NURSING EXCELLENCE AWARDS 2026
The Nursing Excellence Awards are opportunities to recognize and celebrate actively engaged professional RN’s, LVN’s and clinical care colleagues who exemplify practice and merit recognition from peers and other professional colleagues at UCSF Health. This includes all campuses (e.g., Parnassus, Mission Bay, Mt. Zion, Oakland, Hyde and Stanyan, Langley Porter).
Direct questions to [email protected]
Process
- Submit a nomination form via the Nursing Excellence Nomination Portal for each nominee
- A single nominee can receive more than one nomination
- Each nominee will be scored based on the award criteria
- 800-character limit for each criteria entry
- Provide nominee details only in the nominee information section. Do not include any identifying information in the award criteria responses. (i.e., name, pronouns, unit/clinic names, specific councils, etc.)
Timeline
Nomination Window: Jan 20 – Feb 20, 2026
Voting Window: Mar 02 – Mar 27, 2026 (DNA Voting by Mar 13, 2026)
Winner Notification: Mar 30 – Apr 24, 2026
Nursing Excellence Awards Ceremony (Details TBA): May 08, 2026
Eligibility
(some categories will have more eligibility guidelines)
- A career employee (appointment of ≥ 50%)
- Worked for a minimum of 2 years at UCSF Health
- Have a performance evaluation of at least a satisfactory rating
- Have not been a recipient of the same award category in the past
Distinguished Nursing Award
Purpose
This most prestigious Nursing Excellence award recognizes a professional nurse who demonstrates outstanding patient care and fosters professional and public awareness of achievements in nursing practice. This nurse is actively engaged in a project or approach that contributes to nursing practice, education, or leadership at UCSF Health.
Eligibility (NOTE: in addition to the above)
- Provide full-time direct patient care
- A career employee (appointment of ≥ 50%)
- Worked for a minimum of 2 years at UCSF Health
- Have a performance evaluation of at least a satisfactory rating
- Have not been a recipient of the Distinguished Nurse Award category in the past
Nominations Must Include
- Evidence demonstrating the nominee’s body of work (i.e., project presentation, poster, project outline, etc.)
- 2 letters of support
Scoring Criteria
- Significant impact of nurse’s project/outcome(s)/approach to nursing, practice, leadership, and/or education
- Effectiveness of the methods used by the nurse to implement the project/approach
- Applicability of the project or approach for improving practice in other settings
- Breadth and scope of impact of work and influence
- Creativity and innovation shown in the nurse’s project or approach
- Number of years of innovation and practice
- Demonstrated relevant impact on practice and/or patient care in the past fiscal year. (Can include historical contributions)
- Strength of evidence submitted demonstrating the nominee’s body of work
Nomination Fields
- This nurse’s project/outcome(s)/approach significantly impacts practice and/or patient care by…
- The effectiveness of the nurse’s methods to implement the project or achieve the outcome was demonstrated by…
- The nurse’s project/outcome(s)/approach improves practice in other settings by…
- This nurse’s efforts impact and influence widely by…
- The nurse exhibited creativity and innovation by…
- This is the number of years of innovation and practice this individual contributed.
- In the current or last fiscal year, this individual demonstrated relevant impact to practice and/or patient care by…