Two Glasgow City Health and Social Care Partnership (HSCP) nurses have recently begun the prestigious Queen’s Nursing Institute Scotland (QNIS) development programme. 

The QNIS is a charitable organisation that has been promoting excellence in community nursing to improve the health and wellbeing of the people of Scotland since 1889. Their aim is to equip nurses with the education, skills and confidence they need to help people achieve better health and wellbeing, as well as championing nurses as advocates for quality health and care needs. 

Lorraine Daly and Elizabeth Briody are two out of the twenty nurses selected from the whole of Scotland for the QNIS development programme. Lorraine is a Mental Health Nurse Team Leader in the newly launched Complex Needs Service and Elizabeth works as a Clinical Nurse Specialist in the LAC Vulnerability Health Team. 

Every year, our HSCP nominates nurses to the QNIS development programme for demonstrating high quality compassionate care. Lorraine and Elizabeth’s nominations were approved by the Chief Nurse and they then completed a written application and were chosen to go forward with the programme after attending a selection event where they impressed a panel of nursing leaders.
The programme consists of a weeklong residential, that involves masterclasses, small group learning and conversations with inspirational leaders. After attending two further workshops over the year they will be presented with their Queen’s Nurse Award. The QNIS programme seeks to strengthen the nurse’s skills, build on their knowledge and widen their professional networks. 

As part of the programme, each nurse commits to developing an issue that will have an impact on their practice and benefit their community. Elizabeth, who works with care experienced young people chose to focus on keeping ‘The Promise’. The Promise is Scotland’s commitment made to care experienced infants, children, young people, adults and their families that every child grows up loved, safe and respected and able to realise their full potential. She said: “I’m really focusing on how I can help our team ensure that we keep our Promise as we continue to develop and implement the review of our nursing processes to the benefit of our young people in Glasgow.”

Lorraine works as our HSCP’s Homelessness Services Mental Health Nurse Team Leader and her development project will focus on developing the mental health aspect of the Complex Needs Service. She said: “I’m trying to develop a more streamlined mental health response within the service for people with multiple health and social care needs and I’m hoping to use all this new knowledge and bring it back to my team.”

Dr Julia Egan, Chief Nurse, Glasgow City HSCP said: “It’s an incredible privilege to have two of our nurses be selected for the QNIS development programme. I look forward to hearing what Lorraine and Elizabeth have learned in their respective journeys and how we can apply that knowledge to our community nursing services in Glasgow.”