Perseverance, strong relationship management skills, passion for the work floor and for research, a visionary with an innovative perspective of healthcare, dedicated, places priority on the client’s well-being, an enthusiastic professor. These are just some of the flattering descriptions of Boonstra by her colleagues. “Nynke knows better than anyone how to combine science, practice and teaching. The research she initiates and undertakes in her professorship is highly valued by the mental health care authorities because of its practical approach and innovative character,” says Evelyn Finnema, Professor of Nursing Science & Chief Nursing Officer for the Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport.
About Nynke Boonstra
Nynke Boonstra studied Nursing at NHL University of Applied Sciences in Leeuwarden and Nursing Science at the Faculty of Health, Medicine and Life Sciences at Maastricht University. She has worked for NHL Stenden as professor of applied sciences for Care & Innovation in Psychiatry since October 2015. She also trained as a Mental Health Care Nursing Specialist which included a master’s in Advanced Nursing Practice, and, in 2011, Boonstra completed her PhD at Groningen University with her doctoral research looking at the early treatment of young people with psychotic disorders. Boonstra is founder of the V.I.P. team, the team for Early Innovative Psychosis Care, a team of therapists (nursing specialists, psychiatrists, psychologists, community psychiatric nurses, and others) that work on the early detection of the need for care for young adults and their relatives dealing with psychotic disorders. She shares this knowledge with international colleagues and believes that research results should be able to be immediately applicable in practice as well as vice versa, in the concept of the trias academica.
The award
The award is a tribute to Els Borst, Dutch Minister of Health, Welfare and Sport from 1994 to 2002, who did so much for the profession of Nursing Specialists. The prize includes a statue, a certificate and €500.