The Australian Nurse of the Year Award was created to honour and showcase excellence in the nursing profession throughout Australia. It has become recognised as the highest civilian accolade for a nurse in Australia. There were 490,333 nurses registered to practice in Australia as of September 2025.
The award was established in 2003 to 2004 to recognise the exceptional contributions the recipient has made to improving care and outcomes for patients, providing excellent care in the face of adversity or other challenges, or for an outstanding act of kindness, understanding, compassion or courage, above and beyond the normal role as a nurse anywhere in Australia.
A judging panel of nationally recognised nursing experts assesses the top individual nominees and selects a nurse from each of Australia's states and territories. Each state or territory finalist is flown to a state capital (the place of ceremony is changed each year), where the winner is announced at a formal ceremony. In recent years, other categories of awards have been added. These are for an Outstanding Graduate and another is for Team Innovation.
Although the award is not associated with the Australian government-run Australian of the Year awards, it has been sponsored by various organisations and companies each year, including the Australian Department of Health and Ageing, The College of Nursing (Australia), Elsevier Medical Publications, the Australian Nursing Federation, Nursing Review, Laerdal, ME Bank, and other businesses. From their inception in 2004 the awards were hosted by Healthstaff Recruitment, and since 2007 by HESTA Superannuation Fund.
The awards attract wide coverage from media, culminating in a national presentation held each year, usually on or close to, 12 May, International Nurses' Day.
Past winners Year Recipient Location Ref 2004 Andrew Cameron Cue, Western Australia 2005 Catriona Chardon (posthumously) Lismore, New South Wales 2006 Rosanne Squire McLeans Ridge, New South Wales 2007 Robyn Williams Wynnum, Queensland 2008 Sam Gibson Subiaco, Western Australia 2009 Lyn Olsen Dandenong, Victoria 2010 Charlotte Collins Trigg, Western Australia 2011 Paul Esplin Sydney, New South Wales 2012 Jenny Anderson Rockhampton, Queensland 2013 Sara Lohmeyer Perth, Western Australia 2014 Steve Brown Melbourne, Victoria 2015 Catrin Dittmar Lake Macquarie, New South Wales 2016 Angie Monk Joondalup, Western Australia 2017 Sarah Brown Alice Springs, Northern Territory 2018 Gail Yarran East Perth, Western Australia 2019 Professor Kate Curtis Wollongong, New South Wales 2020 Tania Green Monash, Victoria 2021 Shannon Philp Sydney, New South Wales 2022 Sue Hegarty Melbourne, Victoria 2023 Caitlin Clayer Ti Tree, Northern Territory 2024 Cathy Halmarick Frankston, Victoria 2025 Tye Simpson Melbourne, Victoria 2026 Helen Lamech Alice Springs, Northern Territory
References