ENA Lantern Award

The ENA Lantern Award recognizes emergency departments that demonstrate exceptional and innovative performance in leadership, practice, education, advocacy and research — a way to showcase your ED’s accomplishments in incorporating evidence-based practice and innovation into emergency care, and a visible symbol of your commitment to quality, safety, and a healthy work environment.

 

Your Lantern Award Story

The Lantern Award application asks you to tell your story. What you are proud of and what you do well is the story we want to hear.

The Lantern Award application includes quantitative questions that focus on performance and outcome metrics, as well as qualitative questions about noteworthy practices and attributes of your emergency department. The qualitative questions require brief narratives or longer descriptive exemplars that highlight your emergency department’s excellence and innovation.

Your story, as you define it in your application, will cover each of these core areas:

  • Leadership – Practice: qualities that foster professional pride, confidence and a community of support for emergency nurses
  • Leadership – Operations: operational improvement activities and development of systems and processes
  • Education: instilling knowledge and competency through quality and accessible education
  • Advocacy: how the future of the emergency nursing profession and quality patient care are influenced through advocacy and innovation in your emergency department
  • Research – Practice: advancing the emergency nursing profession and practice through quality improvement, research and the evaluation of clinical outcomes.

Lantern Award recipients receive a physical award to display in their emergency department as well as recognition through ENA publications, conferences, and the ENA website. In addition, award recipients are entitled to use an official Lantern Award seal in communications and advertising for the duration of the award period (e.g., in email signatures, on your website).

The Lantern Award is open to all emergency departments who complete the online application. The award period is three years and recipients have the option of re-applying at the end of their award period.

Getting Started

The first step on your journey to the Lantern Award is to review the Handbook, Coaching Guide, and FAQs completely to determine whether you can provide the measures and stories of excellence that are required to become an award recipient.


The 2023 (Cycle 13) Lantern Award application is now closed.

The 2024 (Cycle 14) application will be available mid-Nov, 2023.

 

Prior to beginning your application, please review the "Application Assistance" documents to ensure your emergency department is ready to apply.

Please contact LanternAward@ena.org with any questions.


Cycle 13 Application fee: $3,000 for all hospitals

Payment may be made prior to, during, or after completing the application.

Payment may be made via credit card, check or electronic transfer. Completed invoice (link below) must accompany check payments. All payments are due by March 31, 2023.

ENA does not accept Purchase Orders.


 

ENA is pleased to announce the 29 Lantern Award recipients for 2022!

2022 Virtual Hall of Honor Gallery 2022 lantern award recipients Find a current Lantern ED
  • Click once on the walkway to begin
  • Use arrow keys to navigate through the virtual museum
  • Click on a picture for information on the award recipient
  • Click on the award name for information on the award
  • Click on the virtual header for information on the award category


  • To learn about the 2021 Award recipients and award categories,

    Click here to visit the 2021 Virtual Hall of Honor Gallery


 

2021 Lantern Award Recipients - Hall of Honor Reception

ENA recently celebrated its best and brightest during a special virtual reception. Check out the recording below to view the 2021 ENA Lantern Award recipients.