The award was developed to acknowledge and reward the significant contribution made by social care workers and nurses in England.
At a ceremony on 4 July 2025, Tsitsi (Tee) Penicela was awarded a Chief Nurse Adult Social Care Gold Award.
Tee received an RCN Foundation Professional Bursary Scheme grant in 2021 to study an MRes in Clinical Research in the Faculty. She also recently received an RCN Foundation Trevor Clay Award for her research in older adult social care nursing practice.
Tee was nominated for her longstanding and outstanding work in care homes. Since 2010, Tee has practiced widely within care homes, including practice development, care quality assurance and service improvement roles. In 2017, Tee was one of 36 senior managers who completed the Older Persons' Nurse Fellowship (Advanced Practice) where she explored the theory-practice gap for person-centred care.
The Chief Nurse Adult Social Care Awards celebrate nurses and care workers who go above and beyond their everyday roles to provide excellent care, leadership and inspiration to their colleagues, patients and service users.
Each award recipient will be encouraged to become a social care ambassador, which involves raising the reputation and awareness of the significant contribution nurses and midwives make to safer patient care.
Tee is a real testament to social care nursing. Her work and contributions are invaluable in this sector which is evident by the impact her study and research has made, particularly in the enhancement of person-centred nursing care. I'm delighted that our education grants have played a small contribution in Tee's social care nursing journey, and we're excited to see where her research takes her next.
Deepa Korea, RCN Foundation Director
We are incredibly proud of Tee and her achievement. It has been a privilege to support her academic development and to see how she has used the knowledge and skills that she has gained to improve the quality of care delivery in care home settings for older people.
Professor Ruth Harris, Professor of Health Care for Older Adults, Faculty of Nursing, Midwifery and Palliative Care
