Richard Broadbent comes ‘highly commended’ at Awards
Richard accepted his award from presenter for the evening Angela Rippon, who took a special interest in his achievements having nursed her Mother through dementia.
Thu, 26 Apr 2012 11:14:00 BST
Third year Mental Health Nursing student Richard Broadbent was one of only two people out of 10 categories to receive a ‘highly commended’ award at the Nursing Standard Nurse Awards on 22 March 2012. The event, which took place in London, brought together nursing professionals, academics and students to celebrate excellent practice within the nursing profession.
Richard attended the awards as a finalist in the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) Fellows Student Nurse Award category, which recognises pre-registration students whose nursing practice, perceptions or interactions with patients have changed as a result of an incident or experience during training. He was nominated by a manager during a work placement completed as an integral part of his course, and was selected as runner-up in the category for his contributions to promoting dementia awareness and his dedication to improving the care and treatment of elderly dementia sufferers and their families.
Particular mention went to Richard’s innovation in the application of ‘life story’ work during his placement, which is designed to promote individualised care for people with dementia by reviewing and evaluating the patient’s past and present life, with the aim of using their life story to encourage positive focus and help build therapeutic relationships between staff, patients and carers.
Richard posed with Angela Rippon and Nursing Standard Publishing editor in chief Jean Grey.
Dame Christine Beesly, Chief Nursing Officer for England, commented that she had ‘faith in the future of nursing’ given the high calibre of the nursing student finalists at the event. The future certainly looks bright for Richard, who has already been approached by a variety of people from within nursing and professional organisations with requests for interviews, and by the RCN with a view to undertaking some work with them determining students’ views on meeting the care needs of people with dementia. He can also look forward to a meeting with Prime Minister David Cameron, along with his fellow student finalist, to discuss health issues as part of the award.
Richard himself plans to further his career in his chosen field, saying; “dementia is a degenerative disease. There is no way of curing it, but we can slow it down. We help with the carers as well by giving them our support”. After graduation his aim is to work in the field for several years, both in hospitals and the community, before embarking on PhD research into his speciality.
Michaela Dyson, Senior Lecturer for Mental Health Nursing at the University added “the mental health teaching team are extremely proud of Richards’s achievements and the example he is setting for future nursing students entering into this profession”.
