Florence Nightingale Medal: Honoring exceptional nurses and nursing aides - 2025 recipients

A growing number of health workers, including many nurses, have lost their lives in recent years while carrying out humanitarian missions. On the occasion of its 50th award, the Commission for the Florence Nightingale Medal wishes to pay homage to the outstanding devotion of those we have lost.

The recipients were nominated by their respective National Red Cross or Red Crescent Society and selected by a commission comprised of the ICRC, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) and the International Council of Nurses.

AUSTRALIAN RED CROSS

Anne-Maree Furner

Registered nurse. Active in conflict situations, notably with the ICRC. Also active in the areas of public health and nursing education.

Jean-Philippe Miller

Registered nurse. Active in conflict and disaster situations, notably with the Australian Red Cross, the ICRC and the IFRC. Also active in the areas of public health and nursing education.

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BELGIAN RED CROSS

Walter Sermeus

Registered nurse, doctor in health sciences. Currently professor at the Faculty of Medicine of the Catholic University of Louvain. Active in the healthcare field, he was behind the concept of the Belgian Nursing Minimum Data Set (B-NMDS).

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RED CROSS SOCIETY OF BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA

Branko Tešić

Active in the area of public health and in conflict situations. Instructor for the mine risk education program of the Red Cross Society of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

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RED CROSS SOCIETY OF CHINA

Ling Feng

Registered nurse. Nurse, AIDS Clinical Guidance and Training Center, Zhongnan Hospital of Wuhan University. Member of the Nursing Quality and Safety Management Committee, and of the Popular Science Education Base of Chinese Nursing Association, Zhongnan Hospital of Wuhan University. Active in the areas of public health and nursing education.

Lin Han

Registered nurse, Doctor in nursing. Vice President of Gansu Provincial Hospital and Dean of Lanzhou University’s School of Nursing. Active in the areas of public health and nursing education.

Wai-Yin Walter Leung

Registered nurse. Senior Volunteer Nurse, Hong Kong Red Cross Branch of the Red Cross Society of China. Active in public health and deployed in many countries with the IFRC in disaster situations.

Yuling Qin

Registered nurse. Chief Nurse of the Emergency Department of the Fifth Medical Center, Chinese PLA General Hospital. Extensive experience in infectious disease nursing and in emergency and intensive care.

Li Tian

Registered nurse. Director of Clinical Nursing Center of the Tianjin Third Central Hospital and of the Tianjin Nursing Quality Control Center. Active in the field of public health.

Hong Xing

Registered nurse. Chief Nurse at Shanghai General First People’s Hospital (Shanghai Red Cross Hospital). Active in the field of public health.

Yulian Zhang

Registered nurse. President of Shaanxi Clinical Nursing Federation. Active in the area of public health.

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DANISH RED CROSS

Susanne Norby Bojesen

Registered nurse. Clinical Nurse Specialist at Pediatric department, Herlev Gentofte Hospital, Copenhagen. Active in public health. Several deployments with the ICRC and the Danish Emergency Management Agency.

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GERMAN RED CROSS 

Haitam Daniel Al-Hasan

Registered nurse. Member of the German Red Cross Humanitarian Surge Roster as well as part of the Global Surge Team of the Norwegian Red Cross. Numerous deployments in conflict situations with the ICRC.

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ITALIAN RED CROSS

Anna Maria Tos Ricci

Registered nurse. Voluntary nurse of the Italian Red Cross. Active in the areas of public health and nursing education.

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JAPANESE RED CROSS SOCIETY

Tsuneko Haruyama

Registered nurse. Active in disaster situations and in the areas of public health and nursing education.

Katsuko Kamiya

Registered nurse. Director of the Japan Society of Human Nursing Research. Active in the areas of public health and nursing education.

Junko Kouno

Registered nurse. President of Tochigi Prefecture Visiting Nurse Station Association. Active in the field of public health.

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NORWEGIAN RED CROSS

Ingrid Tjoflåt

Registered nurse. Active in the fields of public health and nursing education as Professor in Nursing and International Academic coordinator of the Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Stavanger, Norway. Numerous deployments with the ICRC in conflict situations.

Olav Aasland

Registered nurse. Senior Advisor Health in Emergencies (clinical) in the Disaster Management Unit of the Norwegian Red Cross. Numerous deployments with the ICRC and the IFRC in conflict and disaster situations.

Birte Abild

Registered nurse. Specialist nurse of the Oslo University Hospital, Norway. Numerous deployments with the ICRC and the IFRC in conflict and disaster situations.

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POLISH RED CROSS

Krystyna Wolska-Lipiec

Registered nurse. Chair of the Main Historical Nursing Commission and the Central Archive of Polish Nursing. Active in the fields of public health and nursing education.

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REPUBLIC OF KOREA NATIONAL RED CROSS

Kyung Rim Shin

Registered nurse. Co-President of the Nursing Forum of Korean Unification. Active in the areas of public health and nursing education.

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RUSSIAN RED CROSS

Lyudmila Berdieva

Registered nurse. Head Executive Nurse at the “Regional Hospital of Magadan” State Government Funding Healthcare Institution. Active in the areas of public health and nursing education.

Elena Brezhneva

Registered nurse. Head Nurse of the Clinical Emergency Hospital no. 1 in Voronezh City. Active in the areas of public health and nursing education.

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SWEDISH RED CROSS

Karin Levenby Bovy

Registered nurse. Medical Director of the Clinic of Anesthesia and Intensive care of Södra Älvsborgs hospital in Borås, Sweden. Numerous deployments with the ICRC and MSF in conflict and disaster situations.

Monika Hörling

Registered nurse. Numerous deployments notably with the ICRC and the IFRC in conflict and disaster situations.

Theresia Lyshöj Landiech

Registered nurse. Senior health advisor with focus on Community Health and Psychosocial support at the Swedish Red Cross Headquarters, International department. Numerous deployments with the Swedish Red Cross and the IFRC.

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THE THAI RED CROSS SOCIETY

Orratai Thanawinitcharern

Registered nurse. Deputy Director of King Chulalongkorn Memorial Hospital, the Thai Red Cross Society in Nursing Department, Bangkok, Thailand. Active in the field of public health, and in disaster and conflict situations.

Piyachat Tepharat

Registered nurse. Deputy Director of the Thai Red Cross Society’s First Aid and Healthcare Training Centre in Bangkok. Active in the areas of public health and nursing education.

Sukanya Supudommungmee

Registered nurse. Head of Relief Division of The Relief and Community Health Bureau of the Thai Red Cross Society in Bangkok, Thailand. Active in the areas of public health and nursing education, and in conflict and disaster situations.

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UKRAINIAN RED CROSS SOCIETY

Iryna Shyrochenko

Emergency Response Service Volunteer of the Ukrainian Red Cross Society. Active in conflict situations.

Valentyna Prysiazhniuk

Emergency Response Service Volunteer of the Ukrainian Red Cross Society. Residency doctor in orthopedics and traumatology at Kyiv City Hospital No. 8. Active in conflict situations.

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AMERICAN RED CROSS

Debby Dailey

Registered nurse. Volunteer of the American Red Cross. Active in the field of nursing education and in disaster situations.

Rebecca Harris-Smith

Registered nurse. Nurse Educational Consultant and Representative of the National Black Nurses Association to the American Red Cross National Nursing Committee. Active in the fields of public health and nursing education.

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VENEZUELAN RED CROSS

María Teresa Párima Pérez

Registered nurse. Director of Nursing at the Carlos J. Bello Hospital of the Venezuelan Red Cross. Surgical Area Coordinator. Active in the area of public health, and in disaster situations.