to it.

The judging panel for the award praised Claire for “going where others don’t want to go” and considered her project to be “a service improvement of major significance that promotes higher standards of care for patients.”

RCN Northern Ireland Director Janice Smyth said: “Sexual infections in Northern Ireland have risen dramatically over the past few years, particularly among young people. Through her vision and ambition to drive forward change, Claire has turned around a service that now meets the needs of the people who use it.”

Mabel McFall, a peripatetic ward manager with the day surgery unit in the Northern Health and Social Care Trust, was runner-up.