Medical professionals from across Northern Ireland were honoured at the Royal College of Nursing Northern Ireland Nurse of the Year Awards, held at the Culloden Hotel. Among the winners was Gary Mitchell, a postgraduate education director from Comber, who jointly received the Learning in Practice Award with Kieran McCormick from Belfast.

The award, sponsored by the Open University, recognised their leadership of the 'Ambition to Success' programme, an initiative that provides nursing and midwifery students with workshops, mentorship and hands-on learning beyond the formal curriculum. The programme has been credited with delivering measurable benefits for patients and the future healthcare workforce, according to their nominator.

Several other staff from the South Eastern Health and Social Care Trust also received awards. Mary Jo Thompson, assistant director of cancer, won the Directors of Nursing Award for her role in co-leading service improvements, including the development of a new chemotherapy unit at the Ulster Hospital. Jill Kennedy, a sarcoma clinical nurse specialist, took the Cancer Nurse Award for establishing a specialist service that has improved patient access and care. Jacqueline Kennedy, a support worker in the Macmillan Unit at the Ulster Hospital, was runner-up in the Health Care Support Worker Award for her compassionate support of cancer patients and their families.

Amanda Brown and Carrie Hemsley, specialist community public health nurses in the same trust, were commended in the overall Northern Ireland Nurse of the Year category for introducing school drop-in clinics and a health champion model to support young people's health and wellbeing. The judging panel praised their work as an example of neighbourhood healthcare aligned with the region's health transformation goals.

The overall RCN Northern Ireland Nurse of the Year Award went to Linda Hamilton, a paediatric ophthalmology manager at the Belfast Trust, for her work in improving eye care for premature babies.