Achievement Awards

ENA Achievement Awards recognize individuals who exemplify exceptional performance in professional practice, innovation, leadership or advocacy.

ENA Achievement Awards

ENA Achievement Award recipients have been described as role models, mentors and emergency nursing at its finest.

The 2025 Annual Achievement Awards cycle is now closed. Check back at the end of May for the names of this year's recipients!

Award Categories

The ENA Achievement Awards are your opportunity to recognize innovators, leaders, and those who continually go above and beyond the call of duty. Do you know someone who has made outstanding contributions to emergency nursing and deserves to join this exclusive and prestigious group?

Click on the categories and award titles below to review the requirements and criteria for each award.

Clinical/Practice
  • Clinical Nurse Specialist: Recognizes documented excellence as a clinical nurse specialist in the emergency care setting. The CNS is recognized by nursing and physician colleagues, and patients, as an expert in practice or education, who makes significant contributions to practice or to the professional development of others.
  • Frank L. Cole Nurse Practitioner Award: Recognizes excellence as a nurse practitioner in emergency care. The NP is recognized by nursing and physician colleagues, and patients, as a clinical expert who delivers compassionate, competent care. The recipient is actively involved in promoting the role of NPs and strengthening the image of NPs in emergency care.
  • Nurse Leader Award: Recognizes a nurse in an emergency nursing leadership role who has consistently demonstrated excellence in the specialty of emergency nursing and has made significant contributions.
  • Nurse Researcher Award: Recognizes an individual nurse who has made significant contributions to the profession of nursing, particularly the specialty of emergency nursing by conducting research, disseminating research findings or using research to improve outcomes.
  • Nursing Competency in Aging Award: Recognizes a nurse who has demonstrated outstanding commitment to the care of the older adult in the emergency care setting or the older adult in a community program.
  • Nursing Practice and Professionalism Award: Recognizes a nurse who exemplifies outstanding nursing practice as demonstrated through clinical skills, care and compassion. This nurse is recognized by peers as an expert in emergency nursing and consistently exhibits traits associated with professional behavior and commitment to professional values. This individual may demonstrate outstanding commitment to a specialty population such as pediatrics or older adults within the specialty of emergency nursing.
  • Pediatric Readiness Improvement Award: Recognizes an emergency nurse who has demonstrated outstanding efforts to improve readiness in caring for children in the emergency care setting.
Education/Advocacy
  • Barbara A. Foley Quality, Safety and Injury Prevention Award: Recognizes an emergency nurse who has developed, implemented or advocated for quality, safety and/or injury prevention initiatives that have resulted in improved outcomes in the emergency care setting or at the local, state, national or global level.
  • Gail P. Lenehan Advocacy Award: Recognizes an emergency nurse who has had a positive impact on emergency nurses through a sustained commitment of advocacy for emergency nurses’ well-being and welfare or the welfare of vulnerable populations.
  • Nursing Education Award: Recognizes an emergency nurse who has made significant contributions to the education of colleagues, nursing students, EMS personnel, patients, families or the community through the publication of articles, formal or informal courses or the development of a specific emergency nursing program or curriculum.
  • Rising Star Award: Recognizes an ENA member of fewer than five years who has made a significant contribution to ENA as exhibited by promotion of ENA as the professional organization for emergency nurses at the local, state, national or global level.
Other
  • Behind the Scenes Award: Recognizes an individual who has made significant contributions, behind the scenes, to promote ENA’s mission to lead the advancement of excellence and innovation in emergency nursing through research, education, resources, advocacy, and collaboration; an ENA advocate who is often seen but not heard and who donates countless hours to assist an ENA member or members in achieving local, state, national or global goals.
  • Council/Chapter Government Affairs Award: Recognizes an ENA Council or Chapter for outstanding efforts to increase member involvement in government affairs and advance public policy supporting nursing, safety, health care and injury prevention issues.
  • Crisis Response Team Award: Recognizes an emergency department health care team that has risen above-and-beyond to achieve ENA’s mission to lead the advancement of excellence and innovation in emergency nursing through research, education, resources, advocacy, and collaboration; by responding to the challenges of working during a crisis situation, such as public health crisis or natural or man-made disasters.
  • Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Initiatives of the Year Award: Recognizes an individual member, group of individuals, state councils, emergency departments or hospitals whose efforts to create or lead an innovative initiative that aligns with ENA’s Diversity, Equity and Inclusivity Program Charter and demonstrate a measurable impact on the delivery of health care.
  • Media Award: Recognizes a media presentation (television, radio, internet or print) that portrays emergency nursing in a positive, accurate and professional manner. This presentation may have been created to educate the consumer about emergency nursing/emergency care issues or advocate for issues in emergency nursing/emergency care.
  • Team Award: Recognizes a group or committee that has made a significant contribution toward achieving ENA’s mission to lead the advancement of excellence and innovation in emergency nursing through research, education, resources, advocacy, and collaboration through the development of a sustainable project or program.
Special Categories
  • Judith C. Kelleher Award for Contributions to Emergency Nursing: Named after one of ENA’s co-founders, this award honors an ENA member who has consistently demonstrated excellence in emergency nursing and has made significant contributions to the profession and to ENA. The award is presented at the Anita Dorr luncheon during ENA’s Emergency Nursing Conference.
  • Lifetime Achievement Award: Honors a nurse whose career achievements reflect dedicated service, accomplishments or contributions to emergency nursing that have value to emergency nursing beyond the recipient’s lifetime.

Please Note: 

Only one complete submission form per nominee, per category, will be accepted (Two narratives may be submitted separately). If multiple individuals wish to contribute content, ENA suggests drafting a Microsoft Word document; the "nominator" can then copy content into the nomination form and submit on behalf of the group.

Except for the Judith C. Kelleher and Lifetime Achievement Awards, nominees must have met the award’s prerequisites and demonstrated their achievements during the 12 months preceding the nomination.

Annual Achievement Awards recognize living persons rather than honor the deceased; therefore, posthumous award nominations cannot be accepted. A posthumous award may be given only if death of the award recipient occurs between the time nominations are closed and the recipients are announced.

For additional information:

 

Meet the 2024 Achievement Award Recipients

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