Professor Daniel Kelly awarded Royal College of Nursing Fellowship

Professor Daniel Kelly, a senior researcher from the School of Healthcare Sciences has been awarded a Fellowship of the Royal College of Nursing (RCN). RCN Fellows are an outstanding group of people who have dedicated themselves to nursing and made a real difference to others and the nursing profession.

The Fellowship was conferred at the opening ceremony of RCN Congress in Glasgow on June 18^th 2016. Kirsty Williams, Welsh Assembly Member and Cabinet Secretary for Education was also given an Honorary Fellowship in recognition of her support for the Minimum Nurse Staffing legislation in Wales.

The Fellowship is a fantastic recognition of Professor Kelly’s impact in the nursing profession. Nominations were made by colleagues and peers with supporting recommendations. These recommendations are used to highlight how the nominee has made an exceptional and long-standing contribution to nursing and demonstrates the reach of their excellent practice.

Professor Kelly, is the current Lead for the Workforce, Innovation and Improvement Research theme within the school and is involved in several national and international research projects. Professor Kelly is also the Royal College of Nursing Chair of Nursing Research and is the current President of the European Oncology Nursing Society.

On receiving the award Professor Kelly said: “I was delighted and honoured to be made a Fellow of the RCN. It is the highest award that the College can make so I felt incredibly proud.  It is especially pleasing as 2016 is the centenary of the RCN, and it is 30 years since the funds for my RCN Chair were secured through a campaign of public fund raising. It was also a pleasure to meet other colleagues who had been awarded the same honour, either recently or in the past.”

“The Fellowship will require me to assist the Royal College of Nursing in various projects and I am looking forward to an inaugural event in October where the impact of research involving nurses from across Wales will be showcased. Further, I am planning to carry out more research into NHS workforce and leadership issues, as well as embarking on creative work on the topic of cynicism and burnout in clinical work. So life is certainly busy but also very rewarding! I am really grateful to RCN Wales and all my colleagues and students at Cardiff, and elsewhere. Throughout my nursing career I have never failed to be amazed at the good in people I have worked with.”

Heather Waterman, Head of School for Healthcare Sciences at Cardiff University added: “This is a wonderful achievement for Professor Daniel Kelly which recognises his well-established contribution to the nursing profession. We are extremely fortunate at Cardiff University to have talented academics doing research and on behalf of the whole School I congratulate Professor Kelly on this fantastic award.”