Page 28 - QARANC Vol 16 No 2 2018

26 QARANC THE GAZETTE
Royal College of Nursing Northern Ireland Nurse of the Year Awards 2018
The RCN NI Nurse of the Year Awards took place at the Culloden Hotel, Hollywood on 7 June 2018. The awards celebrate excellence in nursing in NI as well as highlighting some of the achievements and innovations within nursing locally.
The RCN Defence Nursing Reservist award was presented to Captain Nicola Dunlop who is a registered nurse (fertility specialist nurse) with Belfast Health and Social Care Trust, and serves as clinical training officer and nursing officer with 253 Medical Regiment.
During her period of full-time reserve service Captain Dunlop set up training specifically for nurses and ensured access to specific clinical courses and study days. She also set up real life support services for the Nijmegen
International Marches in 2017, and her hard work and organisation skills ensured all 65 members of the medical team were competent and able to deliver gold-standard care. As well as developing policy and clinical aide memoirs, she led her own small team of five nurses focusing on governance, and infection prevention and control.
Captain Dunlop has also deployed as a reservist delivering care to soldiers on exercise in Canada, Cyprus and Kenya. In 2015 she became Deputy Lead NI of the Defence Nursing Network. She was described at the awards as a true inspiration and the epitome of what it takes to be a reserve nurse, performing above expectations and displaying exemplary standards.
Corporal Christopher Finnegan
was runner-up in the Defence Nurse Reservist award. He joined 204 Field Hospital in January 2016, and has demonstrated dedication and commitment to his unit through his dependability and attendance on courses and exercises, while holding down a demanding full-time job as an emergency department nurse.
He has undertaken courses in life support, paediatric life support, burns management and major incident management amongst others. These courses have given him the knowledge and skills to practice at a higher level and additionally he is able to bring this to his day job at the Royal Victoria Hospital.
When he deployed on Exercise Sabre Guardian in Romania, he
Invited Guests and nominees from the medical units in Northern Ireland