The Nurse of the Year Competition 2019 – XV edition Innovations of the year 2019 in the field of improving the quality of nursing care

The Nurse of the Year Competition has been organised by the Main Board of the Polish Nursing Association (PNA) and the Nursing Leaders’ Association since 2005. Every year, patronage over the Nurse of the Year Competition is provided by the Mini-ster of Health and the President of the Supreme Council of Nurses and Midwives, as well as key PNA partners in the field of heal-thcare.
The overriding goal of the competition was to select some of the innovations implemented in 2019 in the area of nursing practice or work organisation of nursing teams, which improve the quality of health services and patients’ safety.
These ideas had to be characterised by originality, with full copyright to the concept and the implemented solutions. Fur-thermore, the implemented solutions were required to be supported by evidence-based nursing practice (EBNP). The submit-ted innovations had to be more effective than the previous solutions and be verified by research or analytical methods.
Due to the fact that society, especially health care workers, has to function in a state of epidemic caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus, it was necessary to abandon the multi-stage convention of the competition, and the winners were selected only on the basis of the evaluation of the competition projects by the Competition Jury, consisting of the following people: Greta Kanownik, RN, PhD – Director of the Department of Nurses and Midwives in the Ministry of Health, Zofia Małas, RN, MSc – President of the Main Chamber of Nurses and Midwives, Krystyna Ptok, RN, MSc – Chairperson of the National Trade Union of Nurses and Midwives, Alicja Szewczyk, RN, MSc – President of the Polish Federation of Education in Diabetology, Barbara Jobda, RN, MSc – President of the Polish Association of Oncological Nurses, Iwona Mazur, PhD – President of the Association of Healthcare Managers, Stanisław Maćkowiak, MSc – President of the Federation of Polish Patients, Grażyna Wójcik, RN, PhD – President of the Main Board of the Polish Nurses Association, Anna Andruszkiewicz, RN, PhD – Secreta-ry of the Main Board of the Polish Nursing Society, and Bożena Gorzkowicz, RN, PhD – a member of the Main Board of the PNA and a Chairperson of the Competition Committee responsible for the proper conduct of the assessment.
The substantive evaluation of the applications was carried out according to strictly defined criteria taking into account the following: the novelty of the project in relation to the already functioning solutions in nursing in Poland and in the world, fo-cusing on the EBNP, the importance of the project for nursing care recipients, the involvement of external partners in the pro-ject, the organisation and determinants of the implementation process, and evaluation of the project’s advancement.
In the 15th edition of the Nurse of the Year Competition 2019, 17 innovative projects were submitted, and after a formal eva-luation all of them were qualified to the final stages of the competition. A list of all the competition projects can be found on the Polish Nursing Association website: https://www.ptp.net.pl/projekty-finalowe-xv-edycji-konkursu-pielegniarka-roku/.
After summing up the evaluations of the Competition Jury, the following winners were selected:
First place and the title of the Nurse of the Year 2019 went to Marta Strzelbicka with Jakub Anweiler as a member of the team, representing the Independent Public Clinical Hospital No. 2 PMU in Szczecin and implementing the following innova-tion Implementation of clinical-receptive music therapy in patients treated in the Department of Anaesthesiology, Intensive Care, and Acute Poisoning of the Independent Public Clinical Hospital No. 2 Pomeranian Medical University in Szczecin.
Second place was taken by Beata Wieczorek-Wójcik with her team, representing the Specialist Hospital of Florian Ceynowy in Wejherowo. The topic of the innovation was Standardisation of nursing care using the International Classification of Nursing Practice ICNP®.
Third place went to Ewelina Podogrocka with her team, representing the Private Health Care Centre – “Dom-Med” Family Clinic in Jelnia implementing innovation Coordination of care for a chronically ill patient in the home environment as part of cooperation between Basic Health Care and Long-Term Nursing Care.
The Special Award of the President of the Main Board of the Polish Nursing Society went to Mirosława Młynarczuk with her team, representing the Central Clinical Hospital of the Medical University of Warsaw for the following innovation: Deve-lopment of innovative methods of treatment and care for a diabetic patient with diabetic foot syndrome.
The distinction of the Association of Health Care Managers STOMOZ was awarded to Halina Wysocka with her team, re-presenting the Specialist Psychiatric Independent Public Health Care Centre in Suwałki for the project The nurse as a therapy coordinator.
The award of the President of the National Trade Union of Nurses and Midwives was given to Anna Kamińska with her te-am, representing the University Hospital in Krakow for the project Centre for assistance and treatment of patients with motor neuron disease.
The distinction of the Federation of Polish Patients was given to Mirosława Młynarczuk with her team, representing the Central Clinical Hospital of the Medical University of Warsaw for the innovation Development of innovative methods of tre-atment and care for a diabetic patient with diabetic foot syndrome.
Special prizes for the winners of the Nurse of the Year Competition 2019 were funded by the Supreme Council of Nurses and Midwives.
I would like to congratulate all the participants and invite you to share your activities in the coming years.