2026 Excellence in Nursing Awards

Thank you for your interest in the 2026 Excellence in Nursing Awards! This year, there are 16 nominations categories.

Please review the category descriptions below and consult the judging rubrics before making your nomination. Nominations are due by Friday, January 30, 2026.

Important things to know for the 2026 awards:

• Input from the New Hampshire Nurses’ Association’s Commission on Nursing Practice led to some standardization of the rubrics to measure excellence in nursing practice across all specialty categories. The five areas of excellence include leadership, advocacy, ethics, communication and collaboration and professionalism. Each criterion should be evident within the nomination submitted.
• Before submitting your nomination, please familiarize yourself with the judging rubrics for each category.
• Three additional points will be added to the final score of nominees who are verified members of the New Hampshire Nurses Association.
• Please be prepared to submit the following information with your nomination:
  • Nominee’s name and contact information (as well as hospital or practice contact info)
  • Nominee’s CNO or Senior Nurse Leader contact info
  • Nominee’s relevant degrees, licenses and credentials
  • Nominee’s resume
  • Examples of how the nominee has demonstrated knowledge, compassion or fostered excellence in their position
  • Examples of how the nominee has shown leadership and teamwork in their role

Resubmit a nomination:

We have the honor of recognizing more than 15 recipients each year, but that doesn’t mean they are the only shining stars.

If you have submitted a nomination in the past and your nominee has not won, we encourage you to resubmit for 2026. With each new year, there are fresh perspectives and chances for outstanding nominees to shine. We would love to see your nomination back in the running, showcasing the incredible impact your nurse nominee continues to make.

If you’re interested in resubmitting a nomination from a past year, please reach out to Paul Milone and he would be happy to assist you.

2026 Categories

• Academic Nurse Educator/Researcher: This category recognizes a nurse involved in education who works in academia in educating nurses at Associate, Bachelor, Masters or Doctorate levels. This category also  recognizes a nurse involved in research who works to advance evidence-based practice defined as: “the integration of best research, clinical expertise, and patient values in making decisions about the care of individualized patients.”
• Advanced Practice Nursing: This category recognizes an Advance Practice Registered Nurse working in any practice setting, including nurse practitioners, clinical nurse specialists, nurse anesthetists, and nurse midwives.
• Ambulatory Care Nursing: This category recognizes a nurse working in the ambulatory care setting and includes nurses in care coordination, dialysis, clinic-based nursing, and telehealth nursing (based on Association Ambulatory Care Nursing defining characteristics).
• Emergency and Critical Care Nursing: This category recognizes a nurse working as an emergency nurse, flight nurse, urgent care nurse, intensive care unit, progressive care unit (telemetry), perianesthesia care unit (PACU), or pediatric intensive care unit.
• Front line/Administrative Nursing: This category recognizes a front line or administrative nursing leader and includes nursing supervisors, clinical leaders, informal/project leaders (infection control, onboarding), or functional leaders (leaders without direct reports). (*Please note: For 2026, a large and small hospital winner to be determined for this category.)
• Gerontology Nursing: This category recognizes a nurse working in gerontologic care or long-term care and includes nurses working in skilled nursing, assisted living, intermediate care, or dementia/memory care.
• Hospice-Palliative Care: This category recognizes a nurse working in hospice-palliative care, and includes nurses working in hospice, skilled nursing/rehabilitation, assisted living, intermediate care, palliative care, or dementia/memory care.
• Maternal-Child Nursing: This category recognizes a nurse working in prenatal care, high-risk maternal-fetal care, intrapartum care, postpartum care, newborn special care, or newborn intensive care.
• Medical Surgical Nursing: This category recognizes a nurse working in acute care settings and includes nurses working on in-patient units, including medical-surgical units, post-operative care units, wound care nursing, same day surgery or operating suites.
• Professional Nurse Educator: This category recognizes a nurse involved in education who works to advance the knowledge, skills and professionalism required for patient-centered care. This includes active nursing education activities in environments such as: nursing professional development (organizational settings) and nurse education.
• Nursing Informatics: This category recognizes a nurse involved in nursing informatics who works to “integrate nursing science with multiple information and analytical sciences to identify, define, manage and communicate data, information, knowledge and wisdom in nursing practice” (ANA – https://www.himss.org/resources/what-nursing-informatics).
• Nurse Innovator/Entrepreneur and Quality Improvement This category recognizes a nurse who is an innovator/entrepreneur (product developer or healthcare delivery), or quality improvement nurse.
• Pediatric & School Nursing: This category recognizes nurses working with the pediatric population (primary care, in-patient pediatric setting, camp) or in a school setting.
• Psychiatric & Mental Health Nursing: This category recognizes a psychiatric and mental health or substance use disorder, nurse working on in-patient units, or in community-based care.
• Community/Public Health Nursing: This category recognizes nurses working in the community setting including home care, correctional nursing, occupational health, a public health department, or parish nursing.
• Senior Nurse Leader: This category recognizes a senior nursing leader and includes nursing directors, vice presidents, or chief nursing officers. (Please note: For 2026, a large and small hospital winner to be determined for this category.*)

*A small hospital is defined as hospital with 199 or less beds and a large hospital is defined as a hospital with 200 or more beds

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