Sharon Payne, QSM Hastings
For services to nursing. Mrs Sharon Payne is a Hastings nurse who was judged Emergency Nurse of the Year by the College of Emergency Nurses in 2010. She works at Hawke’s Bay Regional Hospital’s emergency department. She is one of just three nurse practitioners, the highest level of clinical nursing, in emergency departments in New Zealand. She has undertaken six years of extra study to reach this level of nursing and now lectures in Australia and New Zealand. She has particular experience in paediatrics, and works to make traumatic experiences for children as pain-free as possible. She is committed to changing attitudes to pain relief for children. Mrs Payne is often called in the middle of the night to the Police Station to take blood samples from drunk drivers, and provides on-call trauma support 24 hours a day.