QNI Resources

In March 2025, The Queen’s Nursing Institute (QNI) announced its new name, The Queen’s Institute of Community Nursing (QICN). The change of name highlights the organisation’s commitment to promoting and supporting community nursing across England, Wales, and Northern Ireland.

The new name was granted by supplemental Royal Charter and is actually the fourth name of the charity since it was founded in 1887, in the reign of Queen Victoria. Nursing pioneer, Florence Nightingale, was instrumental in the creation of the charity, along with the philanthropist, William Rathbone, who had pioneered district nursing in Liverpool.

Earlier this year, the Queen’s Nursing Institute (QNI) announced the launch of a new membership scheme for organisations that provide community health services in England. This is the first time that the charity has operated such a scheme for organisations.

The Queen’s Nursing Institute (QNI) is one of a number of charities that will receive additional support from the Covid-19 Healthcare Support Appeal (CHSA) this year. The funding allocated to the QNI will be used to support community nurses in financial need over the next 12 months. The new money from CHSA is specifically for nurses whose financial circumstances have been impacted by the pandemic and is one of several initiatives it is supporting across the voluntary sector.

For the first time, the Queen’s Nursing Institute’s (QNI’s) annual conference in 2016 was a two-day event, with a range of speakers on the twin themes of inspiring quality and success in nursing and on shaping the future of the nursing workforce. The speakers — from England, Wales and Northern Ireland — spoke about the various challenges facing the nursing workforce and some of the new initiatives that are being introduced to address them.

Through events and consultations held by the Queen’s Nursing Institute’s (QNI) homeless health network, community nurses are identifying emerging issues affecting their patients and their workforce.

Through events and consultations held by the Queen’s Nursing Institute’s (QNI) homeless health network, community nurses are identifying emerging issues affecting their patients and their workforce.

Earlier this summer, the QNI repeated a study it first carried out last year measuring the number of district nursing specialist
practitioner programmes (SPQ) being offered by UK universities, and the number of district nurses qualifying this summer.

Through events and consultations held by the Queen’s Nursing Institute’s (QNI) homeless health network, community nurses are identifying emerging issues affecting their patients and their workforce.

Carers play a huge role in supporting people to live at home. In some cases, they provide around-the-clock care for people who would otherwise need to be admitted to hospital or transferred to a nursing home. Carers are crucial to home and community care and yet there is little awareness of, and support for, the important role that they play.

Since The Queen’s Nursing Institute (QNI) was established in 1887, we have been a charity focused on improving the experience of the patient cared for in the home and community.

One of the many ways in which we can demonstrate that we make a tangible difference to patients, families and carers is through the support we give every year to the successful delivery of our QNI frontline innovation projects.

Crystal Oldman, Chief Executive of The Queen’s Nursing Institute (QNI).