Welsh Nurses Gain RCN Highest Honour

Published: 22 April 2013

Nursing Honours Wales Professionals

The highest honour the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) can bestow, the RCN Fellowship, was awarded to two outstanding individuals from Wales on the first day of the RCN Annual Congress (Sunday 21st April 2013), this year in Liverpool.  

Professor Donna Mead OBE MStJ and Professor Maggie Kirk of the University of South Wales were awarded with Fellowships of the Royal College of Nursing (RCN). The RCN Fellowship is held by only six people in Wales including Professor Ruth Northway also of the University of South Wales.
 
Fellowships are prestigious awards presented to people who have shown exceptional contributions to the RCN and for pioneering work in nursing. They are awarded by peer nomination and review only.
 
Speaking about the award Professor Donna Mead OBE, Dean of the Faculty of Health, Sport and Science at the University said, “It is a great honour to be awarded this Fellowship. The University of South Wales is unique, in Wales if not further afield, in having three Fellows in the same institution.” 
 
Professor Maggie Kirk said, “It means a great deal to me that my peers nominated me for this Fellowship and that the RCN felt I was worthy of the award. I am very fortunate in that the excellent people I collaborate with, in the Genomics Policy Unit at the University of South Wales, and further afield, share my passion for trying to improve the healthcare experience of individuals and families affected by genetics, through education and research.”

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  For further information, interviews or illustrations please contact the RCN Media Office on 02920680732/ 07773 367707 OR tracy.lenzy@rcn.org.uk/jessica.davies@rcn.org.uk

The RCN is the largest professional body for qualified, registered nurses and nursing students with 400,000 members in the UK including over 24,000 in Wales.  The Royal College of Nursing represents nurses and nursing, promotes excellence in practice and shapes health policy.