Who among these nurses will be the Aster Guardians Global Nursing Award 2023 winner?

• Selected from over 52,000 nurses across 202 countries, out of these 10 finalists, one nurse would win the grand title award of $250,000(AED918,141) in London on May 12, 2023 – International Nurses Day.
• The 10 finalists will undergo a public voting process starting next week, followed by a final evaluation by the Grand Jury.

Dubai: Aster Guardians Global Nursing Award – an award instituted to recognize inspirational work done by nurses from around the world, has announced its top 10 finalists hailing from across the world. They are Cathy Cribben-Pearse from UAE, Christine Mawia Sammy from Kenya, Gloria Ceballo from Panama, Jincy Jerry from Ireland, Lilian Yew Siew Mee from Singapore, Margaret Helen Shepherd from England, Michael Joseph Dino from the Philippines, Shanti Teresa Lakra from India, Teresa Fraga from Portugal, and Wilson Fungameza Gwessa from Tanzania.

Also, read – Aster Guardian Global Nursing Award 2023: Global Healthcare Experts announced as Grand Jury for London ceremony

1.    Cathy Cribben-Pearse, OakTree Mentoring, United Arab Emirates – With a career spanning over 20 years, Cathy has worked as a nursing leader in NHS London and most recently served as the Director of Nursing at one of the leading hospitals in UAE (Cleveland Clinic Abu Dhabi). With her firsthand experience, she identified a need gap for nurses and midwives to find supportive counsel during difficult times like the pandemic, mentorship to support career growth and guidance to manage adverse situations. As a certified coach, she started offering her service pro-bono, mentoring online via Zoom and soon she had nurses from around the world seeking her help. She gave up her full-time job to start OakTree Mentoring in an effort to build a global mentoring programme bringing onboard 200 nurses and midwives from various countries, and within six months it was accredited by EMCC Global. They also signed a collaboration with Art of Mentoring in Australia. She and her team of mentors regularly speak to children in schools to inspire and encourage a career in nursing.

2.    Christine Mawia Sammy, Kitui County Referral Hospital, Kenya – With 27 years of experience, Christine exemplifies the dedication that neonatal nurses put forth to help improve the survival of newborns. She established the first-ever newborn unit in Kitui County in 2010 by transforming a single nursery room into an independent newborn unit at the hospital. By so doing, neonatal mortality dropped drastically from above 50% to below 10% within one year. During her role as a newborn health support supervisor in several health facilities, she noticed that most of the neonatal deaths were mostly due to birth asphyxia. In a bid to address the gap and promote newborn survival, Christine worked closely with decision-makers and partners who supported her initiatives, despite facing many cultural and religious barriers. She coordinated newborn resuscitation mentorship across her County by moving from one Sub – County to the other in all eight Sub – Counties of Kitui. These initiatives saw infant mortality considerably drop in Kitui. In 2021, she was awarded by HE Margaret Kenyatta for Nurse-led Initiative of the Year and in 2022 she was honoured by the President of Kenya as a Trailblazer in Reproductive Health.

3.    Gloria Itzel Ceballo Batista, Hospital del Niño Dr. José Renán Esquivel, Panama – Gloria was deeply focused in the field of nursing education right from her college days. While she was completing her master’s degree, Gloria developed an educational program for nurses in the bone marrow transplant unit. Years later, this program has also been brought to force at her hospital – Hospital del Nino Doctor Jose Renan Esquivel. Currently, she runs a training programme at the hospital for nurses. With over 25 years of experience, she is also a member of several international organizations, such as the Paediatric Hematology Association of Central America, and AHOPCA. Her work with the Global Alliance of St. Jude, Memphis, USA, contributed to cancer patient safety and longevity. She also works with WHO to help develop care guidelines at the national level.

4.    Jincy Jerry, The Mater Misericordiae University Hospital, Ireland – Currently serving as the Assistant Director of Nursing for Infection Prevention and Control, Jincy believes that innovation is a way to increase quality and patient safety and has developed digital, device and service innovations. The challenges faced by Ireland’s healthcare infrastructure during the Covid-19 pandemic pushed her to learn and implement these solutions to fulfil repetitive, high-volume tasks. These solutions contributed to enhanced coordination, better workforce management, systematic practices, and a lower burnout rate among the staff. To cut down on the potential for human error while collating results from laboratories, she also designed an appropriate software solution. Jincy is the recipient of the Prix Hubert Tuor Innovation Academy Award in 2021.

5.    Lilian Yew Siew Mee, Raffles Hospital PTE LTD, Singapore – With a passion for wanting to care for others, Lilian embarked on a career in nursing. Currently serving as the Chief Nurse she has led a multi-pronged approach to establish high standards of service. She improved and optimised the nursing skills mix and worked with her organization, Raffles Hospital to support the expansion of clinical services. Her leadership has provided the direction and framework for the hospital to achieve the highest professional standards and quality goals. She has personally been involved in helping the Hospital renew its accreditations, increase bed strength, and support public hospitals by taking on more acute cases. During the onset of Covid-19, Lilian activated a few nursing leaders and nurses to help set up 14 vaccination centres to stand aligned with the National Vaccination Program in 2020-2021. She also deployed a few nursing leaders to set up Covid-19 Treatment Facilities (CTF). Since 2020, Lilian has been one of the Board members of the Singapore Nursing Association (SNA).

6.    Margaret Helen Shepherd, Royal Devon University Healthcare, England – Margaret has been dedicated to making the world diabetes-free through better diagnosis. She is the leading nurse for monogenic diabetes in the UK and provides advice to clinicians across the world regarding the management of this condition. She set up a national network of genetic diabetes nurses in 2002 to increase awareness of this condition. She was one of 70 national NIHR70@70 Senior Nurse Research Leaders (driving innovation and new roles to increase research awareness and engagement within clinical care) and has received the prestigious Florence Nightingale Foundation Leadership Scholarship.

7.    Michael Joseph Dino, Our Lady of Fatima University, Philippines – He currently serves as the Director for Research Development and Innovation Center at Our Lady of Fatima University in Valenzuela City, Philippines. As a researcher and development scientist, he has published numerous research papers in peer-reviewed journals on leadership, management, nursing, humanoid robots and constructive integration of technology in teaching & learning. His telehealth programme for seniors improved health literacy among older adults in 2012 and his Breastfeeding and Breastmilk Banking (CRIB3) project improved the care and restoration of infants. As the President of the PhiGamma Chapter of Sigma Nursing, he deployed a 3-tier project that would lead up to the global initiative to support, promote, and protect breastfeeding. During the COVID-19 pandemic, his multimedia project on #VaccineEquity (with support from the International Council of Nurses) was deployed in various regions and countries. He is the recipient of numerous awards and global recognitions, such as the

#‘Gawad Vicente M. Santos Awardee’ for Leadership in 2019 and ‘the Emerging Nurse Researcher Honoree’ of Sigma’s 30th Nursing Research Congress 2019.

8.    Shanti Teresa Lakra, G.B. Pant Hospital-Port Blair, India – Working amongst Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Groups (PVTGs) in the Andaman & Nicobar Islands of India, Shanti is deeply committed to serving the people there and ensuring that adverse health conditions should not lead to their extinction. A&N Islands are the home to six Scheduled Tribes and of these six tribes, five have been classified as PVTGs. In her early nursing days, she was posted to the sub-centre, Dugong Creek where one of the Primitive tribes Ongees are settled in the remotest area of Dugong Creek, Little Andaman. The tribals are not well-informed about medical procedures and there is a language barrier when they visit medical institutions. They also have unclear medical histories. Shanti spent time at their settlement so that she could make them comfortable. In 2004 when the Indian Ocean tsunami swallowed the Ongee Island habitat and drove them deep into the jungle, Shanti was perseverant and made her home with them and lived in an open tent. She has received several awards such as the National Florence Nightingale Award in 2010, the Indian Red Cross Society Best Volunteer, and Best Health Worker Award in 2011. The Government of India honoured Shanti Lakra in 2011 with the fourth highest civilian award of Padma Shri for her incredible service.

9.    Teresa Fraga, Associação Nomeiodonada IPSS, Portugal – As a neonatal nurse, Teresa Fraga noticed that children with chronic illnesses did not have a support system. She decided to act and established KASTELO – a palliative care unit in Portugal for children with chronic illnesses. Her goal is to provide quality care with innovation, arranging strategies to promote the quality of life of these children. The centre provides them with opportunities for cognitive development with various leisure, sensory, and musical activities. Making palliative care for children a community effort, she uses adapted theatre, animation groups for children’s birthday parties, and hippotherapy. Teresa’s efforts for KASTELO got her a recognition award from the European Union.

10.  Wilson Fungameza Gwessa, Muhimbili National Hospital-Mloganzila, Tanzania – With just 5 years of experience in nursing, Wilson has made a mark with his extraordinary contribution to curbing neonatal deaths. Initially working at Muhimbili National Hospital—Mloganzila in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU), Wilson observed that many newborn babies were dying. At that time, the hospital didn’t have any respiratory support machines (neither a CPAP machine nor a ventilator machine), so normal oxygen therapy was given as an alternative. This is when Wilson invested and introduced the Improvised Bubble CPAP Device in the hospital which significantly reduced neonatal deaths from respiratory problems. Wilson has also written a book titled ‘Nursing Diagnosis for Academic and Clinical Practice’.

These nurses have been selected from over 52,000 nurses who registered for the award from over 202 countries, through a stringent review process run independently by Ernst & Young LLP, a Screening-Jury and the Grand Jury. To know more about the top 10 finalists, please visit: https://www.asterguardians.com/

Speaking on this, Dr. Azad Moopen, Founder Chairman and Managing Director of Aster DM Healthcare said, “Millions of nurses across the world are working hard every single day to serve their patients and form the core of the healthcare ecosystem. Aster Guardians Global Nursing Award is our way of acknowledging their dedication and recognizing their work. This year, with more than 50,000 nurses vying for the coveted award, it has been a hard task for the eminent Jury members to shortlist the top 10 outstanding nurses. Each of the finalists has a remarkable trajectory and has made a significant contribution to the field of nursing. We wish each of them all the very best.”

He also added, “With more than 8000 nurses working across Aster DM Healthcare’s facilities across 7 countries, we have witnessed the commitment and efforts put in by nurses very closely. This is the least we can do to shine a spotlight on the work being done by the nursing community globally.” 

While one winner will be awarded the grand prize of USD 250,000, the other nine finalists will also be recognised. The final round will consist of public voting for each of the nurses starting next week and in-person interview with the Grand Jury members consisting of: Howard Catton – Chief Executive Officer, International Council of Nurses, Switzerland; Prof. Sheila Tlou – Co-Chairperson, Global HIV Prevention Coalition and Ex-Minister of Health & Member of Parliament – Govt. of Botswana; Prof. James Buchan – Adjunct Professor, WHO Collaborating Centre for Nursing; Dr. J Carolyn Gomes, Vice-Chair of the Strategy Committee – The Global Fund Board and Board Member of The Developing Country NGO Delegation to the GF Board; Dr. Peter Carter, an OBE awardee, an independent healthcare consultant and former CEO of the Royal College of Nursing; and Dr. Niti Pall -Senior Digital Advisor for AXA (EC), Board Chair of Harbr and Managing Director of Health4all advisory.

The final winner would be announced at a gala event at Queen Elizabeth II Centre in London, UK on May 12, 2023 – International Nurses Day.

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