Gilgandra nurse Stacey Denny wins New to Practice Nurse of the Year award at the NSW Nursing and Midwifery Awards

"It was really overwhelming, it was very emotional," said Stacey Denny, who was awarded the honour at the 10th annual Excellence in Nursing and Midwifery Awards alongside Rachael Roach, a nurse at the Port Macquarie Base Hospital.

"As a nurse you work so hard and to be recognised at such a high level was just really incredible and such a big achievement."

Ms Denny has been working in Gilgandra since February of 2021. She completed her new graduate program at the hospital and decided to stay on because of the relationships she built with her colleagues and the community.

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"The team's amazing, I just feel like such a contributing person in the team and it's such a lovely hospital where you just feel so welcomed - it's like a big family," she said.

"You meet a lot of people in the community too and that's what's so rewarding. You can go out and do errands in the community like going to get groceries and you get stopped by people who want to thank you for the care that you provided."

"It's a wonderful feeling."

Ms Denny decided to pursue a career in nursing after working as a cook in a nursing home when she was a teenager. She was also inspired by her grandmother, who she said was an "amazing nurse".

Passionate about nursing in rural communities, Ms Denny is currently enrolled in a postgraduate qualification in rural and remote nursing. Before moving to Gilgandra, she worked as an enrolled nurse in West Wyalong, a town 280 kilometres south of Dubbo.

"That was also in a small hospital in a small community. I just loved working there, it was a great team and I made lifelong friends there. It gave me a real feel for rural nursing," she said.

"What I really enjoy about it is the different kinds of work that you can do in a day. You can work in emergency and have scary presentations that get your blood pumping and then you can go out into the aged care section and have a cup of tea with one of the residents - which is a vast difference in pace."

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Working in a small hospital every day looks different for Ms Denny.

Although there's a lot to love about the job, it has its challenges too, says Ms Denny. The healthcare sector has faced ongoing staff shortages highlighted in a recent parliamentary inquiry into rural and regional health.

"One of the challenges is staffing levels - you sometimes feel you have to work extra shifts to pick up some of the slack. Out in rural areas it's no secret it's very hard to find staff to work out in smaller communities," she said.

"The availability of doctors is always a challenge. You have to think more on your feet."

Despite the challenges, Ms Denny says nursing is a rewarding career and there are fantastic opportunities for training and career pathways when working in a rural hospital.

"We have amazing educators who put in a lot of time to help you get your skills up and Western NSW Health in general have such great support systems and invest so much in nurses to get them upskilled," she said.

"When there's not always doctors around we have to have really good assessment skills and there's support around you to help you build those skills."

The New to Practise Nurse or Midwife of the Year award isn't the first recognition Ms Denny's efforts in Gilgandra have earned her.

In May, she was announced as the winner of the inaugural Pauline Webster-Cox Award for the Graduate Registered Nurse of the Year, named in honour of now-retired Dubbo Nurse Educator Pauline Webster-Cox.

But it's the appreciation from the community which makes her work worthwhile and she has no plans to leave Gilgandra any time soon.

"It's a challenging but very rewarding job. You can go home from work and feel like you've actually made a difference to someone's life," she said.

"We go to work every day in a hospital and it's so normal to us. But for our patients sometimes they've never even been in a hospital before and it's so scary for them."

"And just being able to make them feel welcome and comfortable and build that trust and even make them laugh, it's so incredible."