CLCH homeless health nurse triumphs at RCNi Nurse Awards
Rosa Ungpakorn, from CLCH's homeless health service in Westminster has won the Advanced Nurse Practitioner category for the Westminster Street Nurse project at the Royal College of Nursing Institute (RCNi) Nurse Awards 2020.
The awards were due to take place in July but were postponed while nurses focused on their patients and colleagues during the pandemic.
Rosa’s research involved designing and leading the Westminster street nurse project, delivering on-the-spot advanced nursing care – clinical assessments, diagnosis and treatment – directly to the most vulnerable homeless people.
Despite having no additional funding, the project has seen a 400% increase in the number of patients seen on street outreach, 80% of whom had not been accessing in-reach services.
Rosa said: “I’m very proud to have won the award especially the advanced nurse practitioner category. as I feel it’s so important in homeless healthcare. Advanced clinical practice enables us to work across clinical care, leadership, education and research to provide the best possible care for the homeless community, influence improvements in this specialist area and educate others in the NHS.
"A huge thank you to all the amazing nurses and partners that have made Westminster Street Nurse a success and the experts by experience of homelessness, who helped me design the service.”
Mary Makarau, a specialist HIV nurse from CLCH was also one of 76 finalists, narrowed down from an enormous 700 nominations for the Patient’s Choice award.
This isn’t the first time Mary has been recognised by her patients. She won the patient award category at the CLCH staff awards in 2019 for her invaluable support for people living with HIV in the community.
Charlie Sheldon, Chief Nurse at CLCH said: “Huge congratulations to both Rosa and Mary - it’s fantastic to see the impact of their work being recognised nationally. They are a credit to their services and CLCH.”
