A nursing student helping to raise awareness of the condition which nearly killed her has been named the Royal College of Nursing’s student nurse of the year.
De Montfort University Leicester (DMU) adult nursing student Katie Dutton, who was given just a 15% chance of survival after contracting life-threatening sepsis, is the brainchild behind Sepsis Champions, a training event for student nurses to raise awareness of the condition and how to spot it.
Last night Katie was crowned winner of the Royal College of Nursing Andrew Parker Student Nurse category, receiving her award from RCN Ambassador and Game of Thrones actress Emilia Clarke and Good Morning Britain’s Kate Garraway. She was chosen from more than 700 entries.
Katie said: “I literally felt like it was the best moment of my life! This was the most incredible thing, when they announced my name I could not believe I had won.
"To win such a prestigious nursing award means the world to me. I hope to develop my sepsis project even further and the prestige of this award will be a huge help. It’s so incredible to be at the RCNi Awards as a student nurse and meet so many nurses, further down the line in their careers, who are still so passionate about the work they do.”
Katie will now support work by the RCN to lobby the Government to increase education and awareness around sepsis, which kills more people than breast or bowel cancer combined in the UK.
She added: “The award is in memory of Andrew Parker, an RCN activist, who was always so encouraging of student nurses. I hope our projects this year will make Andrew Parker and his family proud.”
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In her first year at DMU, Katie and fellow student Kylie-Ann Johnson organised a Sepsis Champions training day for fellow nurses at DMU, supported by #DMUlocal. More than 200 nurses attended along with experts from Leicester Royal Infirmary’s sepsis triage team and there are plans for the next event in October.
Katie is now in talks with Edinburgh, Leeds, Salford and Birmingham nursing students to bring Sepsis Champions to their universities. She has also been asked to be a speaker at the Patient Safety Congress 2018.
Posted on Thursday 5 July 2018