Heartbeat: Tracy Ranford is awarded the Shiela Lorimer Award

August 9, 2018

The Shiela Lorimer award is an annual award, presented to a nurse on the acute medical unit (AMU), in memory of Acute Medicine Nurse Practitioner, Sheila Lorimer who sadly passed away in 2014.

Shiela worked in our organisation for over 20 years. She was the first nurse to start nurse led discharge which has led to advanced nurses discharging patients out of hours on all the medical wards; helping immensely with bed capacity, flow and patient experience.

This award is to salute her work but also to recognise young nurses like Shiela, who want to develop themselves, be the best nurse possible and deliver high quality care.

This year the award was presented to Tracy Ranford, who has been part of our organisation for 26 years, joining as a student and recently being promoted to a band 6.

AMU Consultant, Sarb Clare told Heartbeat why she was the standout candidate for the award this year.

“Tracy is renowned throughout the department for her sincerity, kindness and humble nature,” said Sarb.

She continued: “Tracy has worked within AMU since its inception and has been part of the foundations. She is well loved by all the doctors and nurses and plays a major part in the student nurses’ journey when they are placed in AMU.

“She is an inspiration to us all and what’s remarkable about Tracy is that she always goes the extra mile – I have seen her hugging relatives and conversing with patients and carers in Punjabi – if ever I get ill I would like Tracy to look after me!”