Two nurses from the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital (NNUH) have been honoured with a national award from the Association of Respiratory Nurse Specialists (ARNS) at a glittering awards ceremony in Reading.

Georgina Siggins and Vicky Ershadi, sleep and ventilation apecialist nurses at NNUH, received the award in recognition of their work providing compassionate and dedicated advanced nursing in the respiratory specialty.

The pair were appointed to the nurse specialist role at NNUH in 2017 to assist in further developing the specialist sleep and non-invasive ventilation service, providing enhanced care and support for respiratory patients in both acute inpatient and outpatient clinic settings.

Since their appointment, a range of new services have been developed to benefit patients at NNUH including specialist nurse-led follow-up clinics for patients with home ventilator support and an educational programme for nursing staff with structured training.

Their nomination recognised the positive impact of the new role, and said: 'Both ward and clinic nurses comment that they find Georgina and Vicky a very reliable and knowledgeable resource, readily accessible to support the care of this patient group.'

Georgina said: 'We are delighted to have won this award. We both feel very passionate about this area of respiratory nursing and we would like to thank all of our colleagues for their support since we have been in post, in particular our respiratory consultants, Dr Grunstein, Dr Sankaran and Dr Metcalfe.'

Vicky added: 'We have both worked very hard since our appointment to enhance patient experience and provide a supportive service. We both felt overwhelmed that we were nominated and are very proud to win the award at a national level.'

NNUH nurse consultant, Sandra Olive, congratulated the pair on their award. She said: 'This award is testament to Georgina and Vicky's hard work in establishing the new specialist nursing aspect of the sleep and ventilation service at NNUH.

'With support from the medical team, senior nurses and the administrative staff within the respiratory department, they have been able to drive this innovation forward for the benefit of our patients. They should be very proud that their achievements have been recognised in this way.'