Deserving Sunderland nurse gets royal honour with new appointment

Karen Davies is a clinical team manager based at Bunny Hill Primary Care Centre in Sunderland, where she works as part of the South Tyneside and Sunderland NHS Foundation Trust.

After years of dedication, she has been accepted into the The Queen’s Nursing Institute.

Karen can now use the title Queen’s Nurse (QN) after being accepted to the programme, which supports community nurses as they develop their professional skills and “deliver outstanding patient care.”

The honour will officially be conveyed in London in November, where she will receive her QN badge.

She will be accompanied by her friend Angela Weeks, a clinical nurse practitioner, who works part-time in the Trust in its Covid clinic and has also been appointed as a Queen’s Nurse.

Karen began working in community nursing in 2006.

The next year she completed her independent nurse prescribing skills.

This role was an innovation within the Trust and allowed Karen to assess, treat, diagnose and prescribe for patients with long-term conditions.

This paved the way for the fragility team which now cares for people in their own homes, as well as care homes.

Karen has been in her current role of clinical team manager since 2018 and had previously been based in the Coalfields area of Sunderland, before moving to Bunny Hill in 2022.

“I was absolutely delighted to receive the email informing me I had been successful,” she said.

“I’m very grateful to my managers and peers who submitted lengthy accounts in order to support my application.

“I applied to be a Queen’s Nurse as it embodies my career in the community. It is awarded to someone who is committed to high standards of practice and person-centred care.

“It’s also an acknowledgement that the nurse has made an exceptional contribution to patient care and the nursing profession in the community.

“Being a Queen’s Nurse is being committed to ensuring and promoting diversity, equality, inclusiveness and respecting and valuing everyone, all of the values I hold as a nurse manager within our Trust.”

Diane Palmer, deputy director of nursing for the Trust, said: “It is fabulous news that Karen has been successful in her application to become a Queen’s Nurse.

“Nursing is a career which offers so much opportunity to learn and develop, as well as variety, as we care for patients. As a Trust, we’re always encouraging our teams to learn and grow.

“We congratulate Karen for her dedication and we know it will be a proud moment when she receives her badge.”

The title of Queen’s Nurse is available to nurses who have shown “a high level of commitment to patient care and nursing practice.”

Nurses, health visitors and midwives with five years’ experience working in the community, primary care or in social care are eligible to apply.

In addition to the formal recognition the title brings, those who are accepted can benefit through networks, access a free developmental programme and bursaries, join in an annual meeting and take up learning and leadership opportunities.

More about the programme can be found through https://qni.org.uk/nursing-in-the-community/queens-nurses/

For more information about nursing and other vacancies with the Trust, visit the Join Our Team section of its website:https://www.stsft.nhs.uk/join-our-team