Student Nurse of the Year: Mental Health

This award celebrates the skills mental health student nurses need to develop to nurse this often hard-to-reach and excluded group. The judges will be looking for an outstanding final-student who offers excellent care and support to this group in treating or helping them to manage their mental health problems.

Stage one of the judging process involves judges shortlisting entries based solely on the information you have provided here, so please make sure your entry includes as much evidence as possible. In stage two, shortlisted entrants will present their entries to a panel of judges for deliberation on Tuesday 21st September. This is currently scheduled to be in-person in our London offices (as it was pre-pandemic). This second stage is subject to change in accordance with official guidance relating to Covid-19. In case the second stage which is in-person cannot take place, your entry will be judged by the information you submit therefore please include as much information as possible.

What are the judges looking for?

The judges are looking for an exceptional student nurse who can demonstrate excellence in the following:

• Interpersonal and communication skills and the ability to use them with service users/clients, and their families and carers
• An ability to act with compassion and empathy
• Active listening, responding and personalising care to meet service users’/clients’ needs
• Promoting and enabling social inclusion
• Academic achievement
• Acting as a role model for student nursing
• Team playing and an appreciation of the role of nursing within the wider multidisciplinary team
• Use of reflection and the confidence to question practice even if they may challenge others
• Understanding of the rationale behind evidence-based practice, treatment choices and care pathways

Please attach any supporting evidence to your application that you feel is relevant. This can include testimonials, mentor or university staff feedback or student evaluations or any other appropriate evidence.

Please note: you must be a final-year student on a mental health nursing pre-registration course when the awards take place in November 2021 or have graduated in the six months prior to this to enter this award.

Take a look at what our 2019 winner had to say about winning the award: