Congratulations are in order for Patrick Onyema, Trainee Nurse Associate at NELFT, who was Shortlisted for the Student Nursing Times Nursing Associate Trainee of the Year Award, after being nominated by Anglia Ruskin University – Chelmsford where he is completing his Nursing Associate course. 

The awards, which are virtual this year due to the COVID-19 pandemic, aim to ensure that the hard work and dedication of the student nursing community is recognised and celebrated following what has been a difficult year.

In the nomination, Samantha Minett, Senior Lecturer in Nursing at Anglia Ruskin University, said: “Patrick is kind, caring, compassionate with the knowledge and skills continuingly developing as the course progresses.

He has gained positive feedback from service users, supervisors, assessors and mentors in his external clinical placements, fitting into the various teams and specialty areas with ease. This generic role and training is really enhancing Patrick’s knowledge and skill base. Patrick is a team player but also it must be recognised that he has clear leadership qualities.” 

Patrick said: “It was such a huge privilege to be nominated for this prestigious new category of the Student Nursing Times Trainee Nursing Associate of the year 2020. As a trainee, I have benefited from this opportunity given to me by NELFT to improve the person centred care delivered to our patients.

This is contained in the standards of proficiency for the Nursing Associate, NMC (2018) platform 5 - improving safety and quality of care while bridging the gap between the registered nurses and healthcare assistants and freeing up time for our nurses which is much needed in the current pandemic facing the nation and the NHS."

"I have been fortunate to be amongst the very first Nursing Associate students in Essex from Anglia Ruskin University, Chelmsford and the course representative for my cohort. I am glad I belong to a forward thinking Trust, who put their patients first by investing in the development of the skills of their staff and I'm excited for all the opportunities still available in the future as I take my place in the Thurrock Rapid Response and Assessment Service (RRAS) to put my new skills into practice.”

This isn’t Patrick’s first accolade, having previously won the Apprentice of the Year Gold Award 2019 at the fourth annual Our Health Heroes awards, which honours the dedicated hard work of thousands of healthcare support workers and teams.

Find out more about the awards here.