WellChild Nurse Laura wins prestigious Nursing Award
Congratulations to WellChild Nurse Laura Truscott-Wright who has won a major nursing award.
Laura, who is WellChild Parent Trainer Nurse at Cardiff and Vale University Health Board is the winner of The Suzanne Goodall Paediatric Nursing Award.
The award, given in the Royal College of Nursing Wales, Nurse of the Year Awards, aims to recognise a Registered Children’s Nurse who has made an outstanding contribution to the care of children or young people with a lifelong or life-limiting illness.
The award celebrates the achievements of paediatric nurses who play a key role in assessing children’s nursing and other healthcare needs, taking into account their medical, social, cultural and family circumstances. Paediatric nurses plan and deliver care in a variety of settings, within hospitals and in the wider community. In addition to supporting children and young people, paediatric nurses work with families as part of a multidisciplinary team.
Laura is a dedicated and compassionate paediatric nurse who began her career at Great Ormond Street Hospital after graduating from the University of Glamorgan. She later became a Practice Facilitator in Neurosciences and continued her professional development through undertaking Masters Level Modules at London South Bank University, in addition to completing specialist courses in Mentorship, Neurosciences and High Dependency Care. She achieved her Post Graduate Certificate in Practice Education in 2019, becoming an NMC Teacher.
When the WellChild Parent Trainer post was advertised at Cardiff and Vale University Health Board, Laura felt it was her dream job. She feels honoured to be supporting families in their journey from hospital to home, and it brings her joy to see families grow in confidence and develop competence in complex clinical skills.
WellChild Chief Executive Colin Dyer said: “Congratulations to Laura on this incredible achievement of winning The Suzanne Goodall Paediatric Nursing Award. At WellChild we are incredibly proud of all our nurses up and down the UK who are making a difference for complex needs children and their families every day. Laura’s achievement is a fantastic recognition of the work she does supporting parents and carers and teaching them the skills they need.”
Laura’s achievement is a fantastic recognition of the work she does supporting parents and carers and teaching them the skills they need.”
The WellChild Nurses’ programme was established to address a clear gap in the provision of care and support for children with long-term serious illness and complex conditions. In addition to keeping families together and benefitting a child’s development, it is often more cost efficient to care for a child at home than in hospital. The aim of clinical skills training for parents and carers is to supportively nurture their competence and confidence in caring for their child and thus support early discharge from hospital and prevent hospital readmission. The training aims to empower families and unpaid carers to provide safe and effective, evidenced based care for their child with complex and often changing medical needs.
