'She is an inspiration' - Retiring Shropshire nurse honoured with prestigious award for decades of dedication
A retiring nurse who has helped shape the careers of hundreds of students at a Shropshire hospital has been recognised for her outstanding contributions with a prestigious award.
Jan Meredith, who has been a nurse for nearly 48 years, has helped to train hundreds of students on the Intensive Therapy Unit (ITU) at Royal Shrewsbury Hospital.
She was recently given the prestigious Cavell Star award that is given to nurses, midwives, nursing associates and healthcare assistants who show exceptional care to their colleagues, patients or patients’ families.
Head of non-medical education at Royal Shrewsbury Hospital, Rachel Armstrong presented the Cavell Star award to Jan and described her as a "shining light".
Jan was nominated for the award by lead nurse for education, Donna Clark who said she is an amazing person who always goes above and beyond.
Donna said: "Jan is such a worthy winner of the Cavell Star for her dedication and commitment over her long career to her colleagues, ensuring they are always supported and listened to.
"She is always striving to be the best teammate and educator possible through compassion and excellence. She is an inspiration."
Jan, who is retiring, was also nominated for the 'Practice Supervisor of the Year' award at the Student Nursing Times Awards 2025 earlier this year.
She started her nursing career in 1977 and has spent most of her career in ITU.
The Carvell Star award winner said: "I like learning about illnesses. I learnt so much stuff and couldn’t get enough of it. I was always pushing myself to do more. I just love working with people.
"I found that people were very unreceptive to students and I changed the way that we looked after students. They are the ones we need and they are our future. If people didn’t teach me, we would not have nurses of the future who can provide the best possible care for our patients.
"Attitudes to students started to change - we have all been there and we only get better with people spending time on us teaching us our jobs."
