University of Hull lecturers' achievements in public health and education recognised with prestigious nursing award

The exceptional achievements of two University of Hull nursing lecturers have been recognised with a prestigious award.

The NHS England Chief Nursing Officer’s Silver Award has been presented to Lizzie Ette and Victoria Hewson for their outstanding services to nursing, in public health and education.

The Chief Nursing Officer, Dame Ruth May, recognises exceptional contributions to nursing practice and the enormous range of skills, expertise, and enduring compassion that modern nursing represents. The awards celebrate nurses who go above and beyond their everyday roles to provide excellent care, leadership and inspiration to their colleagues and patients.

Lizzie Ette, who has been a nursing lecturer in the University’s Faculty of Health Sciences for 8 years and is currently undertaking a PhD, said: “What an honour it is to receive this award. Nurses typically go above and beyond their roles and responsibilities each and every day without much thought, so to be recognised at a national level for having done so is very rewarding indeed!

“Modern nursing is so much more than how history and culture sometimes portrays it to be, and it is inspiring to me, and the students I support in their journey to the NMC register, to see the wider achievements of nursing being celebrated.”

Victoria Hewson, Senior Lecturer and Fellow of Advanced HE in the Faculty of Health Sciences, said: “I feel very privileged to be receiving this award and would like to acknowledge the hard work and support of colleagues who have worked with me to promote and embed All Our Health within our health programmes. I am particularly pleased that the University of Hull is playing a significant role in supporting the next generation of nurses.”

All Our Health is a framework of evidence to guide healthcare professionals in preventing illness, protecting health and promoting wellbeing. It is a call to action for all healthcare professionals to use their skills and relationships to maximise their impact on avoidable illness, health protection and promotion of wellbeing and resilience. The framework includes an interactive set of continuing professional development e-learning resources that are available to increase the knowledge, confidence and skills of all healthcare, students, apprentices and professionals, in embedding prevention in their day-to-day practice.

Professor Paul Hagan, the Dean of the Faculty of Health Sciences, said: “Both Victoria and Lizzie serve as role models for our staff and students. The Chief Nursing Officers Silver Award recognises their achievements and will support them as they continue in their roles as ambassadors – to raise the profile of the nursing profession both in the public arena and within the workplace with staff, students and colleagues to help improve and transform the perception of the nursing and midwifery professions.”

Over the last couple of years, the University of Hull has worked intensively to embed the All Our Health resources into undergraduate curriculum for health and medical programmes with the aim to upskill the future health and care workforce in their knowledge, skills and relationships to prevent illness, protect health and promote wellbeing.

The impact of this work over the last two years has resulted in high numbers of undergraduate health students/apprentices across academic programmes developing their learning around promoting health and preventing ill health enabling them to apply this to their placement and to future practice upon qualification as a professionally registered practitioner.

Nursing careers

Lizzie is an NMC registered nurse, health visitor and non-medical prescriber. She holds NMC Registered Teacher status and is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy. She worked for 27 years in the NHS, with 23 years experience of being a health visitor, becoming a lecturer in nursing in 2015, fulfilling her long-held ambition to promote and support learning, and to share her passion for caring, health and wellbeing. Lizzie has extensive experience of staff development and training gained throughout her NHS career. Her PhD is in Breastfeeding and the impact of settings.

Victoria began her career in academia at the University in 2004 and has a wealth of professional and academic experience specifically in undergraduate and Apprenticeship education.

Victoria’s academic focus in recent years is the development of degree apprenticeships following the UK Government’s drive to implement degree apprenticeships within a higher education setting. She has a wide range of experience in curriculum development, internal and external Quality Assurance relating to undergraduate education and higher and degree Apprenticeships. Victoria also has significant experience in strategic leadership and management evidenced by her most recent role as Head of Department (Nursing).

Victoria continues to be a registered Dental Care Professional with research and scholarship outputs and interests in oral health, mouth care, promoting health and preventing ill health.

The awards were presented to Lizzie and Vicky by Professor Jamie Waterall, Deputy Chief Public Health Nurse at the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities, which forms part of the Department of Health and Social Care in England.

The silver award recognises:

• Performance that goes above and beyond the expectations of the everyday role that a nurse is expected to perform in their current role.
• Nurses who demonstrate excellence in clinical practice; education, research, patient and carer experience, leadership, tackling diversity and health inequalities.
• Demonstrates leadership in the development of services for patients resulting in improvement of service provision performance.
• Provides consistently outstanding care which is recognised by a patient or service user and colleagues.
• Champions diversity and inclusion in clinical practice and with colleagues.
• Demonstrates clinical leadership in their area of practice, this can be evidenced in leading teams or delivery of care.