In 2015, ANZBA launched the Sheila Kavanagh Excellence in Burn Nursing Award which acknowledges the valuable and significant contributions of Sheila Kavanagh to the advancement of burn nursing in Australia and New Zealand. The Award aims to recognise excellence in burn nursing for our upcoming bright stars. For the first year of the Award, we received four nominations. They were:

1. Ashlea Ladd, RN, Victorian Adult Burn Service, The Alfred, Melbourne
2. Naomi Freeman, RN, Royal Children’s Hospital Burn Unit, Melbourne
3. Jasmine Quiniones, RN, Royal Adelaide Hospital Burn Unit, South Australia
4. Emma Allan, RN, Concorde Burn Service, NSW

Nomination is a significant achievement in and of itself, unfortunately however, there can only be one overall winner. The ANZBA Nursing Executive and ANZBA Board reviewed all nominations, scores were close and it is our pleasure to announce the winner of the Sheila Kavanagh award for Burn Nursing Excellence is Naomi Freeman of the Royal Children’s Hospital Burn Service in Melbourne.

Naomi has been instrumental in many new initiatives that streamline and improve care at the Royal Children’s Hospital Burn Unit. Naomi facilitated the implementation of medical photography for the documentation of burn wound progress, the implementation of the plaster technician service to provide lightweight splints to protect healing wounds in children who are at high risk of causing retrauma due to itchiness or lack of cognitive understanding.

Congratulations Naomi!