A NURSE who visits schools across Carmarthenshire has been recognised for her excellent work at an awards ceremony.

Jacqueline Jones, who looks after 12 mainstream secondary schools, two special schools, two private schools and 105 primary schools, picked up the Community Nursing Award at the RCN Wales Nurse of the Year Awards, which celebrates nurses who demonstrate excellence in practice, a passion for the nursing profession and exemplify distinction in care, leadership, service and innovation.

The nurse’s warm, approachable and professionalism convinced the judging panel that the children she works with benefit hugely from these qualities.

Her passionate, highly motivated approach to her job and team was described by the panel as “inspirational”.

Jacqueline’s developmental approach means she is now thinking about ways to engage future generations and colleagues in healthcare and how to promote her idea across Wales and beyond.

The judges also witnessed that Jacqueline’s work is based on sound evidence and has been evaluated and reported on a national level.

Due to its simplicity the panel were excited about how it can be effectively transferred across a range of settings and health and social care situations.

It was a night of success for the Hywel Dda nursing team with three winners and two runners up overall at this year’s ceremony.

Chair of Hywel Dda University Health Board, Bernardine Rees OBE said: “I am incredibly proud of the work our nursing team do every day for our patients and for them to be rewarded at a prestigious national awards ceremony is fantastic.”

Other winners of the evening include Tissue Viability Clinical Nurse Specialist Jane James who won the Clinical Nurse Specialist Award, Linzi Shone walked away with the Registered Nurse (Adult) Award and Margaret Meleady picked up the Mental Health and Learning Disabilities Award.

“The work Jacqueline, Jane, Linzi, Margaret and all the other nurses have done over the years has made an incalculable difference to the health and wellbeing of their patients and I hope their success becomes an inspiration for all our nurses,” added Mrs Rees.