In May 2021, at a special luncheon to celebrate International Nurses Day, guest of honour Mrs Margaret Cunningham announced on behalf of the Cunningham Foundation a new 5-year funding commitment to establish the Cunningham Nursing Leadership Academy with a grant of $1 million.
‘Medicine is developing so quickly that nurses need to be trained to adapt to work in this environment,’ Mrs Cunningham told attendees.
‘We envisage that, through the Cunningham Nursing Leadership Academy, our senior nurses will develop their skills to assist them to lead and manage nursing teams in day-to-day clinical practice. We want these senior nurses to be leaders who will influence other nurses by leading by example. We can’t wait for this program to start and are pleased to be able to provide this support.’
The Cunningham Nursing Leadership Academy will build the capacity of our senior nurses to engage as leaders across all specialities at St Vincent’s. The academy will develop the knowledge and skills of nurses, allowing them to create strategies that translate new knowledge into best-practice clinical practice skills at the point of care. This will help create an innovative nursing service with a highly skilled, resilient and sustainable nursing workforce who can provide expert care in a complex environment.
‘This generous commitment from the Cunningham Foundation, designed to develop St Vincent’s Hospital’s nursing leadership, will directly support the ability to recruit, retain and develop the best nurses into the nursing and hospital leaders of the future’.
Assoc/Professor Anna Thornton, Director of Nursing, St Vincent’s Hospital Sydney
