Queen’s Nurses pay tribute to late monarch

Date of release: 20 September 2022

“Courage, sacrifice, dignity and role model” – just some of the words the Queen’s Nurse award-winners from The Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust have used in touching tributes to Queen Elizabeth II.

The Queen’s Nursing Institute (QNI) is a registered charity dedicated to improving the nursing care of people in the home and in the community. Queen’s Nurses (QN) promote the highest standards of patient care in the community. 

As Patron of the Queen’s Nursing Institute, the monarch supported the re-introduction of the title of Queen’s Nurse in 2007 and the Trust has two of them – Trudi Law and Sara Eacopo. Neither met the Queen but were honoured to receive the award she gave her name to.

Trudi, Partnering Families Team Practitioner, was the first at the Trust to win the prestigious QN award in 2016 for her outstanding work with vulnerable mothers and homeless families.

“I’m 54 and I’ve never known another ruling monarch. Life will never be the same without her, said Trudi, who is based at the Gem Centre and went to visit the Queen lying in state at Westminster Hall on Friday.

“The Queen never stopped serving the country because her strong Christian faith dictated she should stay right to the end, and she did. It’s the end of an era.

“She fought to do her best for her country and when you think about it, how can anyone else step into her shoes? You can understand why people went to London to pay their respects. It was very touching.”

Queen’s Nurse winners receive a badge, certificate and lanyard but also have to validate their credentials every year to keep the honour.

“As mother, grandmother and great-grandmother, she was always there for all her family,” said Trudi, who qualified as a nurse at RWT in 1986 and became a midwife then a health visitor, returning to the Trust 12 years ago. “She was always on her best behaviour and maintained her dignity at all times and is definitely a role model.

“You want to be doing your absolute best and never let people down and she has done that. I like to feel I do the same in my job and for my family.

“The Queen was resilient and as a Queen’s Nurse, that’s what I want to be. I shall carry on doing my best because I don’t want to lose the name Queen’s Nurse.”

Sara, Senior Sister for Community Nursing Services, became a QN in 2020 for her work with children.

“I’m a big fan of the Royal Family and being able to say I represent the Queen in nursing is a huge honour,” said Sara, who has worked for the Trust for 29 years. I’ve got the utmost respect for her.

“To have become Queen at such a young age and battled through what she did showed great courage and she made a lot of sacrifices.

“She dealt with whatever was thrown at her with great dignity and to have still been in active service at the age of 96 is phenomenal. She was a great role model for all of us Queen’s Nurses.”

The QNI is the oldest professional nursing organisation in the UK and believed to be the oldest nursing charity in the world.