A student who was inspired to become a nurse after almost dying of a deadly infection has reached the finals of a search for Britain’s best young nurses.
Katie Dutton contracted sepsis in 2015 and was given just a 15% chance of survival – but beat the odds and has now dedicated herself to raising awareness of sepsis among fellow students.
Katie, a student nurse at De Montfort University Leicester (DMU) organised a Sepsis Champions event featuring expert talks from the emergency care team at Leicester Royal Infirmary, and DMU lecturers. She also shared her own story to help more nurses to recognise the early warning signs of the infection.
Her work has now seen her announced a finalist in the 2018 Royal College of Nursing Nurse Awards, the UK’s most prestigious nursing accolades which will be presented by TV’s Kate Garraway on July 4.
The RCNi Nurse Awards identify and celebrate nurses who, every day, go above and beyond to save lives, provide outstanding care for patients and transform nursing practice for the better.
She said: “What I love most is the RCNi’s commitment to their finalists’ projects, and how much work they do to spread awareness of the projects across the UK. At a time of crisis in the nursing profession, it is incredibly important to share positive stories of the work nurses (and student nurses) do.
“It is overwhelming and such an honour to be an RCNi awards finalist, especially so early on in my nursing career. To be in the final five for the student category is incredible and having the opportunity to network with the other finalists is very inspiring. The award is in memory of Andrew Parker, an RCN activist, who was always so encouraging of student nurses. I hope our projects this year will make Andrew Parker and his family proud.
“The Sepsis Champions event has opened many opportunities for nursing education. I’m currently in talks with Edinburgh, Leeds, Salford and Birmingham nursing students about running a similar sepsis event at their universities, with the goal of improving knowledge and understanding of sepsis for practice, which will hopefully improve patient safety and outcomes.”
Katie’s pioneering educative events feature expert talks and sepsis checklists for students. They have received overwhelming interest and have been extended to other universities across the country. Katie’s career goal is to spread awareness for sepsis and educate nurses throughout the UK.
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Rachel Armitage, managing director at RCNi, said: “The RCNi panel of professional judges voted Katie as a finalist because of her incredible story and her determination to raise awareness for sepsis diagnosis in the healthcare industry. With the nursing shortage high on the national agenda, it’s important that we give nurses like Katie the recognition they deserve, and we look forward to celebrating her work at the awards in July.”
The hunt for Britain’s nursing heroes started back in December 2017, led by Good Morning Britain presenter Kate Garraway, and will culminate in a glamorous awards ceremony on July 4 in London.
Nurses were able to nominate themselves or their colleagues across 14 different categories ranging from Mental Health and Cancer, to Emergency and Student Nursing.
Kate Garraway, RCNi Nurse Awards Ambassador 2018, said: “The 2018 RCNi Nurse Award Finalists are all incredible. So often nurses don’t get the recognition they deserve and I can’t wait to celebrate their hard work and dedication at the ceremony in July – if it was up to me I’d crown them all as winners.”
This year saw the most nominations ever made in the awards’ 31-year history. A panel of judges whittled down more than 700 entries into just five inspirational finalists for each award category.
Posted on Friday 1 June 2018