MLCO community district nurse Marghanita (Maggie) Ilkovics has been awarded the honour of Queen’s Nurse.

Maggie, community specialist practitioner and integrated team leader within our Miles Platting and Newton Heath, Moston and City Centre Integrated Neighbourhood Team, has been recognised by the charity The Queen’s Nursing Institute (QNI) for her commitment to high standards of patient care, nursing practices and leadership.

The QNI charity is the longest standing nurses charity having been founded over 150 years ago and promotes nursing excellence through the network of Queen’s Nurses. Nurses who are awarded the title benefit from professional networking events, free development opportunities, the ability to influence policy and to attend developmental workshops.

Maggie said: “I still can’t believe it. I am very honoured and delighted to become a Queen’s Nurse.”

Maggie joined the Victoria Mill District Nursing team when she was a newly qualified nurse in 2010. In 2015, Maggie went to the University of Bolton to complete her community specialist practitioner (CSP) Training. The qualification focused on the co-ordination and provision of holistic approaches to healthcare, offering the opportunity to positively influence healthcare delivery in the community by making high-level clinical decisions in leadership and about the provision of quality care.

Once qualified as a CSP District Nurse, Maggie was then based with the team at Cornerstones Health Centre until March 2018 before moving to become Integrated Team Leader at Victoria Mill.

Maggie’s role includes; governance, risk management, quality, conducting professional development reviews and working closely with the local neighbourhood lead to enable the community to have access to all health and social care services.

“I see patients regularly, mostly complex and end of life patients to support the nurses within the team. We have approximately 380 patients on the caseload at any one time, each individual needs both health and social care so we work closely with other teams such as GPs, social workers, crisis teams, Macmillan and the discharge team to name a few. I enjoy the clinical aspect of district nursing, this also allows me to speak to patients and get feedback about the team. This feedback often blows me away, the team’s commitment and compassion is remarkable.”

Maggie began her leadership journey by completing a clinical leadership programme in 2018 which she felt helped her find the courage to challenge and gave her confidence when managing and leading colleagues. Maggie is currently undertaking her masters with a focus on compassion fatigue. As part of this qualification she is creating a development tool to support district nurses who become ‘burnt out’ when working with palliative care cases.

As a Queen’s Nurse, Maggie is committed to raising the profile of district nursing, “During the Covid-19 pandemic, district nurses have been integral to community services. I am so proud of them all. The teams have seen every patient and shown great strength and resilience in these unprecedented times. The standard of care is second to none. Tough times don’t last, tough teams do.”

The title of Queen’s Nurse is open to all community nurses with more than five years’ experience. Nominators, managers and service users provide feedback about applicants, which is assessed along with their application. Find out more here. Maggie will attend a virtual award ceremony and be presented with a badge and certificate for her accomplishment later this year.

Congratulations to Maggie on a wonderful achievement!