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Nursing and midwifery staff are inspiring excellence on a daily basis with innovative practice and clinical research leading to positive change for patients, service users and colleagues.

Open to registered nurses and midwives who have improved the care of people through innovation, research and transformation, this award aims to recognise those who have influenced change with a measurable impact on outcomes and/or experience.

Who could be nominated?

Nurses or midwives working in research, service transformation or who have introduced innovative practice. This can be within the NHS, Higher/Further education or the independent sector.

What was the criteria for consideration?

Each finalist must clearly demonstrate:

• a commitment to person-centred care, innovation and delivering high quality services that make a difference to the people receiving care
• the positive impact of their work for patients, families and colleagues
• the use of a credible evidence base and/or developing an evidence base to underpin the work for which they are being nominated
• how their work contributes to the delivery of local and national policy and strategy within health and social care.

If you have any questions or queries regarding the awards, please get in touch by emailing scotlandnurseawards@rcn.org.uk

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This award has kindly been sponsored by Healthcare Improvement Scotland

Healthcare Improvement Scotland exists to lead improvement in the quality and safety of health and care for the people in Scotland using our skills and knowledge to tackle the quality challenges being faced. Our role is to be at the heart of national efforts to understand and shape the quality of health and care, and with partners, to embed quality management across the provision of health and care.

The nominations process closed on 14 November 2025 and following our judging process, three finalists have been selected:

• Daisy Sandeman, Clinical Nurse Manager - Advanced Practice, Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh, NHS Lothian
• Inga Heyman, Associate Professor of Policing & Public Health, Edinburgh Napier University; Honorary Forensic Nurse Consultant, NHS Lothian
• Tracy Downey, Clinical Nurse Specialist, Beatson West of Scotland Cancer Centre, NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde

You can read more below about why our judges feel these finalists represent the #BestOfNursing in Scotland.

The winners will be announced at our glittering awards ceremony at the National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh on 30 April.

Clinical Nurse Manager - Advanced Practice
Edinburgh Royal Infirmary, NHS Lothian

Daisy, a clinical academic nurse leader, has transformed delirium care and advanced nursing practice in cardiothoracic surgery. Alongside a full-time clinical role, she completed a PhD on postoperative delirium, leading to major service improvements. Her research informed a new pre-operative risk assessment and support pathway that reduced delirium incidence from around 40% to 18%, improving recovery, patient experience, and length of stay. As Clinical Nurse Manager for Advanced Practice, Daisy champions research-led innovation across nine specialist nursing teams, building a research-active workforce, embedding audit and quality improvement into professional development and supporting nurse-led projects. Her innovation extends to national and international collaborations, including a multicentre beta-blocker project reducing postoperative atrial fibrillation from 30% to 10%, international research on sex-specific frailty, and a prehabilitation scoping review supporting digital ERAS pathways. Daisy also contributes to national guideline development (SIGN-157 Delirium) and frequently teaches, mentors, and speaks at conferences, including an international nursing conference in Asia.

Associate Professor of Policing & Public Health, Edinburgh Napier University
Honorary Forensic Nurse Consultant, NHS Lothian

Inga is described as a pioneering nurse academic whose cross-sector leadership at the intersection of health, social care and justice has transformed how services support vulnerable people, bringing exceptional credibility and insight to complex areas such as mental distress, substance use, dementia, neurodiversity and homelessness. As Associate Professor and Co-Director of the Scottish Centre for Policing and Public Health—and Honorary Forensic Nurse Consultant in NHS Lothian—she champions evidence-based, compassionate approaches that bridge policing, public health and community care. Her leadership of the national evaluation of Police Scotland’s naloxone carriage programme has been a landmark achievement: naloxone has now been used by officers more than 750 times in suspected overdoses, contributing directly to life-saving interventions and influencing policy across Scotland, the UK and the UN. Inga’s research, policy engagement and teaching have also reshaped responses to vulnerability through major initiatives on dementia-related missing persons, police-custody healthcare, and mental-health crisis management. 

Clinical Nurse Specialist
Beatson West of Scotland Cancer Centre
NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde

Tracy is described as an exceptional Clinical Nurse Specialist whose leadership, innovation, and compassion have transformed cancer care for older adults living with frailty at the Beatson West of Scotland Cancer Centre. She has been central to developing the Cancer Older People’s Service (COPS), the first outpatient occupational therapy–led frailty service in Scottish cancer care. Tracy’s work bridges gaps in traditional oncology by embedding frailty-focused, person-centred care into clinical pathways. Her revolutionary approach addresses functional decline, cognitive impairment, psychosocial distress, falls risk, and rehabilitation needs, enabling patients to remain safely at home, adhere to treatment, and experience improved quality of life. Her innovation has delivered several measurable impacts including high clinic attendances significant cost savings through avoided admissions, falls management, and equipment provision, and patient surveys show that 100% of patients and families felt involved in care planning, with improved independence, confidence, and wellbeing.  She also fosters education and culture change, mentoring junior staff, delivering ward-based teaching, and promoting frailty awareness across multidisciplinary teams.

Whilst our 2026 finalists await to find out the results at our award ceremony on 30 April 2026, read about our previous winners of this category and what made them stand out as the #BestOfNursing in Scotland's innovation and research sector.