title: An evaluation of the Florence Nightingale Foundation scholarships.
abstract: The Florence Nightingale Foundation (FNF) is a charity that awards scholarships in leadership, travel and research to nurses, midwives and other healthcare professionals to promote excellence in practice. The FNF offers mentoring support to scholars, and provides support with career development and writing articles for publication, in addition to the financial award. The leadership scholarships are bespoke: leadership scholars can access a range of development opportunities that are specially commissioned for them, and select their programme of study and experiences, based on their individual needs. All scholarships provide opportunities to represent the FNF and to meet other scholars at the FNF annual conference. This article provides an overview of the FNF scholarships, based on the findings of two evaluations that demonstrated the value of these scholarships in improving services for patients and carers, as well as enhancing the careers of individual scholars.
authors.affiliation: The Florence Nightingale Foundation, London, England.
authors.forename: Matthew
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Rose
authors.affiliation: School of Nursing and Midwifery, The University of Sheffield, Sheffield, England.
authors.forename: Angela
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Tod
authors.affiliation: Royal United Hospitals Bath NHS Foundation Trust, Bath and the University of the West of England, Bristol, England.
authors.forename: Candy
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: McCabe
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Southampton, Southampton, England.
authors.forename: Richard
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Giordano
keywords: Florence Nightingale Foundation; nurse education; nursing careers; professional development; scholarships