ENA Achievement Awards

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ENA Achievement Awards recognize individuals who exemplify exceptional performance in professional practice, innovation, leadership and advocacy. ENA Achievement Award recipients have been described as role models, mentors and emergency nursing at its finest.

This is 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 be honored as part of an exclusive and prestigious group of award recipients?

The 2025 Annual Achievement Awards cycle will open on Jan. 2. The submission deadline is Feb. 20.

Click on the highlighted award titles listed under "Award Categories" to review each award’s requirements and criteria.

A link to the nomination form or application is located within each document.

Except for the Judith C. Kelleher and Lifetime Achievement awards, nominees must have met the specific 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. As such, 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.

If you have any questions, please email AnnualAwards@ena.org.
Award Categories

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.

To review requirements and criteria for each award, click on the highlighted award titles below.

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, as well as 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, as well as 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 Manager Award: Recognizes a nurse in an emergency nursing management 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 a nurse who has demonstrated outstanding efforts to improve readiness in caring for children in the emergency care setting.

Other

Behind the Scenes Award: Recognizes an individual who has made significant contributions behind the scenes to promote ENA’s mission of advancing excellence in emergency nursing; 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.
Crisis Response Team Award: Recognizes an emergency department health care team that has risen above-and-beyond to achieve ENA’s mission by responding to the challenges of working during a crisis situation, such as public health crisis or natural or man-made disasters.
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 or emergency care issues or advocate for issues in emergency nursing or emergency care.
State Council/Chapter Government Affairs Award: Recognizes an ENA State 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.
Team Award: Recognizes a group or committee that has made a significant contribution toward achieving ENA’s mission to advance excellence in emergency care through the development of a sustainable project or program.

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.
Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) Initiatives of the Year Award: Recognizes an individual member (or group of individuals, state councils, emergency departments, and/or hospitals) whose efforts to create or lead innovative initiative(s) align with ENA’s Diversity, Equity and Inclusivity Program Charter (a link to the charter is located in the nomination form) and demonstrate a measurable impact on the delivery of healthcare.
Gail P. Lenehan Advocacy Award: Recognizes a 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 a 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.

ENA Foundation

ENA Foundation Cornerstone Award: Annual award given to an individual who or an organization - corporations, non-profit partners, ENA councils or chapters - that has made significant contributions to the Foundation.

Special Categories

Judith C. Kelleher Award: This award, named after one of ENA’s co-founders, 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 annual 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.

2024 Achievement Award Recipients

Barbara A. Foley, Quality, Safety and Injury Prevention Award Steve Weinman, MS, BSN, RN, EMT-B, NHDP-BC, TCRN, CEN, New Jersey	Nurse Manager Award Audrey Rosin, MBA, MSN, RN, CEN, Wisconsin
Behind the Scenes Award Raul Escamilla, AAS, EMT-Paramedic, Texas	Nursing Education Award Julie Considine, PhD, BN, RN, Australia
Clinical Nurse Specialist Award Tina Nielsen, MS, RN, APNP, ACNS-BC, CEN, Wisconsin	Nursing Researcher Award Kate Curtis, PhD, MN, RN, Australia
Crisis Response Team Award Uvalde Memorial Hospital Emergency Department, Texas • For response during a specific eight-hour period where the ED received 16 shooting-related adult and pediatric trauma patients.	Nursing Practice and Professionalism Award Jana Petersen, BSN, RN, CEN, Wisconsin
Frank L. Cole Nurse Practitioner Award Nancy Denke, DNP, RN, ACNP-BC, FNP-BC, CCRN, CEN, FAEN, Arizona	Pediatric Readiness Improvement Award Robin Goodman, MSN, CPEN, RN, California
Gail P. Lenehan Advocacy Award Tammy Aiken, DNP, MSN, RN, SANE, New York	Nurse Researcher Award Stephanie A. Jensen, MSN, RN, MICN, California
Judith C. Kelleher Award Susan Douglass, MSN, RN, CEN, Texas	Rising Star Award Tyler Bowe, RN, Wisconsin
Lifetime Achievement Award Gordon Gillespie, DNP, PhD, RN, PHCNS-BC, CEN, CPEN, FAAN, FAEN, Ohio	State Council/Chapter Government Affairs Award North Carolina ENA State Council

Team Awards
Brooke Army Medical Center (BAMC), Texas
For creating the Tactical Trauma Reaction and Evacuation Crossover (TTREX) Course.

Center for Abuse, Rape and Emergency Services (CARES) program team – TriHealth, Cincinnati, Ohio
For serving approximately 1,000 individuals - survivors and community partners - through exams and education.

The University of Kansas Health System new graduate groups – Cohorts Peach and Lavender
For developing and implementing practice improvements to identify and improve care for posterior circulation stroke patients.

Please contact AnnualAwards@ena.org with any questions.