Care award for Gordon’s Kerry

SBBN Kerry from Gordon (dark hair) with personal development tutor Liz Brodie, care award at graduation

Kerry Hayward, 29, received the prestigious Simon Pullin Award - an honour established by the university to recognise the human side of nursing and midwifery – at her graduation ceremony on Wednesday, October 28.

Kerry, a BN mental health graduate, was presented with the award along with Siobhain Leith, from Ellon, Aberdeenshire.

Kerry was delighted to receive her award, which recognised her work on a placement on a mental health ward at the Borders General Hospital.

She said: “I am thrilled to be recognised.

“My nomination related to a placement on an acute mental health in-patient ward at Borders General Hospital where I did some work with someone who was acutely unwell and had been for some time.”

The placement obviously proved Kerry’s suitability for the role.

She added, last week: “I am now back on the ward working on a fixed-term contract which is great because it was the placement which I enjoyed most of all.”

Edinburgh Napier’s Dr Stephen Smith, who is Lead Nurse in Compassionate Care, said: “Siobhain and Kerry are very worthy winners of the Simon Pullin Award.

“They have both shown outstanding person-centred compassionate skills.

“At Edinburgh Napier we strive to ensure our nurses and midwives receive the very best clinical training.

“But it is also crucial for our graduates to develop an understanding of the needs of individual patients and their relatives and what is important to them while they are receiving health care.”

The award was created in memory of Senior Nurse Simon Pullin.

Simon played a key role in Edinburgh Napier’s Compassionate Care Programme up until his death from cancer in July 2011.

The programme encourages nursing and midwifery students to go further than just looking after the health of the patient.

In doing this, the Pullin Awards emphasise the various benefits of responding to needs not necessarily related to illness.

This can be ensuring patients have the privacy they need or responding to the small things that make a real difference when patients are feeling vulnerable.

The new bachelor of Midwifery graduate Siobhain, 21, and fellow graduate Kerry, also received £250 prize money each, in their graduation ceremony at Edinburgh’s Usher Hall.